Normally I don’t watch a lot of TV, especially live TV, so I don’t see a lot of commercials. I just saw a Therabreath commercial that came out in June that has a magicians in it. Here’s the commercial:
What I like about this and the current trend with magicians in commercials or TV shows is that they are using actual magic tricks. It’s way better than doing a quick cut and then showing someone pull out bunny out of a hat. I think most people can tell the difference between CGI or a camera trick and someone actually doing it.
Also I think it’s worth looking at how that 15 second commercial frames the magic. It’s just the “punchline” not the “set up“, we really don’t see the whole trick. We don’t need to see the guy show the card on both sides before it floats, we just need to see it float. Now think of how you can apply that to your promo video.