Evinrude is Rude

As I was being taught how to find the sports channels today, we landed on a fishing channel, at the beginning of a commercial for Evinrude E-Tec. Evinrude, an outboard motor manufacturer, doesn't bother to tell us - or show us - its new motor. We see a man and a woman standing fishing in a boat. This is good. Women and men fish. Women and men have boats. Women influence major purchase decisions in this category in big, big numbers. So far, so good.

The woman talks, the man shakes his head for 20 seconds. The tagline for the commercial is this:

"A woman will say 21 million words before an E-Tec needs maintenance. A man will say 7 million words."

Not good.

Rule One in advertising: show the product. Rule Two: Try not to tick off any potential buyer

Evinrude needs to do better. I give this commercial "The Boot."