# 19 Incredibly Embarrassing Fails In Advertising **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 3, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/19-incredibly-embarrassing-fails-in-advertising/685280 "2014-04-03T18:44:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/19-incredibly-embarrassing-fails-in-advertising/685280/1 "2014-04-03T18:44:32Z")
OK. Some of [these](http://business.financialpost.com/2014/04/03/19-incredibly-embarrassing-fails-in-advertising/) are pretty funny. No need to read anything more than the juxtaposition of the story or billboard headline and the associated ad next to it. aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/19-incredibly-embarrassing-fails-in-advertising/685280/2 "2014-04-03T19:03:18Z")
Most of these compilations are lame, staged or recycled material. This one’s pretty damned funny. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/19-incredibly-embarrassing-fails-in-advertising/685280/3 "2014-04-03T19:10:40Z")
The Barbie one was particularly disturbing. What kind of person advertises ‘adult’ products on a website targeted (for the most part) to little girls? That is just strange. ---
**Author:** ![SaharaTea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SaharaTea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaharaTea)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/19-incredibly-embarrassing-fails-in-advertising/685280/4 "2014-04-03T19:36:35Z")
I laughed my ass off at the Aflac ad. I cannot believe the fear of being watched by a duck is a real thing. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/19-incredibly-embarrassing-fails-in-advertising/685280/5 "2014-04-03T19:44:18Z")
> [@Gagundathar](#): > > The Barbie one was particularly disturbing. What kind of person advertises ‘adult’ products on a website targeted (for the most part) to little girls? That is just strange. You’d be surprised how many “educational”\* game sites have questionable ads. - I put educational in quotes, because there are hundreds of sites out there with names like [iluvzmesummathgames.net](http://iluvzmesummathgames.net) that are just a collection of tower defense games and Happy Wheels knockoffs shamelessly scraped from [addictinggames.com](http://addictinggames.com) and lovingly peppered with ads. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/19-incredibly-embarrassing-fails-in-advertising/685280/6 "2014-04-03T20:09:44Z")
> [@SaharaTea](#): > > I laughed my ass off at the Aflac ad. I cannot believe the fear of being watched by a duck is a real thing. The article in question looked bizarrely serious. I couldn’t tell if it was an elaboration on the original joke or some sort of weird, written-on-autopilot (or even computer-generated) thing. Anatidaephobia is from a Far Side comic. You can find the comic and many elaborations on the theme with a quick [image search](https://www.google.com/search?q=anatidaephobia+far+side&client=ubuntu&hs=2Yp&channel=fs&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=x749U6W1CuWN4gT2y4HQCQ&ved=0CCcQsAQ&biw=1515&bih=988#channel=fs&q=%22anatidaephobia%22+far+side&tbm=isch). The Aflac ad on the page was priceless, either way. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/19-incredibly-embarrassing-fails-in-advertising/685280/7 "2014-04-03T20:33:49Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > You’d be surprised how many “educational”\* game sites have questionable ads. That’s because ads are provided by third-party sources who prize impressions more than sensibility. > [@](#): > > - I put educational in quotes, because there are hundreds of sites out there with names like [iluvzmesummathgames.net](http://iluvzmesummathgames.net) that are just a collection of tower defense games and Happy Wheels knockoffs shamelessly scraped from [addictinggames.com](http://addictinggames.com) and lovingly peppered with ads. That’s because every mope who starts a web site thinks s/he can become rich by signing up with ad pushers, and the mopes range from people who put together crappy sites just to have an anchor for said ads up to, you know, extremely popular sites with a large and intelligent user base.