IBM is Thinking with its Dipstick

Until last night, I loved the latest "I'm an IBMer" campaign from IBM.

The spots feature what we believe to be real IBM employees of many nationalities and ethnicities, all united in the goal of "building a smarter planet."

But last night I noticed that in the latest addition to the campaign, one of the IBM team members looked quite familiar. Upon closer inspection, it appears to be the whip-happy Scotsman from the Castrol "Think with your dipstick, Jimmy" TV spots.

There is a disconnect here. Actors often appear in several commercials at once, and I've got no problem with that. My problem here is the nature of the IBM commercial. Although, the bearded gentleman never announces that he works for IBM, the message of the campaign is that IBM's vision for a smarter planet is contingent upon each of its team members fulfilling their individual roles.

I can see how this mistake got made -- the actor chosen looks positively professorial and was born to wear a white lab coat. The lesson we learn here is that casting managers should ensure the actors they hire don't have a recent body of work that could take away from the message they are currently communicating.

The IBM and Castrol ads are here and here.

Thanks to Matt McCoy for the side by side screenshot.