(Media blog project #1) All The Reasons Why You Should Pull Up A Seat And "Relax, There's Turbotax"

A total list of aired Turbotax commercials

“In the past 30 days, TurboTax has had 16,426 airings and earned an amazing airing rank of #6 with a good spend ranking of #10 as compared to all other advertisers,” according to Ispot.tv. By taking a relatable, realistic, comedic, and repetitive approach to the marketing side of media, Turbotax is has one of my (and probably many other Americans) most favorite Ad campaigns.

Although they only share one commercial at a time with the viewers, it’s the correlating string of ads that flow together in the most harmonious way that initially grab my attention. As you see in the photo above, there has been more than just one commercial/ad that has run for the company. Prior to airing their brand new Super Bowl 51 commercial alongside all of their other competitors, they aired a strain of “The Humpty Fall” commercials which included a three part series and “teaser” before the big game by showing the world an ad that correlated with that of the one that was going to air during the actual game itself.

Once you seen the new ad during Super Bowl game, you might have remembered how you may have seen something similar to it beforehand - that something is Humpty Dumpty. Seeing Humpty quite upset because he’s sitting in the hospital bed may have you feeling a bit upset yourself, that is, until you see the tagline which reads, “Relax, There's TurboTax.”

I think that correlating an actual product to a fictional character that has been a folk tale (in one way or another) in most of our homes since the 17th century is brilliant because even though Humpty fictional, the ad is still using the famous-person testimonial. Once you’ve seen the first Humpty Dumpty Turbotax commercial, your brain pretty much has no choice but to associate Mr. Dumpty (as they call him in the AD) with Turbotax.

In the two part teaser, on one commercial, you only see Humpty in the hospital bed and do not know why or how he got there. This particular commercial is playing a Digital Underground Song called, “Humpty Dance.” Humpty gets upset that someone has used his name and inquires his Turbotax app if he could sue. In the end, his question is answered and all is well. 

In the second teaser, which was in the teaser TV spot of the super bowl, the first thing you hear is someone screaming, “Humpty!” then it flashes to three kingsmen running over to a broken but still alive Humpty Dumpty, who apparently was doing his taxes while sitting on a wall. The kingsmen get him rushed to the hospital and it seems like the Dumpty news makes it all over national tv news. Meanwhile, by using the irritation effect, everyone is talking about him doing his taxes with Turbotax. The end of the commercial shows Humpty in the hospital bed.

I think that regardless of the reason that Humpty made it into the hospital bed, it seems like that is the usage of hidden-fear because being hospitalized is a fear for many Americans. This plays on the fact that we have this underlying notion that we may not be able to get things that need to be done, done. By showing Humpty in the hospital taking care of something that pretty much every taxpayer fears and dislikes, it makes it way more relatable to the consumer who may or even may not be experiencing hardship. 

This ad campaign is story-telling because it is telling the story of Humpty Dumpty, even though it is broken into different parts. The end result once you put them all together sort of flow in a comedic and artistic way. Although you could argue that this ad seems like it is meant for everyone, I think that this ad was meant for the working-class taxpayers who fear hardships and life events could get in the way of life or money. 

What I love the most about these ads is that they do not seem stereotypical at all to me. I feel like although they may be targeting the working class (of course because most like the upper class will hire someone to do their own taxes), they play more with a playful aspect of marketing. By using a fictional character it doesn’t sway to one particular race and it leaves a rather more indelible mark on the mind. 

Apparently, I’m not the only one raving about the Humpty Dumpty Turbotax commercials; here is an article about it titled, “Humpty Dumpty trying to get a tax write-off is the Super Bowl commercial everyone is talking about” that was posted February 7, 2017 2:07 pm. The brilliance that went into this campaign just leaves me in awe and the amounts of people that I'm sure it reached from being aired during the super bowl alone is genius. From this campaigns excellent display of humor, relating circumstances, and wittiness, I think that it is safe to say that this ad campaign is the best of 2017, so far.