I got a good laugh today while waiting for a prescription refill. A display was placed next to the counter that said the following:
"Buy Maalox Plus and Get A Free Pizza!
Madison Ave. just has no shame whatsoever, do they?
So what are some of your favorite advertising malapropisms, ill-advised comparisons, etc.?
It was a TV ad for Lindor Balls (a chocolate offering from Lindt - not salty). Clearly the advertisment had been made to be dubbed in a variety of languages; the spoken part went something like:
Switzerland has a chocolate heart called Lindt
Lindt has a chocolate heart called Lindor.
Lindor has a melting chocolate heart and when you taste it, the chocolate goes straight to your heart.
I’m sure they didn’t mean me to be thinking of clogged arteries, but I couldn’t help it.
I have an ad for an Immodium promotion saved on my hard drive. What’s it promoting? Why, their giveaway of a free trip to Mexico!
Well, it’s kinda hard to beat Taco Bell’s current promotion.
Buy their food and you have a chance (!?) to get free gas.
Ferrara Pan, makers of Boston Baked Beans and Lemonheads, used to put the slogan “Candy is delicious food–enjoy some every day” on their candy packages. That seemed excessive to me.
And Merle Norman cosmetics used to run a radio ad in which the announcer said “At Merle Norman, get your hair cut free–for $50 dollars.” That always cracked me up when I was a kid.
Some product or other had a commercial that contained the words “Being a woman means always being in motion,” which always seemed like the most outrageous pandering ever.
There’s a similar one now for a brand of water, in which they say, “Don’t you wish your water worked as hard as you do?” I’m still not finished thinking about all the possible ways to look at that one.
One ad I keep seeing in theaters (before the film is shown) is this thing about Starburst candy. It seems to be that they’re calling it “butt candy”.
It’s a very strange ad, showing some guy’s butt in jeans. I thought the ad was for the jeans, but at the end (no pun intended), he pulls a package of Starburst out of his back pocket and the screen text says something about it being your butt’s best friend, or something equally absurd. I’m at a loss on this one.
Not advertising so much as a business name:
Jack Doff Real Estate
(circa 1970 in Five Dock, Sydney. My dad swears it existed)
I was walking past a greeting card store the other day. It’s one of those stores that has tchotchkes over every square inch of the place. The sign in the window: “Wall Sale–Buy One Get One Free.” My first thought was, “At least they only have to make two sales.”
I like the current Chupa Chups ads:
GOOD FOR YOUR KIDS!!! NO FAT! 100% ALL NATURAL GLUCOSE!!
Ah…you’re advertising the fact the things are pure sugar as “good”??
Chefguy, I saw that one recently and was wondering what the hell it was about…
I enjoy reading the ads in the New Yorker’s margins and imaging the person who needs Gorilla Glue, fine jewelry, some cocktail piano CDs, rental accomodations in England and a psychiatric hospital, and moreoever would buy them because they saw an ad in a magazine.
Speaking of movies and the ads before them, has anyone seen the Joe Boxer one? It has a bunch of people who are supposed to be teenagers (they look mid-20’s) dancing around to a song. The only lyrics: “There’s more to life than underwear.”
Very strange.
Anybody old enough to remember the old Mitchum Deoderant ads?
Dude lolling in a bed with silk sheets: “I didn’t use a deoderant today…and I may not tomorrow…because I’m really dry.” Hello: does the word “shower” ring a bell?
I remember an infomercial for an Excercise Machine that used rubber bands for resistance. The deep-voiced voice talent called them “ELAST-O-MATIC POWER STRAPS.” I felt transported to the fifties for some reason.
And the Pizza Hut commercials lately with Queen Latifah telling us that we can get a crappy movie on DVD if only we “gather 'round the good stuff” just slays me.
Anybody else chortle at the ‘nads’ infomercials? I remember the first time my friend and I saw this, when watching TV at 3 AM.
“Switch to nads and see what you’re missing!”
LMAO