First relief workers and now skateboarders. Cisco is turning off consumers left, right and center it seems – something it can ill afford to do as it attempts to build up its name in the fickle consumer world. MyMediaMusings blogger has pointed to a couple of readers who are not so happy about the use of skateboarders in Cisco’s latest human network TV ad. One said: “… as a skater you notice a lot of messed up things in the commercial…” Another, a consumer of Cisco gear who is a business owner, writes: “If I didn’t understand the advertising world I’d totally be turned off on Cisco. And as usual, the sad part is that it wouldn’t have taken all that much effort to get it right.”
In January, some viewers of Cisco’s TelePresence ad featuring a relief worker catching up with his folks back home were none too happy that a “stereotypical young, white, middle-class aid worker” was in the center of the frame in the TV ad, instead of the folks such workers are trying to help.
Maybe Cisco should stick with selling to the audience they know best.
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