HD Vision Ultras (sunglasses) – A Marketing Review

Late last night I saw yet another TV commercial for the HD Vision Ultras sunglasses.  I can’t help but laugh at this ridiculous commercial and horrible attempt at marketing an obviously bad product.

The premise behind these sunglasses is fairly simple.  The orange tinting in the lens filters out the blue light, increasing the contrast and depth perception.  This is no different that wearing a yellow pair of glasses worn by hunters and shooters.  The only difference here is that this style is once again being marketed to the average person on the street.

An older commercial for HD Vision Ultras

I remember back in the mid 1990s when the Blublocker sunglasses hit the market.  The glasses took the market by storm and Blublocker became a commonly known name.  During its peak, merchants were selling thousands of the glasses in temporary tents set up along the roads.  It was a terrific marketing ploy.

Now fast forward to today.

Sure enough, we pretty much have the same exact product with a nearly identical marketing campaign.

What’s different this time around?

Just a more modern design for the glasses.

Changing the contrast makes a world of difference.

Changing the contrast makes a world of difference.

This all comes down to the basic idea of trying to pass off a cheap set of orange lens sunglasses as a high-end, stylish pair of glasses made by a top designer.  The actors try to tell us how awesome and expensive they look.  The commercial tries to tell us how much better they are for your eyes versus those expensive sunglasses.  But in the end it’s the same old story of a seller trying to change the fashion world with a cheap and certainly not stylish piece of merchandise.

Been there, done that.

When it comes to selling sunglasses, it’s important to note that the chief consumers are teenagers and young adults.  If they cannot afford the top brands, they’ll buy whatever cheap sunglasses that still make them look cool, even if it means spending $5 on a cheap set of sunglasses at Walmart.  Yellow and orange lenses are at the bottom of the listing.  I’ve seen more teenagers wearing glasses with purple lenses than I have seen them wearing yellow or orange lenses.

The bottom line is that no matter how hard the commercial tries to show us that young adults love wearing the glasses (always looking up at the sky or pulling back their head in amazement and saying “wow!”), they will not become a fashion trend.  Many older people still remember the Blublocker sunglasses and how comical they seem today, and teenagers will not be caught wearing the new versions of the sunglasses like the HD Vision Ultras.  Such a move will severely tarnish their social image.

What amuses me even further is that before the current HD Vision Ultras television marketing campaign, these same exact sunglasses were in virtually the same exact commercial but sold with a different name.  For the life of me I cannot remember their name, but this was fairly recent, say, in the past two or three years.  It was the same cheesy commercial with the same people being impressed when wearing them, and of course, being equally amazed by the remarkably low price.

It seems like the seller just changed names to cash in on the current trend towards high-definition cameras and televisions.  After all, super high quality, high-definition lenses for cameras do exist and commonly cost thousands to tens of thousands of dollars.  So why not make a set of cheap sunglasses with orange lenses and slap them with the high-definition name, too?

Naming sunglasses with “HD” was probably one of the worst moves in the history of selling sunglasses.  It’s no surprise that the name of the sunglasses alone is a laughing stock for thousands of people online, or that the company has already reached the stage of giving away free sets of sunglasses with purchase.  Check out the website and notice the “ver19” in its URL, most likely indicating that we’re looking at version 19 of the website.

The company’s website is also lacking any real information about the sunglasses or what makes them so special — another classic indicator of a seller selling lesser quality merchandise.  The omission of actual details and hard facts about the product is another classic warning sign.  You’re just supposed to take the seller’s word and those so-called testimonials that this supposedly is a good product.

Yeah, right.

That reminds me of the CarFax commercial where the car salesman tells the customers that he has a note from the previous seller saying that the car is really good.  On a side note, such an experience did happen for my brother when he was car shopping last summer.  The salesman wouldn’t give him the car’s history, but he was really confident that it was in good condition.  We didn’t tell the salesman this, but we knew ahead of time that his “hot seller” of a car had been sitting on the small car lot for over four months.  The car itself had a coolant leak and the stereo was locked (it was sitting for so long that at one point the battery died, triggering the stereo’s security system — this shady dealer was ready to send us to a mechanic after the sale to get the stereo’s unlock code.)

Some merchants or salesmen will say anything to convince you to do business.  I don’t know how those people manage to sleep at night.

The current offer on the HD Vision Ultras company’s website is a little bit confusing as to exactly how many sunglasses you receive in the end.

It says that you can get a set of sunglasses for only $10 + $6.99 for shipping and handling.  The company is throwing in a free set as long as we only pay for the extra shipping and handling (another $6.99).  It’s no coincidence that there’s no option on the order form to only receive one set of sunglasses in the mail.  No, you’re going to be paying for the S&H and receiving that second set whether you want it or not.  In the end we should be receiving a total of two sets of sunglasses for the grand total of only $23.98.

The confusing part deals with the company’s definition of “set” of sunglasses.  It’s easy for people to get confused over the terminology and wonder if they’re be receiving two frames with lenses or four frames with lenses.  The fine print at the bottom mentions sending “each set of two in the same color.”  Does that really imply that you’ll be receiving four frames with lenses, or does it mean that one set is in fact one frame with two lenses?  I blame the English language for that confusion just like the term “pair of pants.”  The problem here is that it can easily be interpreted both ways and the website does not make it clear exactly what you’ll be receiving in the mail.

You can imagine just how cheap those glasses are if the merchant is still pulling in a profit after spending for a massive TV advertising campaign and giving us two or even four sunglasses for only $23.98.

How long will it be before we see yet another version of these cheap sunglasses being marketed as the latest and greatest headwear and newest fashion statement?

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For more information about HD Vision Ultras, please visit the company’s website.

RellimZone.com is not affiliated with HD Vision Ultras.