Random Monday- the advertising edition
Mad Men is one of my favorite shows. Not just for the great writing and fashion (although that doesn’t hurt)but because I like the behind the scenes view of the advertising world. I admire good ads. What I don’t understand is why so many are so very, very bad.
There is a TV commercial for a company called Stamps.com. It allows you to buy US Postage stamps online rather than having to go to the post office. I can see this as a useful service. However their ad drives me insane. They have a person saying: “Is there ANYTHING worse than having to wait in line at the post office for stamps?” Hmmm I don’t know. Cancer? Cancer strikes me as worse. That flesh eating disease- that would be worse. Running over a loved one with a lawn mower. Getting your hand stuck in the garbage disposal. Famine. This is what I have just off the top of my head. If I thought about it for awhile I could really come up with things that would be worse. Say, having zombies suck your brains out of your ears.
I can’t stand the ads where they make common things look REALLY complicated. So awful and complicated that it is a wonder we survive as a human race. They’ll make things like putting Tupperware away seem on par in difficulty with constructing your own thermo-nuclear device. Another example, they’ll show someone cutting a tomato with what appears to be basically a spoon. The tomato explodes in a spray of tomato goo and the actor makes an expression of disgust and frustration. Then they introduce their new swanky tomato slicing device. In my opinion of you can’t cut a veggie without it exploding you shouldn’t be allowed to touch sharp objects.
I also loathe the ads where a woman has to deal with her husband who is clearly severely brain damaged. He’ll make some moronic decision involving laundry or cleaning and the wife will shake her head with a patient “do you see what I have to put up with” smile. If you are married to someone that terminally stupid having “whiter whites” is the least of your problems.
Given what they spend on advertising I’m thinking they could do better. What’s your least fav ad?
October 1st, 2012 at 7:40 am
Ads are probably the biggest reason I don’t watch TV.
October 1st, 2012 at 8:03 am
Oh, there are SO many… probably easier for me to choose which ads I actually LIKE–
However, I think one of my absolute least favorite ads is the Cars.com commercial w/ the singing hair lady.
Creeps me right the hell out.
October 1st, 2012 at 9:15 am
I saw the same ad and said almost the SAME THING TO MY HUSBAND!
I believe my list was, “gee I don’t know, getting your food run over by a lawnmover, dealing with AIDS, losing a child, having your house burn down, a brain tumour, ALL THOSE ARE WORSE…”
I don’t know who approved that ad. I worked in an ad agency in the 80s and I know the copy passes through a lot of people before it hits the airwaves or newspaper, so clearly a whole posse of people were asleep at their jobs. Or they are all idiots.
I’m going with the second option.
Pam
October 1st, 2012 at 9:29 am
I haven’t seen that ad, but I’ve seen take-offs of ads like that on SNL.
Since I got a DVR, I almost never see ads anymore… but I particularly hate the “We’ll buy your gold!” ads. Oh, and in the bigger budget division… I am not a fan of those Axe Body spray ads. (Or any ad that encourages teen boys to spray themselves with gallons of hideous smelling perfume.)
Also remembering a series of ads where a teen was made of chocolate and people were eating him. Gross. (Was that also an Axe product??)
October 1st, 2012 at 12:14 pm
Febreeze ones where they put people in toxic environments that they’ve “Frebreezed” and have them take big breaths. All I can see is mold in lungs and fungus and stuff you really really don’t want to have breathed in. Don’t we have noses so we can -avoid- nastiness? Sort of Punked for housekeepers.
Remember, however, that the client gets the last word, so no matter how wonderful the campaigns the agency might dream up, the client is the one who insists on ugly. And somehow they manage to do so time after time after time. (shudder)
October 1st, 2012 at 2:44 pm
Ha! Love this, Eileen.
Some of the best ads follow the same script. “Are you tired of (mundane task we never really thought of before)? Does your (stump hand prohibit you from opening a jar / colon clench at the mere though of exerting more energy than you absolutely must)? Introducing (the Made-in-China product you can’t live without, despite living without it for years!) But wait! There’s more! If you call within the next (sixty seconds), we’ll DOUBLE your order! Just pay shipping and handling of ($29.99)…..and you too can slowly die of lead poisoning / get your name proactively added to the anticipated lawsuit / build your hoard / crawl deeper into debt.”
I did find the recent ad for skin-tag remover amusing. And I love the name “Salonpas!” Because in my mind, nothing says pain removal like “salon” and “pas.”
October 1st, 2012 at 3:07 pm
Pretty much any of those one-trick children’s toys that’s advertised as “HOURS OF FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY!!!!!!!!!1!!!” Twenty bucks plus shipping and handling, and you wind up with a thing that sits in a box forever.
Whatever-they-call those kids’ slippers that encourage children to stomp through the house because the ears flap or something.
Snuggies. It’s not really that difficult to put on socks and a sweater if you’re cold.
And most of all, commercials geared at women when it’s obvious they were written by someone who takes ’80s sitcoms as their model for women’s behaviour patterns. -__-
October 4th, 2012 at 8:38 pm
Well, I’m not sure this counts, since it isn’t an ad that is widely available…and I also am not sure it qualifies as an ad, but here goes:
There is a billboard in the middle of nowhere that I see every time I leave my parents’ home in Wyoming, that says something to the effect of, “Travel Highway 89. It’s the fastest, SAFTEST route from Star Valley to Salt Lake City.” Yes, SAFTEST. It drives me bananas. And makes it seem like Star Valley-ites (like moi) are ding-bats. We may be ding-bats, but we don’t need everyone to know it.
October 4th, 2012 at 8:39 pm
Can I also say that my FAVORITE ads are the new “Old Spice” ads? They are hilarious!