All of This for Pens

I recently noticed the following :30 second commercial for some pens while watching one of my favorite TV series on Hulu Plus. As you can see for yourself, the ad showcases the vibrant colors and smooth pen-to-paper ink transfer the PaperMate InkJoy has to offer.


This is a nice ad and I like how the animation captures the pens strutting their stuff. But this commercial made me wonder: is there really a high demand for something more than the everyday, basic pen? I mean...did PaperMate really do all this for pens??

Just as it had it’s way with the paper industry, the Internet Age has surely zapped the writing instrument market, right? The last seminar I attended is a great example of this notion - I was amazed at the sound of my fellow attendees click-clacking away on their laptops (as opposed to the old method of jotting notes by hand).

Then again, I’m sure there are plenty of artistic people that still get excited at the sight of a new style of pen. My sister comes to mind!

Other thoughts I had about PaperMate and it’s advertising practices:

• I’ve never seen the above ad on regular television. It could be that the PaperMate execs recognize the value of video but are turned off by the fees associated with TV advertising. 
•  The folks at PaperMate are proud of their ads (they should be) and have done a great job of including a bunch of their old spots on their YouTube channel. 
• The efforts put into some of these old spots makes sense given the times in which they aired. One of those old commercials really caught my attention by featuring (what’s now) a familiar face:

I’m not 100% sure but that spokesman looks like an actor that played a pivotal role in a very iconic comedy from 1978. Think you know who it is? Tweet your guesses to @Nick_Baggett. Thanks for reading!