GoCompare.com - Why GoCompare Anywhere Else?

4 November 2007 by Silky

While I’m on the theme of car insurance…. GoCompare.com.

My problems with this ad is pretty straight forward. It’s the bloody tag line:

“Why GoCompare anywhere else?” the tiny man in the computer asks us.

Why go compare anywhere else? Oh, the humanity!

OK, I get it, you’re playing on our knowledge of patronising American phrases such as “Go figure” and “Do the math”. But, if the truth be told, if anyone ever directs on of these phrase at me, I tend to to come back with another Americanism: “Go fuck yourself”.

Reactionary, yes, but completely justified, I think you’ll agree.

This faux valley-girl ghetto speak that’s seeping into our culture thanks to our lust for celebrity (and those celebrities on the whole being as thick as two short Paris Hiltons) drives me potty. Potty, I tell you.

OK, I’m not completely innocent. Yes, I say “OK” like, huh, a million times a day, girlfriend, but other than that I don’t use too many half-witted Americanisms (and if you disagree you can so talk to the hand… etc).

So here’s my advice GoCompare, when you’ve got a company with a name that makes no sense in English don’t then shoe-horn it into a painful tag line. Let’s just all agree you made a mistake naming your company “GoCompare” and move on. Don’t keep digging.

Of course, it could be worse they could have included a ridiculous claim in the advert too like they’ve invented a unique way to rate insurance policies (”So 5-stars is good, you say?”).

So in summary: Oh my God, Whatever, Etc.

9Responses:

Darren

November 5th, 2007 9:40 pm

OK I will allow that this add is, well, piss. But is it any worse than MoneySupermarket.com’s animated identikit cheerleaders and the oh-so-nouveau-middle-class couple with a shopping trolley and a BMW Mini? Hmm… I feel a “submit a bad ad” moment coming on…
Mike Empuria

November 7th, 2007 10:26 pm

This ad isn’t bad. It ain’t good but it isn’t bad. It’s an advert for a price comparison website and it’s on national TV.

Why do I mention this? I’m glad you asked.

The problem here is not one of quality, it’s not one of acting skills but it is one of marketing.

Imagine the brief:

GoCompare: Hello, we have a price comparison website and we want to market it on national TV
Ad Agency: OK, what does it do?
GoCompare: It compares prices for stuff.
Ad Agency: OK, what’s the name of your company?
GoCompare: bestfuckingpricecomparisonwebsite.com
Ad Agency: You might want to rethink your name.

The poor people from GoCompare would then have to go to 123-reg, register.com or Go Daddy (if they were stupid) to find a domain name that suited their business model and was available. Hence GoCompare.

It’s not about the business, it’s about the domain name.

Here’s a challenge: What name would you have come up with for this business? The domain has to be available at the time of your suggestion
Silky

November 8th, 2007 6:21 pm

Funnily enough, I’ve had to do something similar in an actual job I’ve had.

It’s really, really, really fucking hard to come up with something anywhere approaching good.

So I’ll give them that.

And you know what, it is easier to slate than it is to create.

But I really like “bestfuckingpricecomparisonwebsite.com” surely everyone would remember that one, Mike.
Erine

November 30th, 2007 9:19 am

I like ”bestfuckingpricecomparisonwebsite.com, has a certain quality to it, especially in a market where lots of small so called ”comparison websites’ keep popping up.

I think the BACC may have a view on the domain name, can’t see it going out on CITV, can just see my three year old repeating the domain name and shocking the grandparents over Sunday lunch.

Even though the name gocompare.com is not English, and very American (don’t get be started on them), it does stick in the mind and when you’re trying to standout in a competitive market having a memorable name and a talked about TV ad all helps. Take Picture Finance they were awarded one of the most annoying, but effective ads from Marketing Week, and is the current No.1 on TWA!!!

But well done Fallon and Cadburys for having the guts to bring us a Gorilla into our homes, balances out the good, the bad and the ugly…
Andrea

January 5th, 2008 7:51 pm

This advert is terrible. It shows how much budget they have and how rich they really are.

In this advert the woman says ‘dot;’ really weirdly.

And when she says ‘loaaads’, she’s supposed to emphasise, yet she says it pathetically.
AJS

February 14th, 2008 11:32 pm

Well given that they are owned by Esure who have a history of annoying ads - Michael Winner, need I say more then its hardly suprising the drivel they have come up with.

Nobody cares about 5 stars, they care about about price. Thats it.

Go Compare is run by a bunch of welsh people with a 30 million loan in their pocket.

My question is - if it were your own money would you still use this ad or something that gives people what the want?
Game

August 3rd, 2008 1:54 pm

I hate that advert. Purley because it’s on about 400000000 times a day. I never use their fucking website either. Gocompare my ass to your face: my ass wins.
PL

August 18th, 2008 10:37 pm

This advert sucks ballbag!
Bex

October 3rd, 2008 11:02 am

Calm down me dearies t’is only a commercial…
But dust one not just abhor the word “commercial”? Tis’o bleedin’ American! And, to be perfectly honest, I do not understand the use of the verb, “go”, in this context. Now, this may just be me, but I believe (Ibulieve) that the misuse of such words, and with this I accuse not only the Americans and the Welsh, but the ENGLISH, has lead to the increase of childhood obesity. If a child understands that in searching the web, he is actually “going” somewhere, then he surely must view this as a sufficient substitute for “going to the park” or “going for a bike ride” or “going to turn the telly on” or (if you, as I, are Northern) “going to the chippie”. Go figure.
Now I must depart in a flourish to write an essay on the true definition of the Art Nouveau Movement- any suggestions? Adieu my dearest sirs and wenches.