I'd Prefer an Expert

A Canadian hardware chain has been running tons of ads lately. It's using a concept in which an employee, looking like someone you'd see in the neighbourhood, smiles and shows a customer something that is apparently just what the customer didn't even know she wanted. Delight all around!

I haven't really paid attention to this campaign until recently, in part because the "just-folks" personalities don't have lines. There's just a manly-man voiceover. But then I figured out what they were singing: "Homeowners helping homeowners."

No, thanks! I don't want the guy next door helping me with a home renovation or repair project. Actually, I personally did even marry the guy next door in part because he knows how to do all kinds of home care projects and cares about my "homes" and he "helps" me (see summer photos of the roof). But in theory, no.

Just like I don't want the couple next door, under the direction and guidance of some "designer" who's famous for being on a TV show, to make over a room in my house in 24 hours. Are you kidding? I've seen what-all that next-door-neighbour couple leaves in their back yard. I've heard their screaming. I've smelled their barbecue.

At the risk of talking about the recent U.S. election again, this commercial echoes the idea that what the public wants is "someone just like them," or "the American Idol" candidate, to run the country. No, we don't. We want someone who knows more than we do, so we can go back to doing what we do best as our contribution to the whole.

So if I have to take time from the work I do best to figure out something in the house, give me an expert to help. Someone with a license and a business and insurance and a track record. And if that's who this hardware chain employs, great--tell me that.