Evil Electrical Empire?

I sometimes wonder why ad execs get paid so much. For every compelling and witty ad campaign, there seem to be a hundred utterly useless examples. You know, the sort of campaign which as TV ads which leave you asking 'WTF?' and leaving you none the wiser as to what they are actually trying to sell you. Bearing in mind that many campaigns are trying to sell the product indirectly, through selling a lifestyle or image associated with it, one has to wonder at the sheer inappropriateness of some the associations they between product and image that they make. The current TV campaign for Currys/PC World is one such example. You know the ads I'm talking about - the one where Darth Vader turns up to check on their preparations for Christmas. Darth Vader? Really? The ad always leaves me with the distinct impression that whoever thought it up clearly doesn't have a clue about popular culture. Clearly they thought it was just enough to link their client with a popular multimedia franchise. However, implying that one of the UK's biggest chains of electrical retailers is part of an evil galactic empire renowned for brutally repressing all dissent, to the extent of destroying entire planets, is surely not something any sane person would do, is it?

Quite apart from the evil aspect, why would you want Darth Vader as a figurehead for an ad campaign? After all, throughout the course of the Star Wars films he is singularly unsuccessful in achieving his - and the empire's - aims. Damn it, he loses not one, but two Death Stars in rebel attacks! Which brings us to the other big problem with this advert. Bearing in mind that it is for a chain supplying electrical products, is it really a good idea to associate them with an organisation which seems technically inept? I mean, the first Death Star is so poorly designed that it has a fatal flaw which can be exploited by the rebels to destroy it. Then there are those AT-ATs which can be defeated by simply tripping them up with a piece of string. Not to mention the fact that their TIE fighters seem hopelessly out-classed by the rebel alliance's numerically inferior X and Y-wing fighters. Then there's Vader himself - you'd have thought that they could have come up with a less cumbersome life-support system for him, wouldn't you? His breathing is so bloody laboured I always expect him to whip out an inhaler at any moment. Would you really want to buy hi-tech goods from that lot? Sadly, I suspect that the advert's origins lie in the easy availability of James Earl Jones, who is appearing in the West End at the moment, to provide the authentic voice of Darth Vader. Of course, there are undoubtedly those out there who think that the empire is an apt analogy for Currys/PC World. Well, I won't comment on that, (for fear of legal action), other than to note that I've always found PC World, at least, to be OK, if a bit pricey.