When You Want an Ad to Put You To Sleep But It Doesn’t.

I wanted to like this ad for Nectar mattresses. The idea of a “motivational sleeper” is funny. And I love parodies. So this is loaded with potential—to make fun of over-the-top motivational speakers (ripe for it) and sell mattresses in the process.

But the cognitive dissonance between what the mattress is supposed to be about (calm, quiet sleep) and the hyperkinetic speaker/audience/music (ok, the entire ad) is just jarring.

Jarring and sleep don’t work.