Giving It Meaning

I was watching TV last night and a Visa commercial came one. It was the one where everyone is in a food court type area and everything is moving to the same rhythm because everyone is using their Visa check card to pay for their lunch. A guy comes up to the register and pays for his meal with cash, and it completely messes everyone’s rhythm up and people begin to run into one another and drop things. Then the VO says “Because cash shouldn’t slow you down”. I have seen this commercial a dozen times and have never thought anything of it until last night. During high school, college and even now on the weekends I have worked in the retail business. Literally for about 9 years. So believe me when I say that the cash transactions are the fastest to process. I was watching this commercial with my roommate and he had also worked for a while in the food service business, and he agreed that cash transactions are the quickest to process as well. I am not saying that using cash is general is quicker, but going by the ATM can be a real pain. However the messaging in the commercial (at least how I interpreted it) was that using cash to pay for stuff was slower than with a check card.

I started thinking about this commercial and remembered the Verizon Wireless commercial where the guy is traveling the country saying “Can you hear me now….Can you hear me now….Good”, and realized that every time my cell phone begins to break-up I use that same phrase. It was intended to reflect the extensive Verizon network, but I use it to indicate a dead zone in my converage (oh…and by the way….I have Cingular:-)

Again more examples ,I think, of the lack of control that we have as marketers. We put it out their, but it is the audience that interprets it and gives it meaning.