A poll about bad commercials

It seems like whenever a thread is started here about bad commercials - you know, “Which ads do you most hate?” or “Which commercials are the worst?” - within the first few posts, someone brings up the accepted wisdom: “Ah ha! But you’re talking about the ad, so even if you hate it, it’s worked!”

Personally, I think this is a load of crap, since I go out of my way to avoid products or businesses that annoy me with their advertising. I think it’s a nice little fable the advertising industry made up to make themselves feel better with no real data to back it up. But since it comes up so often, I thought I’d poll the boards and see who agrees.

So, how about it? Are bad ads effective, or not? I’m curious.

It’s not just a little fable. The vast majority of people do not make a conscious choice not to buy something because they don’t like the commercials. If I had a reason to believe it worked, I would probably buy Head-On and apply it directl to my forehead. I hate the commercials, but I hate headaches more. Also, if were diabetic and had that toenail thing, I would be asking my doctor about it before the week was out.

“This is Ouuuur Cuntry…!”

I think there’s some truth to “At least they’ll remember the name.” Honestly, if I have to choose between nearly identical products, with no good reasons to take one over the others, I’ll give the edge to the one I’ve heard of before. I can’t be the only person who thinks that way.

It’s been nearly twenty years since I worked in advertising, but things haven’t changed all that much on the creative front. Some “bad” commercials work, some don’t. If they don’t, most companies don’t have the financial luxury to continue to run them. Good agencies and advertisers test ads in certain markets before rolling them out nationally, and track the results carefully. If you continue to see an ad or a campaign over any length of time, it’s because it’s having some positive effect on sales, or mind share, or whatever metric the advertiser is trying to move. I’m sure there are exceptions – stupid companies with enough money or credit to continue with something that’s not working – but they’re not that common.

There’s also very little correlation between what people claim they think of an ad or ad campaign and how they behave at the cash register.

I remember the commercials, and I talk about them, so that I can publicly mock them. Stupid advertisers. Stupid manufacturers hiring stupid advertisers to try and advertise their stupid products.

Yes, I can hear you now, but it’s not because I bought your stupid phone.
Yes, I save a bunch of money, because I don’t buy your stupid pizza.
No, I don’t have to worry about a viking horde attacking my village, because they’re gone.

Meh. I think advertising tends to affect me more negatively than positively.

It’s most pronounced with annoying or insulting ads, of course – even if Axe Body Spray compared favourably with the best cologne available, there’s no way in hell I could bring myself to purchase it, because the marketing is so aweful. Even if it didn’t objectively stink, choosing to use it would signify that I was a crass and tasteless idiot, stupid enough to believe that women are even more brainless than me. No thanks.

Apart from that, saturation campaigns turn me right off. I’d rather buy from a company where a larger percentage of the overhead costs go into the product.

It’s not just that the Dell dude puts a hair up my ass, I’m too conscious of the fact that every dollar that went into forcing the character into the public imagination (not to mention placing multi-page ads in print media) is a dollar that isn’t available for better components or service. “Dude, you’re subsidizing irritation!”

Of course you’re not in the target demographic for Axe. Funny you should mention deodorant, though. For 25 years, I’ve used nothing but Speed Stick. Which is, of course, made

by Mennen

I like entertaining ads, and there are some that make me dive for the mute button. I do avoid some products because of their ads, notably Bud Light. I don’t know why they want to portray their customers as devious and/or dimwitted.

Most of the time, I don’t decide to make a buy based on an ad. I know the Aflac duck’s quack does not gecko, but I don’t buy his insurance. Most of the ads for foods are for stuff I wouldn’t buy anyway. When I bought a digi camera, it wasn’t based on the advice of a cute tennis player. I have never “asked my doctor” if some heavily advertised drug “was right for me.” I trust my doctor to choose the apropriate drug for me.

I almost always remember the ad, but I almost never remember the product it was for, who the manufacturer was, or where I could get whatever it was…

Not that it’s difficult to avoid their product, but I haven’t eaten McDonald’s since they started their horrid “I’m lovin it” ad campaign (they have great fries and shakes, though). Also, not quite in the same boat, but everytime I see a “Truth” commercial, I feel inclined to smoke another cigarette, despite how recently my last one was smoked.

Carl’s Jr. hamburger television ads are about the most demeaning I can find. I used to think they were directed at Neanderthals but they go lower than that. I don’t care how good their food may be; I will not patronize them at all.

I’m that way a lot of the time as well.

If I find the commercial annoying I will often choose to not buy from the company. I do not let that be the only way I make my decisions, but yes, if the commercial bothers me I won’t buy from there. Often the response to this is: You probably are’t in the target demographics. But I am definitely in the target demographics for Dell and even now, years after that annoying Dell dude I still have negative connotations associated with Dell products because of him. Will I refuse to buy because of him? Well, refuse is a big word. I would need a very compelling reason to buy from them though.

Personally, I believe that this old canard is nonsense. As I said in another thread, it is *neccesary *for a commercial to make you remember the product. Sometimes it is also sufficient. But it is not *always *sufficient. Many times it also has to make you want to buy the product.

Well, obviously not. The most important part of the commercial’s demographic is “swayed by this advertising,” and something about porridge.
If you’ve seen the ad enough to remember how much you hate it, then the best bet is that it’s working. It would have been pulled, otherwise, and replaced with something that appeals to a larger number of people.

Bad ads make me hate the product.
I will NEVER use Vonage because of their annoying coo-coo coo-coo song.

Of course it works. One of the longest running ad campaigns in history was also one of the most hated: the Wisk “ring around the collar” campaign, which went on for over 15 years. Everyone hated it. But if it wasn’t selling Wisk, why did they continue it?

The entire purpose of TV advertising is to make you remember the product’s name. Ad agencies know they aren’t going to convince people to immediately run out and buy their product.* Coke is one of the most widely advertised products in the world, but when was the last time you saw one of their ads and said, “I need to get some right now!”?

At the very best-case scenario, you may go out the next day and purchase something. But, more likely, you will be in a store and come upon the item and realize you’ve heard of it.

So if an ad makes you remember the product, then it’s doing its job. An annoying commercial may turn off some people (many of which wouldn’t buy the product anyway), but it makes the brand name stick in the mind of everyone.

And when people see the product a month after seeing the ad, they will remember the name and pick it up (if only to scoff). If the product looks good to them in the store, they will buy it despite hating the ad. Few people would say, “This is exactly what I need at a very good price – but I’ll buy the more expensive and inferior brand because they have better advertisements.”

A clever ad can grant name recognition, too, of course. But clever ads are hard to make, and don’t necessarily work (everyone loved the Joe Isuzu ads, but they didn’t sell cars). Everyone know that “Apply directly to forehead” ad** – it’s annoying as hell, evidently, but the product is selling.

*In general. There are exceptions, generally advertisements for a sale (“It’s Macy’s three-day sale!” “The Toyota Sales Event ends soon!”) or for items sold by phone ("If you call in the next ten minutes, . . . ")
**Except for me, it seems – I may have seen it once, and it didn’t stick in my mind then.

Bad auto dealer commercials, or auto dealers that absolutely saturate the market with their ads (Billy Fuccillo and Pat Gambino dealers in western New York state, for example) - I’ve made a personal pledge never to patronize such businesses. The one time I needed a lawyer, I went out of my way to find one that didn’t advertise on television or have a Yellow Pages ad with a stock photo featuring a phalanx of blue-suited men and women.

I do have a personal boycott against advertisers using male-bashing cliches in their commercials, but because the theme is so common, it’s hard to remember which ones use them.

I don’t think the “Ring around the collar” campaign was terribly obtrusive or annoying – but there’s no mystery as to why it was so successful. It used the most predictably successful marketing approach yet devised: Make your campaign about increasing consumers’ insecurities, and linking your product with the solution. Any time a phrase describing a source of(previously novel) consumer anxiety creeps into general usage, there’s a successful product attached to it, and paranoia-inducing “whisper plays” are the best way to get there. The once-cryptic “B.O.,” “split ends,” “visible panty line,” etc. These are things consumers used to be much more relaxed about.

These ads don’t sell by entertaining, as popular ads seem to do – they make us uncomfortable. “Poor Jenny doesn’t even know she has HALITOSIS!” Wait a minute – is my breath fresh enough? Are my teeth white enough? Are my pores tight enough? Well, just to be sure…

Really? When was the last time you saw the Dell dude?

But I do want that job. If it doesn’t work, all I have to do is say you weren’t part of the demographic. If you point out that you are indeed you ARE part of the demographic all I have to do is say: Obviously not, else it would have worked. Fool proof!

So who do *you *think Dell wants as a customer?