ad men: does this crap really sell a product?

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
#1

Has anyone else noticed a trend lately, of commercials featuring men, sitting on the toilet with their pants around their ankles?
I find this very disturbing. Who decided that the general public would more readily buy a product if someone is taking a dump to pitch it?

Just this evening I saw one with Santa in one stall and a guy in the next (don’t even know what they were selling). Maybe it all started with, was it Jenny McCarthy on the john, selling candies shoes?

These commercials just bug me!
The imagination factor is enough for me to boycott whatever they are selling. But maybe I am just too old fashioned.
Meg

#2

Commercials and almost all other kinds of advertisements are so very expensive that they have to work.

Very few companies can afford to do commercials for “fun” (but there are a few) and even test them and/or the concept before paying for TV air time.

I haven’t seen those potty-ads. Doesn’t sound too exciting to me, either.

#3

Maybe they figure it’s an experience everyone can identify with.

#4

Smeggy may have hit on it when she asked if Jenny McCarthy “started” it.
There are not that many innovators in the ad business right now. And an old rule seems to have returned: If someone makes a mistake it’s only a matter of time before someone else imitates it.
I don’t think most men identify john-time with deep conversation…but with deep concentration on the sports section.

#5

And every one of THOSE guys should request a pamphlet from a hemroidectomy doc. It reads like your worst nightmare.

#6

You answered your own question. There are cases where annoying ads work, but you have to remember the product for that to happen.

#7

You think that trend is annoying. Remember when prescription drug companies weren’t allowed to tell you what they were selling?

“I’m walkin’ on sunshine… Ow! Ow! Oo! Ee! Ouch! Hot! Hot! Hot! Ie!”

-BrainWeasel

Squeaks from BrainWeasel’s Cage
http://brainweasel.home.att.net

#8

Anyone remember Howard Stern’s famous and/or infamous New Years Eve show where the music soared, the glitter flashed, the curtain rose and there he was on the can? Hmmmm. Always ahead of his time. But of course what he was selling was satire.

Sorry folks, messy synapses here, but I keep flashing back on Chief Scott’s Xenical topic.
Now that would be an advertising moment to treasure.

Good topic, Smeggy. I guess this stuff sells, because a lot of research and marketing goes into it, besides obscene amounts of money. The mind boggles, though, over what is to come. Think (carefully) of those coy ads for “jock itch” and “feminine hygiene” and “I feeellll good” laxatives.

Shuddering,
Veb

#9

smeggy, that commercial you saw was selling a wrestling video game. The guy in the other stall is “The Rock”, a famous wrestler.