I wonder about this winterland

I'm not sure why I don't like this spot more.



I really should like it.

It's different from the other spots in the category. No pictures of happy families on the slopes. No smiling kids at the waterpark. No snowmobiles busting through powdery drifts. No sleigh rides. No couples snuggling in front of a roaring fire in a rustic cabin. No insert other stereotypical image here.

It doesn't have wall-to-wall copy telling me how great it is to vacation in Wisconsin. We all know you can find a great vacation just about anywhere – okay, maybe not Jersey.

It's well directed. How could it not be? No less than Wisconsin native/comedy legend David Zucker – Airplane!, Naked Gun, Scary Movie, etc. – directed the spot. Who better to direct this slapstick tour de force?

It's kind of neat that the actors are all members of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and they also performed the music.

The tagline: "Winter's here. Sound like fun?" puts a nice button on the whole thing.

So why doesn't it work for me?

Maybe it's trying too hard to be different.

Maybe this Stooge-inspired mayhem doesn't reach a deep enough emotional place to trigger a memory that makes me say, "Man, I need to go THERE on my next vacation."

Different is important. Different gets you noticed. But unless you connect on an emotional level, you don't have the second major component of a great ad, relevance. And that's what this spot misses for me.

Great effort, but like most of the snowballs I've ever thrown, it just misses the mark.