Heinz puts the contrived in CGM

Once again, a CGM commercial contest has been taken over by people who know their way around commercial production. I took the time to screen all 15 semifinalists in the the Heinz "Top This TV" challenge, and, no matter what you think of the concepts or theme lines, all of them are professionally produced, right down to staging the ketchup bottle so that it gets long, lingering straight-on appearances in each commercial. (If you care to do that, or vote, click here.) Seen in succession, the ads look more like a reel spliced together of spec ads submitted by agencies for a new business pitch than real consumer ads. I Googled the name of the first semi-finalist, and lo and behold, it's Jared Cicon (pictured here), the wedding photographer who was one of the five finalists in the Doritos Super Bowl CGM contest. In case there is any doubt, these CGM contests have jumped the shark.