Do you believe?

A freshly scrubbed young lady walks into a huge press conference and talks about how much she loves her Ford.

A pimple-free Red Lobster employee talks about how much passion he has for sea food.

An eager group of blindfolded sniffers sit on a filth-ridden sofa, fooled into thinking they’re at the beach, thanks to the power of Febreze.

Do you buy any of it?

I don’t. And I want to. I love advertising. I want to be sold to. I’m rooting for brands when they put themselves out there with a new campaign.

But no matter how hard advertisers try, I never believe that the ‘real’ people they use in their ads are actually real. 

Full disclosure: I’ve worked on testimonial style campaigns. I’ve worked hard to make them feel authentic. And I hope they did. But I’m skeptical. 

Fact is, when you take people, actors or not, and put them in contrived situations (a blindfolded test, a press conference, etc.), the whole thing feels set up.

As a general rule, if you’re going to do a testimonial, try to keep the setting as raw and real as possible. Shove a real person in front of fake microphones and a make-believe press crew and I’m pretty sure they’re not going to be genuine. The more stripped down the set, the more likely you will get authentic responses that will get past the typical viewer’s BS detector.

On the other hand, you could just do a spot that has an actual idea. Or are ideas 'dead’ now too? I can’t keep track.