Who can forget the hilarious “cat herding” television spot that aired during the 2000 Super Bowl? More importantly, who can remember the advertiser that spent big bucks on it?

For those of you who miraculously came up with the name “EDS” before watching the spot… any idea what they do?

Cat herding is actually a pretty clever analogy with the service they were selling, but the message was lost. It didn’t help that the first mention of EDS arrived 57 seconds into a 60-second spot. Also, I was too busy laughing to pay attention.

It doesn’t matter how pretty or funny your ads are if they don’t achieve your communications objectives. Yes, advertising needs to grab attention and create buzz about your company or product, but ask yourself:

• Does this ad speak to my target audience?
• Does this influence their opinion or motivate them to action?

I know the cat herding spot captured the attention of millions. Actually, it still tops my list of favorite/funniest/most memorable Super Bowl commercials of all time… but what did it accomplish for EDS?  Did it connect them with their target audience? Did it achieve their objectives?

By the way, EDS was acquired by HP last year, and eventually became HP Enterprise Services.