Commercial

Local television advertising has a way of lodging itself in your memory and staying there long after you have any reason to think about it. 650-Gold ran spots like this one during the height of the cash-for-gold boom, when the price kept climbing and every other strip mall had somebody willing to weigh your old jewelry.

This is the first of them. There is not much to say about the ad itself, which is short and does exactly what it sets out to do. I am putting it here because nobody else seemed to be, and because I would rather it exist somewhere other than in my head.

Second of the spots for 650-Gold. The premise is not subtle, and it isn't meant to be: everybody is buying gold, gold is worth more than it used to be, and here is the number to call. A commercial this short leaves no room for nuance, so the pitch is the whole thing.

What I like about making these is the constraint. One idea, one line worth repeating, a hard cutoff, and anything that doesn't serve the sell has to go. Below is the finished commercial, with a few notes on what changed between the first one and this one.

Third in the 650-GOLD series. Thirty seconds of local television advertising, kept here because nobody else was going to keep it: the phone number sung twice, the cheerful insistence that everybody is buying gold, and the unstated suggestion that you ought to be selling.

No commentary, no analysis, just the tape and the jingle. If these ads ran during the late movie where you grew up, the melody will arrive fully assembled and you will not be able to put it back. This is the third one I have posted, and probably not the last.

Times are tough enough that Santa kicks the cinder blocks out from under the sleigh, throws some extra feed to the reindeer, and flies down to Cleveland to hock the old lady's jewelry and candlesticks. That's the premise of a spot my buddy Don and I put together for Coin & Jewelry Buyers of America on next to nothing, and it wound up getting more traction and notice than either of us expected.

The video is below, with Don Pavlish dishing on how it came together afterward.