Why Are Ads Still Stuck in Lounge Rooms?
Last weekend, I found myself doomscrolling on YouTube Shorts—a place designed to make time disappear. Somewhere between a skateboarding parrot and a woman peeling garlic with a hairdryer, an ad began playing. It featured a couple watching TV in what can only be described as a showroom for beige. Sofa, carpet, family-sized void of originality. The ad was for a streaming service.
We are deep into 2025. People stream while doing dishes, working out, walking the dog, hiding in work toilets. Yet brand after brand continues to serve us stories like we're all gathered on a Tuesday night, eyes glued, bowl of chips neatly centered, dog asleep under the coffee table. The classic living room tableau must be the single most overused visual metaphor in New Zealand advertising, and it's not just tired, it's dishonest.
Real media consumption is chaotic. It's a laptop on the kitchen bench while burning dinner. It's a phone balanced on your knee while cradling a baby. It's audio in one earbud only, so you can still pretend to be listening to your partner. Advertising that still pretends we’re giving 100% attention feels disingenuous, maybe even irresponsible.
Here’s my pitch: replace pristine homes with reality. Show someone watching with cracked earbuds and a dying phone at a bus stop. Show the guilty pleasure watcher wiping chip grease on their shirt mid-binge. Show real life. The irony is that the world moved on, our habits morphed, but our ad scripts didn’t. Maybe it's time we stopped pretending, and finally rewrote the scene.
We are deep into 2025. People stream while doing dishes, working out, walking the dog, hiding in work toilets. Yet brand after brand continues to serve us stories like we're all gathered on a Tuesday night, eyes glued, bowl of chips neatly centered, dog asleep under the coffee table. The classic living room tableau must be the single most overused visual metaphor in New Zealand advertising, and it's not just tired, it's dishonest.
Real media consumption is chaotic. It's a laptop on the kitchen bench while burning dinner. It's a phone balanced on your knee while cradling a baby. It's audio in one earbud only, so you can still pretend to be listening to your partner. Advertising that still pretends we’re giving 100% attention feels disingenuous, maybe even irresponsible.
Here’s my pitch: replace pristine homes with reality. Show someone watching with cracked earbuds and a dying phone at a bus stop. Show the guilty pleasure watcher wiping chip grease on their shirt mid-binge. Show real life. The irony is that the world moved on, our habits morphed, but our ad scripts didn’t. Maybe it's time we stopped pretending, and finally rewrote the scene.