Search

"We thought about going with a claim for technological superiority, but there are hundreds of search engines out there," says Felicia Moore, ad rep for Excite search engine.

"We decided we needed to stand for something that made people feel good about trying us." So naturally the agency chose the theme, "Are you experienced," featuring the Sixties rock anthem by Jimi Hendrix on the commercial that broke last month. It's kind of tough to describe the commercial, but we can tell you it includes a polyhedron, images of cars careening around curves and a funny thing they do with the letter X that turns it into a mascot called the Little Excited Person. What it does not do is tell you what a search engine does or why you need one. "It is not our job to educate our audience about what the category is," says Moore. It figures. In a consumption-drenched society you can't make money selling utility. So you sell empathy, complicity. It seems to work.

from Forbes, Dec. 16, 1996

Back to Stuart Ewen interview: Part I and Part II