The payoff is dead. Long live the payoff.

Is it just me or have adverting payoff’s/taglines become just sad
epitaphs to an era of advertising gone by? An age of simplity, where
the commercial led you singularly entranced to the memorably crafted
payoff – at which point the whole thing made sense with a giant
cash-register-murdering ‘Ka-ching!’ As an example,take the two latest
ads for Toyota, for the Yaris and new Rav-4. Yes nice ads. Yes lovable
ads even. Everyone remembers them, but can anyone remember what they
said at the end, or what they were trying to say? The Yaris ad
presents us with a lovely visual story about deft handling, and hits
us with a payoff about ‘being really clever’. Then the Rav-4 shows us
two people who obviously want the Rav-4 all to themselves, but then
were hit with a ‘you just want to get into it’ or something in that
vein? What gives? Where the writers? Where’s the ‘Ka-ching!’ Or have
payoff’s these days just become feeble attempts to marry a good idea
to the brief that said something a little different? Sorry to pick the
Toyota example, but that’s two in a row from a big-spending client out
of Saatchis from whom we should expect more attention to detail. Of
course there are loads of other examples. Pity about the ‘Ka-ching!’
Isn’t it still so very nice when it all does come together though?
Shame. Discuss.