I’m only a half-hour into the Oscars and there have been several bloggable moments.

No, I’m not talking about the awards ceremony. It’s about the commercials. I’m enjoying this show better than the Super Bowl.

First, Bank of America. Their "Window of Opportunity" ad was truly memorable. A mirrored logo hovers over the sidewalk and as people stare at themselves, they see the possibilities for their lives.

In Persuasion Architecture, we’d call this the Driving Point to the persuasive scenario. It’s the start of the trail which we hope will lead to a conversion…in this case, I would assume a new customer for the bank.

What we hope to find at their site is either more of what the ad promised, or a chance to view the ad again.

On the Bank of America home page, a large part of the "above the fold" real estate is dedicated to a flash piece which reinforces the theme of the ad…"Opportunity Starts Here". Just below the flash piece is a link which connects us to the TV ads…"See opportunity come to life in our new TV ads"

After clicking the link, instead of just showing the ads, Bank of America takes a moment to explain the campaign and their high concept for it. It’s ok. It is the major element on the page (in the big red box). What’s even better are the links to 3 products in the smaller box on the right.

Oh, and if you want to actually see the ads in the series, they offer links to all of them.

Unfortunately, if you watch the ads, the scent trail ends. The ad plays on a big white background leaving you no context in which to continue. Nice job up to the very end of the scenario.

[Update: This is what it looks like on my Mac. I’m at a dead end unless I click the back button. On my PC, the ad launches in a separate windows media viewer session. Once I close the viewer, I’m back on the page and ready to be engaged by the scenario again.]