Do you have a favourite ad? An ad you love to hate? Or just hate? Any ads that leave you baffled, cold or determined not to buy the product/service simply due to their crappy advertising? Share the love.
This is what Val Morgan says about cinema advertising -
This what I say -
I went to the movies last weekend and I sat through half an hour - half a freaking hour - of ads. This was before previews as well. Half.an.hour. And do you know what my favourite one was? Me neither. Because I can't remember any of them. Because after I watched them I sat through a 2 hour film which was more than enough time to forget an ad that I had watched once.
Even if, sitting in the dark with my popcorn, I thought "yes, Diego's House of Taco's does look like a fiesta filled evening of food and frivolity" by the time I get out of the movie I'm going to go back to my standard sushi place because I'm not going to remember the ad.
For what it's worth James Bond was still wearing an Omega watch, every one was drinking Coke and Q had a very cool Scrabble mug. Impressions created by repeated product placement over 2 hours FTW!
We are Yes Men Are we? We must be. The ad just said so. Hang on, I'm a woman. No, I'm sure that doesn't matter. Yes, we are yes men! Can you work on Sunday? Yes Boss. Oooh. I don't want to work on a Sunday. Look at that smug, greedy boss. Being a Yes Man is bad! Can you go shopping with me? Yes Darling. I don't mind going shopping with you. Hang on, why did I call you darling? Am I a lesbian now? Wow, I'm a lesbian and I seem to have a pretty Hot Girlfriend. How am I going to tell my parents? And my husband? Awkward. Wait a minute. She's got a credit card in the name of "Mr Yes Man". Is that my credit card? Have I had a sex change as well? This seems like a lot of work to keep my Hot Girlfriend happy. I hope she's worth it. What do you want? I think I'd like to not have had a sex change operation any more. I'm not sure she's a keeper. Love?Sure.Money? Ok.Power?Why not? How many yesses did you just say? Well, none. But I guess, in effect three. Is that bad? Is that why I'm a yes man? I don't want to be a yes man any more. I want to say 'No!'. Let me say 'Noooooo!' Let's repeat together. I am a yes man! Oooh, now I'm just waiting for a chance to say 'No!' to some thing. I am so keen to say 'No!' Just you watch me! In your life all you do is say yes. That's true! Stuff you Mr Boss and Hot Girlfriend. I'm about to say 'No!' But have you ever tried to say no? Yes! I mean, no! Wait, is this a trick question? (Picture of a car. Music plays over mumbled line of script) No! No! You can keep your stupid car! You can't fool me Citroen DS4! I am no longer a Yes Man! I have thrown off my chains. I am free! I WILL NOT BUY THAT CAR! Ad Ends Oh. ... What? (Carefully re-listens to voice over at the end) Mmph Mmph Conformity What? (Re-listens again) Mmph Mmph Conformity I cannot make that out. Argh. Annoying (finds similar American version of the ad on You Tube) Mmph Mmph Conformity Dagnamit! I still can't make out that line! This ad is harder work than my Hot Girlfriend! Where is she any way? Probably off buying shoes with my credit card. Serves me right for dating a stereotype. (finds similar UK ad on You Tube) Say no to conformity Oh ok. That makes sense. We will all say 'No!' to conformity! (Is any one else having Life of Brian flash backs?) Discover a car that resembles no other. Seriously? We are looking at the same car right? It looks exactly like every other car I have ever seen. Wheels? Check. Doors? Check. Windscreen? Check. It's a car. Citroen DS4 Sorry, Citroen DS4 but you have just spent 45 secs preping me to to be ultra critical of the hype. You wanted me to say 'No!' and now am I am. Your car is just a car. Citroen Creative Technology And fairly crappy ads.
First of all, may I say - I love you. Really. For many years of my adolescence I wanted to be you. I was vaguely aware of you while I was growing up - having parents who loved English comedy, but I never really knew who you were until the Vicar of Dibley. I was an over weight 15 year old with dreams of working in the theatre and there you were. Smart, sexy, larger than life and the star of the show. And married to a hot comedian! My friends were dreaming of being Elle Macpherson. I just wanted straight, black hair cut in a bob and an English accent.
No.
Yes!
(I'm sure Ms. Macpherson is a lovely woman by the way.)
So I tried to be glad to see you in the Coles ad. I wanted to be pleased you were on Australian television and raising your profile here once more. But honestly, I'm struggling.
The Coles jingle is so inane and repetitive that the very sound of it makes my hackles rise and even you talking over the top does nothing to help.
Okay, jingle aside this ad has its own charm.
Although I don't think Curtis realises how lucky he is to be felt up by DAWN FRENCH for heaven's sake. Maybe he's playing hard to get.
But you know the ad that has really ruined this series of ads for me? The ad that has left me with a bad taste in my mouth ever since it was first aired? It's this ad.
"Now hold on a minute," I hear you say, Ms French (with your delightful accent), "I'm not even in that ad! That's hardly fair." And I know. IknowIknowIknow but... I can't help it and honest to goodness I don't think it's my fault.
A company runs an ad in the hopes that the ad will create some sort of impression about the company or its product in the mind of the viewer. And they did create an impression. They're fucking idiots. Is singing in tune not fashionable any more? Did the Kindergarten teacher who threw together their choreography get her class to make the big, red hands as well? This ad was soooo bad it has ruined any ad that was destined to come after it.
It's like - you know when one night you have a dodgy kebab, and you kind of know it's dodgy even while you're eating it but you figure 'what the hey' and eat it any way and then you spend three days violently vomiting your guts up until all your left with is greenish bile dripping out of your mouth as you weakly hold on to the toilet bowl like it was some sort of life preserver and you can't eat another kebab for like, six years because even the smell makes you retch? Yeah. That's why I don't like the new Coles ad.
This makes me think "Mmm, chocolate orange."
This makes me not want to watch The Vicar of Dibley.
So Ms. French, I hope that you are not offended by my rant. It's really not about you. Coles ruined its advertising credibility and they are asking you to pick up the pieces. In a few months they will have moved on and you will be on your fabulous way. Here's to that day.
If you are the type of person who gets teary over the animals in the Optus ad you might want to get your self a tissue before watching this -
Of all the car safety campaigns I have seen this is the one that stays with me. But why? There's no blood, no gore, no dire predictions of injury - there isn't even a car.
I think it's effective because it stays away from two emotions that most safety campaigns are built around - fear and guilt. People don't like to experience fear or guilt so we push those emotions away - along with the message of the ad. We chose to believe we are bullet proof and so the predictions of horrible consequences are lost on us.
And okay, let's be honest here - in a way those 'you will kill or horribly injure yourself'' messages are kind of untrue. Not untrue in that they are a lie but untrue in that they aren't true all the time. You don't instantly crash and die because you aren't wearing a belt and the more people get away with it the more bullet proof they feel.
This campaign hits us where we live - literally as it's set in a living room. The ad doesn't say 'you will hurt yourself' or 'you will hurt some one else' or even 'you will make a hell of a mess when you hit the pavement'. All it is saying that if we were in a crash the people who love us what chose to protect us if they could. It is saying we are loved. *sniff*
Once upon a time there was an annoying ad. It was for Budget Direct Car Insurance. Although the ad was dull and it featured a woman with a 'French' accent saying 'moolala' as if it were an actual French word, people watched it believing that, like all ads, it would have its time and then be forgotten.
What they didn't know was that this ad was a pregnant ad. It was an ad that was going to crawl inside our television sets and spawn lots of other similar ads even more irritating than itself.
And now there was singing involved. And puns. I've mentioned puns.
Although it seemed there may have been some cracks developing in Michael and Michelle's relationship.
I wonder if she'll tell Michael?
Mmm. Maybe they will be ads from a broken home soon?
When I asked some friends which ad was their least favourite a few spontaneously started singing "boojay boojay" while every one in hearing distance yelled "I hate that ad." For a minute it was like being trapped in the crappiest musical of all time. Or a Glee episode.
I know lots of people who remember these ads but I don't know any one who likes them. I do get it. The song is an ear worm even if it's not enjoyable. The characters are memorable even if they're not interesting. And if there's no such thing as bad press then there's no such thing as a bad, memorable ad. But surely it's better to make an ad that is both memorable and creates positive feelings towards the service or the product?
For the most part, puns shit me. I've got to be honest - it takes me a while to get them. Do you know how many years it took me to realise that Bob Downe
was not just a person's name but was also some thing a person could do? Too many freaking years is the answer to that. Any way.
It's fair to say puns in advertising don't really grab me. I either miss it totally or it takes me far too long to 'get it' and then I resent the product for making me feel stupid. (Yes I blame the ad.) So it came as a surprise when this promotion
Ayam Legend (2008, February) Super Food Ideas, 89, 49.
wormed its way into my heart. For the record, it's a recipe promoting Ayam Lite Coconut Milk
and the promo came out at the time of the Australian release of this film -
You get it? It's a pun! And I understood it! And now I have a soft spot in my heart for Ayam products for evaaaaa! I'm not even kidding.
Seriously, I think it works like this - I am Legend was a fairly average Sci Fi/Zombie/Horror flick based on a really good book of the same name and not-at-all similar plot. So the demographic who would get that pun are fairly small - Sci Fi geeks and Will Smith fans. And I got it. I am part of that small community the headline was aimed at and now I will buy Ayam products because I feel that they too are part of my tribe. It's not loyalty to the product (because let's face it, there's bugger all difference between tinned coconut milks) but to the company. And not because they are producers of not-noticeably-worse-than-any-one-else's coconut-milk but because they are people like me. Based on one line in a magazine. Which was not created by them but by some head line writer. Which I know but which makes no difference. Ayam too easily played by half. But there it is.
If you believed the ads I would be permanently dressed in freshly laundered clothes in shades of pastel and beige. My 'messy' house would have (clean) laundry thrown on to rumpled beds and half a dozen (non broken) toys strewn around an otherwise immaculate living room. When things went wrong I would be comically frustrated - I would throw my hands up in the air and blow my fringe out of my eyes with a big ol' sigh. I would listen to Adele and watch Packed to the Rafters.
The truth is that I am dressed in clothes that range between 'was fairly fresh yesterday' and 'doesn't smell too funky after a quick spray of deodorant'. My living room is a breeding ground, not only for stupid plastic toys that I can't remember buying but also for half eaten pieces of toast, orange rinds and the mysterious, growing 'sticky patch'. When things go wrong I completely lose my shit. I listen to whatever I fancy by link surfing on You Tube. I watch Game of Thrones.
Where are my ads? Where are the ads that speak to my demographic? Am I the only half-arsed 30 some thing in the world? I'm sick of these guilt inducing advertisements about characters living in their perfect little bubble world. It doesn't make me want to buy their product. It makes me intimidated to buy the product.
It's time for advertisers to lower the bar. I don't want to have to aim high to use a product. Give me some thing that meets me where I am.
Does any one else remember this ad? I think it came out around 2007 and it was advertising a printer. Or possibly a camera? Could it even have been an ad for bouncing balls? Fuck. I don't remember. But it was an awesome ad. I used to play it on You Tube just to hear the song.
This ad was great because first of all - bouncing fucking balls! All the way down that huge, steep street in San Francisco. It was like the creators had taken this one glorious idea from your childhood and made it happen. On an epic scale. And slowed it down so you could appreciate it. And enhanced the colour. And then you didn't even get into trouble at the end!
Second of all - great song. Gave act of chaotic madness an old-school, whimsy feel. You know to actually do it would create crazy havoc on the street from people with the running and falling and cars with the crashing. In this version of reality we just get disturbed frog bouncing along with the balls. To music! Gorgeous! Whimsy! (And the frog was probably fine, right?)
How could the ad be better? Well, I guess if I remember what the ad was advertising that would be a win.
.
Oh, it was for the Sony Bravia LCD TV. Well, there you go.
The current ad for Jeep playing in Australia baffles me. It features a woman telling a man (presumably her husband or at least long term partner) that she has bought a Jeep. He responds by saying "You bought a Jeep?". She responds that that is indeed the case. She has bought a Jeep. He asks the question again. She again responds in the affirmative. He smiles. The ad ends.
I don't know much about Jeeps as a product. I seem to remember they were the car of choice in MASH episodes. Whatever. I guess the point they are making is that Jeeps are a manly car and have steering wheels, gear sticks or seat belts that a woman might find difficult to handle. Or some thing.
So I guess that's the meaning the viewer is meant to have in their mind - that even though Jeeps are manly cars a very cool and progressive type of woman might also desire to own this car and she will gain her husband's (or long term partner's) approval by doing so. (I don't think the ad is trying to suggest they have 'femmed' the Jeep up to make it more appealing to women- maybe with a fluffy pink steering wheel cover?)
This is what the ad is meant to convey. What is actually created in my mind when the ad plays is - "You bought a Jeep?" And then the unspoken question - "Why the fuck would you buy a Jeep?" And the ad never goes on to answer that question.
I think it comes down to delivery. Instead of saying "You bought a Jeep?" (which draws attention to the insulting premise of the ad) the line is delivered as "You bought a Jeep?" which sounds like it's the Jeep that is the slightly unbelievable thing rather than the person who bought it.
This advertising campaign leads me to conclude that I will not buy a Jeep for two reasons.
1) I don't know why the fuck I would buy a Jeep.
2) I couldn't stand all the idiots chanting "You bought a Jeep?" at me any time I mentioned my purchase.
Advertising is every where. Some of it's good. Some of it's bad. Occasionally it's baffling. A very large percentage is forgettable, dismissable and uninspired. All of it is expensive.
Here I am going to pull apart the ads I find the most annoying, confusing and alienating. I will laud the ads I think are the most effective, original and provocative. I will reminisce about the great ads of the past. And I invite you, gentle reader, to do the same. (And also click on the advertising stuff to the side when it's there because you have a keen sense of irony right? Right? Just click the damn link.)
