Saturday, January 13, 2007

The James Earl Jones Effect

When Sesame Street first came out, every episode was focus-grouped to death.

They would conduct meticulous experiments on the children watching to see if they were more interested in the live characters or the puppets and in which situations they actually learned more.

As it turned out, they loved the puppets, but were not learning much from them.

There was an exception, however, and this was when it came to puppets voiced by James Earl Jones (most famously known as the voice as Darth Vader). When JEJ spoke, kids listened. And they absorbed.

James Earl Jones' kids must be some of the most attentive kids out there.

Either way, the power of the commentator should never be overlooked in an advertising campaign.

Here is a great one:

Allstate - Odds