In order to help people understand what Twitter and convince them to start using the service, Twitter released its first-ever television commercial during the World Series on Tuesday, but it seems to have had the opposite effect. The people who didn’t just change the channel when they saw the commercial were confused by its odd tone and fast-moving images, and many of them even took to Twitter itself to ask what the hell the commercial was even trying to promote.
Viewers who didn’t change the channel during the World Series commercial breaks probably saw Twitter’s commercial. To kick off its newest feature, Moments, and the beginning of a large-scale marketing campaign by ad agency TBWAChiatDay, the firm’s television ad aired during the World Series on Tuesday. The 30-second spot included an animated series of brief clips of real sports highlights as they appeared in actual tweets. The fast-moving images, set to upbeat music, were intended to speed along so quickly that you couldn’t actually read anything, because according to Twitter, “the young people who are the ad’s target audience prefer it that way.” However, it was precisely because of the speed and inability to read anything on the screen that viewers took to Twitter to comment on the ad, or more accurately to complain. Viewers indicated that they were confused about what the ad was supposed to be promoting, and had no idea that the ad was promoting Moments, a tool launched at the beginning of the month to help find the information we want more quickly.