# Bad marketing concepts **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 29, 2004, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-marketing-concepts/237198 "2004-03-29T23:57:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2004, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-marketing-concepts/237198/141 "2004-04-25T07:18:45Z")
> [@Sample\_the\_Dog](#): > > How about a brilliant commercial that also sucked. > > Anyone remember the “Your Cheating Heart” ad? This guy from Coke or Pepsi, I can’t remember which, is stocking the shelves in a convenience store, and Hank Williams Sr’s “Your Cheating Heart” is playing. He looks around to see if anyone is watching, then snags a bottle of the competitor’s product and drinks it. > > I still remember that one. It was brilliant. > > Know why it sucked? > > Cause I don’t know anyone who remembers which product it was advertising! It was for Pepsi. All of their Superbowl ads that year were pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![emekthian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecae2f/32.png) [@emekthian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emekthian)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2004, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-marketing-concepts/237198/142 "2004-04-25T08:15:27Z")
> [@](#): > > Quite possibly, though in my experience more girls were embarassed NOT to have their periods, with the exception being if a BOY found out you were having yours. If a BOY finds out, your life is over, you must change schools and pray he doesn’t tell anybody ever and you really should just kill yourself or something. That’s odd. I was with a mixed group of teenage girls and boys the other day, and somehow the conversation turned to menstruation. The girls seemed to have no problem discussing it around boys, nor were they fazed by the adult male who was also in the room and heard the conversation. In fact the boys were the ones who were disgusted and wanted to change the subject. Anyway, I always disliked that ad for milk with the dog licking his lips thirstily after eating peanut butter off a spoon. It disgusted me, so whenever the ad came on I turned away. That’s not a good way to make people want your product! ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2004, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-marketing-concepts/237198/143 "2004-04-25T12:52:35Z")
There is a radio ad in the area that yell’s “Stop!” in a variety of languages. If ind it annoying in the extreme and still am not sure what they are selling, although it has the “feel” of car commercial. ---
**Author:** ![International\_Playboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/48db29/32.png) [@International\_Playboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/International_Playboy)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2004, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-marketing-concepts/237198/144 "2004-04-25T16:37:43Z")
> [@voguevixen](#): > > Re: the “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” campaign…the most recent one is terrible. It shows a guy calling the front desk asking for a wake-up call and then asking “can I get that…to my cell phone?” If they left it at that, it would be a PERFECT ad. The target audience would immediately go: “oh - heh heh heh!” Instead they completely beat it to death with the guy going “hem haw, it’s my first time in Vegas, hem haw, you know, hem haw, I don’t know how late I’ll be out, hem haw, or if I’ll um, er, be back here in the morning!!! er, like you know?” It makes it look like “Vegas! If you’re a lameo panty-waist who can’t even be cool about gettin’ some - this is the town for you!” My phone has an alarm clock function, so I just assume most of the otheer modern cell phones do too. So I just wonder why the guy doesn’t just use the function on his phone if he’s going to be so embarasses to request a wake up call on a non hotel phone. I doubt the hotel would even comply with his request. My phone also has a “rescue ring” function, where you can program it to be called at a certain time to bail out of a blind date or other potentially unpleasant situation. That could be used as a wake up call too. ---
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2004, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-marketing-concepts/237198/145 "2004-04-25T18:07:56Z")
The one that bugs me that I see in the movie theaters all the time (and don’t get me started on the half-hour of commercials before the movies…) is… Hrm… [Movietickets.com](http://Movietickets.com). It has a bunch of -total- morons talking about how -anyone- is smart enough to use [movietickets.com](http://movietickets.com). They act like they have a collective IQ lower than their body temperature, and thus make me sit there and think, “Huh. Total morons use this service. Yeah, that’ll make me want to do it!” ---
**Author:** ![stately\_plump\_buck\_mulligan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/858c86/32.png) [@stately\_plump\_buck\_mulligan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stately_plump_buck_mulligan)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2004, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-marketing-concepts/237198/146 "2004-04-25T19:27:05Z")
Definitely those Carl’s Jr. “Don’t bother me, I’m eating” commercials featuring the dripping [ketchup? mayo? special sauce? whale semen?] complete with retch-inducing sound effects of mastication and whatnot. Yeah, I totally want a burger that’s thrown together so carelessly that excess fixin’s are dropped and squirted around a 30 ft radius from my person. There were a _ton_ of commercials like that, too. I cannot pass a Carl’s Jr establishment without nightmarish smack-crunch-chew-slurp-much-smack sounds replaying in my head. I don’t know anyone who found them appetizing. ---
**Author:** ![Dignan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Dignan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dignan)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2004, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-marketing-concepts/237198/147 "2004-04-25T20:48:02Z")
I’m especially puzzled by the new Coors Light ads. There are two couples sitting down to dinner, presumably on a date, and the guys notice another woman sitting at a table across the room. When they order, one of the guys “cleverly” orders using his phone number and then says his name. The woman at the other table writes it down and the guys toast each other. I’m not sure what Coors Light is trying to do with this commercial. Are they targeting womanizers? Maybe they’re going for the key homewrecker demographic. This is also along the lines of the “What happens here, stays here” campaign for Las Vegas. If you read Bill Simmons on [ESPN.com](http://ESPN.com) he goes off on what a bad idea the campaign is, because it alerts girlfriends/wives that Vegas is wild and crazy. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2004, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-marketing-concepts/237198/148 "2004-04-25T21:04:04Z")
> [@voguevixen](#): > > Then the kid proceeds to drag the urine-soaked bedding across the floors and carpets and THEN puts them DIRECTLY IN THE DRYER. :eek: I definitely missed that part. Ick. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2004, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-marketing-concepts/237198/149 "2004-04-25T21:24:05Z")
> [@emekthian](#): > > That’s odd. I was with a mixed group of teenage girls and boys the other day, and somehow the conversation turned to menstruation. The girls seemed to have no problem discussing it around boys, nor were they fazed by the adult male who was also in the room and heard the conversation. In fact the boys were the ones who were disgusted and wanted to change the subject. Well, I was a teenager in the late 80s and early 90s, so the current crop of teenage girls may have totally different ideas about discussing their periods. It’s been quite a few years since I was embarassed by the simple fact that I get periods. As for the bedwetting kid, I mostly notice that ad because of the cute dog. And do consider that there are a few older kids (including kids that age) who still wet the bed for no obvious reason. My brother was one of them (oh please don’t let him read this, I don’t think he lurks here). He finally outgrew it. There’d be no point for the mom in the ad to punish the kid for bedwetting – though putting the stuff straight in the dryer would be another story! Ewwww! ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2004, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-marketing-concepts/237198/150 "2004-04-25T21:25:01Z")
Another one that caught my eye on the side of a bus - an AIDS awareness campaign. “One in 500 people has AIDS. One in 250 people know they do.” So everybody who has AIDS knows it, and a lot of people who don’t think they do? How more aware of AIDS can you get? ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2004, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-marketing-concepts/237198/151 "2004-04-25T21:34:43Z")
> [@Ruiniform](#): > > Definitely the new McDonald’s chicken nuggets commercials. > “_Now_ with white meat!” [night\_at\_the\_apollo] White meat? What’s wrong with the DARK meat? Are they saying that white meat is better than black meat? What are they, racist? McDonalds afraid of the black meat? They afraid their girlfriends will like it better? What is white meat, anyhow? Little tiny nuggets? (audience laughs hysterically) Now, white people walk all stiff and shit, like this … [/night\_at\_the\_apollo] Seriously, several months ago I saw a billboard for the new “white meat” Chicken McNuggets. It showed several smiling white children. Uhhh … ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2004, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-marketing-concepts/237198/152 "2004-04-25T22:12:05Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > [night\_at\_the\_apollo] > > White meat? What’s wrong with the DARK meat? Leaving aside the gratuitous rockery, white meat is generally considered to be the good stuff. It’s also worth noting that McNuggets have _always_ contained light-coloured meat. Saying they’re now putting it in is an admission that they’ve been deceiving their customers for twenty years or more. ---
**Author:** ![jhinman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/779978/32.png) [@jhinman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jhinman)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2004, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-marketing-concepts/237198/153 "2004-04-26T02:38:17Z")
Two comericals that have always bugged me: The HP commercial where you see two guys in a small restaurant and a computer pointer picks one of them up and drags him through a couple of tables and out the door. It then drags him over a car and throws him into a paddy wagon. It ends with HP say how HP technology used by law enforcement. I all ways thought they were endorsing police brutality. The other is the Dell commercial where everyone is going to boot camp and Dell says you don’t need to learn these fancy terms, just call them and they will tell you what they needed. Yes remain stupid and let our salesmen show you the right computer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-marketing-concepts/237198.md?page=7)