Harbor Freight TV ad?

[mslim]

Nice ad. Well shot but does this bother any one but me?

There's a guy with an angle grinder making sparks (of course) grinding the cleats off the top of the diamond plate.

Sure I've ground diamond plate to make it fit something, but I've never had a need to grind the cleats off the top. Kinda defeats the purpose.

Was there not a tool guy at the shoot or at client meetings with the creative geniuses at the ad agency?

So stupid when you're marketing to tool guys.

 

[zendriver]

Advertising executives are generally pretty smart.

They know that nowadays negative attention is attention.



Show ofhands. Who else googled the TV commercial to decide for themselves, if they should be annoyed?

 

[OccupantRJ]

I agree with the details, but the ad worked as intended. We are talking about it here.

 

[OccupantRJ]

I watch mechanical related video on Youtube daily and also get HF ads several times a day while doing so. I tolerate them much easier than ads for other products and am not as likely to hit the skip button.

 

[mngundog]

Still waiting for a Harbor Freight tool truck.

 

[zendriver]

It’s just like the jack stands

They probably made 1000 times as much money on all the free attention they got, over a stupid recall,versus whatever they lost by handing out replacement, jack stands

The haters in the skeptics are their best marketing assets

 

[FTG-05]

Still better than the Craftsman chainsaw commercial - where the chainsaw chain was on backwards.

 

[Steel_Rain]

So stupid when you're marketing to tool guys.

The legend:

 

[zendriver]

One would think that a “tool guy “ s probably not an interested in the commercial one way or the other.

They all know about Harbor freight and they either already shopped there or they don’t

 

[lolaetype]

Well shot but does this bother any one but me

I pretty much ignore commercials when they come on and if they do really annoy me I'll probably avoid the product (think Progressive and Liberty Mutual insurance).

The HF commercial doesn't bother me because I'm not the guy holding the tool and I'm not likely to want to grind on diamond plate anyway. They are selling the tool, not the technique.

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

I have not seen the commercial but have ground diamond plate to get a flat surface for mounting something.

 

[Joemctag]

I’ve ground plenty in order to weld something to the plate. But, yeah, the ad won’t hurt HF. Got noticed by THEIR kind of folks, didn’t it?

 

[MovingAlong]

One would think that a “tool guy “ s probably not an interested in the commercial one way or the other.

They all know about Harbor freight and they either already shopped there or they don’t

Yep, they've been selling tools for a very long time and get free press on most every type of forum on the internet. And here we are giving them more free press now!

Every "tool guy" has an opinion on HF. The TV ad guys know exactly who they are marketing too (and it isn't us...)

I pretty much ignore commercials when they come on and if they do really annoy me I'll probably avoid the product (think Progressive and Liberty Mutual insurance).

That you can quote the company names and identify the product they're associated with - well, that's an ad exec's dream!

 

[zendriver]

Really not news, that newer generations may not necessarily have any "tool guy" in their life, to help them decide on what to get for maintenance and repair, but they are likely faced with those tasks.

That's why even Walmart, is getting a much larger presence of tools, some even so valuable, they keep locked up. Mass marketing to newer audience makes perfect sense, considering so many places to get competitive-priced tools.

 

[Skellyii]

Maybe I'm among the minority, I usually dvr most of what I watch so that I can skip through commercials. I happened to see a brief bit of a HF commercial some time ago. My thought at the time was "Wow! I didn't know HF did commercials", as I hit the fast forward button to zip through the commercial.

 

[4xdog]

Was the HF ad guy wearing safety glasses or other PPE? That’s the one that gets me.

 

[zendriver]

Maybe I'm among the minority, I usually dvr most of what I watch so that I can skip through commercials. I happened to see a brief bit of a HF commercial some time ago. My thought at the time was "Wow! I didn't know HF did commercials", as I hit the fast forward button to zip through the commercial.

I hear their commercials on certain FM radio stations, on occasion.

 

[lolaetype]

That you can quote the company names and identify the product they're associated with - well, that's an ad exec's dream!

Or perhaps nightmare in my case, since those commercials have created an intense loathing of those companies in my brain.

 

[captmoto]

I thought the guy slowly tightening the drain plug was cross threading it on or he would have gone faster.