HOTELS

Adam Kirby

New Express Ad Campaign Earns Praise
March 6, 2008

The widely read online magazine Slate recently had its advertising critic (yes, there is such a thing) review the latest batch of Holiday Inn Express commercials, which play up the select-service brand’s hot breakfast bar concept. The commercials have been running since February.

Slate’s critic, Seth Stevenson, calls the HIE spots “vaguely lewd” but nevertheless gives the campaign a grade of B+. The vague lewdness—these commercials are by no means “adult content,” mind you—comes in the form of business travelers who congregate in the hotel’s dining room and make happy hour-style overtures toward the opposite sex. The wrinkle, of course, is in the fact that the scenes take place over omelets and cinnamon rolls rather than cocktails and beer.

Like Stevenson, I particularly enjoy the ad in which four men debate which breakfast item to hand-deliver to a female diner. It’s amusing for its own sake while simultaneously selling the product. Stevenson writes:

Here, the slogan “the new hot bar in town” serves to highlight the warmed foods on offer while providing a stage for some riffs on lame night-life behavior. In deciphering the pun, you're forced to think about the product. Through that cognitive two-step, the sales pitch cements itself in your memory.

The new HIE commercials are good, but they just aren’t as memorable as the ad campaign that put the brand on the map. The catch phrase, “But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night” has become such a part of the cultural lexicon that former U.S. presidential candidate Mike Huckabee even referenced the line in a December interview.

Related Links:

Holiday Inn ads (YouTube)

Residence Inn ads (YouTube)

Posted by Adam Kirby on March 6, 2008 | Comments (0)