# Commercials that fail **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 15, 2009, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562 "2009-03-15T23:00:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562/41 "2009-03-16T23:02:20Z")
Oh, yeah, and Burger King really tanked when they brought out the Creepy King. Waking up in the morning with a Creepy King in my bed? Not endearing me to your product. I don’t eat at McDonalds by choice, and though I kinda like Whoppers, I haven’t eaten at BK in a long time, one reason being the Creepy King. I also don’t like the Texas commercials they did with the “Texas Whopper”, and how you couldn’t get a “Texas Whopper” anywhere but Texas. It was Whopper with mustard instead of ketchup and maybe some other silly thing I wouldn’t want on a burger. The point being, they drive to Arkansas and as for a “Texas Whopper” and get puzzled responses. Dude, the whole point of BK is “Have it your way”, tell them what you want on your Whopper and they’ll make it for you, so how does giving one type of sandwich a local name and some other locality not knowing the local name mean anything? You’re countering your own friggin’ slogan! ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562/42 "2009-03-16T23:04:50Z")
Can I indulge in a moment of superiority over all y’all? I don’t have a TV. I only watch DVDs. I live in a better universe than ALL of you. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562/43 "2009-03-16T23:21:34Z")
About eight or ten years ago, there was a radio commercial which might just have been regional. Anyway, I think it was a 15-second spot, the first ten seconds of which was children laughing. You’d just hear this really creepy laughing for 10 seconds, then the plug for whatever the hell it was. It was almost universally hated. Once, I heard a radio station play the ad, and when the DJ came back on, he said something like, “Sorry I didn’t prepare you for the laughing kids ad. I’ll make sure to give you a warning next time.” Yeah, when even the DJs can’t help but make fun of the ad, it’s a failure. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562/44 "2009-03-17T00:12:44Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > The new filet o fish ad for McDonalds fails. How could a talking fish make you want to eat a fish sandwich? But it is an effective earwig: “Give me that filet of fish, give me that fish” “Give me that filet of fish, give me that fish”:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562/45 "2009-03-17T00:17:54Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > Can I indulge in a moment of superiority over all y’all? I don’t have a TV. I only watch DVDs. > > I live in a better universe than ALL of you. What do you watch your DVD’s on? And have you ever been locked on watching the previews before reaching the menu? Same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562/46 "2009-03-17T00:21:23Z")
Earlier today I saw a commercial for a razor aimed at women that had scenes of women performing various activities in places that prominently featured well-pruned shrubbery in nice geometric shapes. Get it? Nicely-trimmed bushes? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562/47 "2009-03-17T00:45:59Z")
> [@Unintentionally\_Blank](#): > > What do you watch your DVD’s on? > > And have you ever been locked on watching the previews before reaching the menu? > > Same thing. My “TV” is hooked up only to my DVD player; there’s no “tele” to my “vision,” it’s strictly a monitor. And so far I’ve never come across a disc that doesn’t let you at least fast forward through the previews, which I almost always do. (If I actually had a disc that wouldn’t allow me to fast forward, I think I’d probably turn the screen off and go to the bathroom or something.) Besides, NO ONE here is suggesting that movie previews are in ANY way in the same class as the horrific commercials being bemoaned in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562/48 "2009-03-17T01:33:23Z")
> [@zagloba](#): > > It’s a _Juno_ ripoff. The animation is in the style of the opening credits while the songs are in the style of the Moldy Peaches in the soundtrack. If the ads had come out a year ago, they would have been surfing on the success of the movie. Now they’re just lame. Thanks for explaining that, **zagloba**. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562/49 "2009-03-17T01:56:07Z")
> [@cwthree](#): > > With its recent ads featuring people chanting in monosyllabic monotone while walking through a surreal, game-like landscape, Comcast has pretty much guaranteed that our household will never use that service, even if it means giving up TV and communicating by smoke signals and postcards. > > ETA: Can someone explain these ads to me, anyway? I’m not a complete cultural illiterate, but I don’t get about 100% of the references in there. These ads actually hit on a variety of references. They’re uber-clever, but just annoying enough that I dislike them. The people walking around their isometric houses is actually a quasi-reference to the video game **The Sims**. You can see it when some of the commercials have a mouse cursor making things change or appear. Other times, the wide shots are inspired by the **Richard Scarry Busy Town** children’s books. The **Juno** references are incidental to the visuals, although I can see it in the music. But again, clever alone doesn’t get people to buy (especially since Comcast doesn’t even operate anywhere near where I live) and the ads are basically failures. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562/50 "2009-03-17T02:46:54Z")
For the duration of those wretched “Subway Dinner Theatre” ads featuring Jon Lovitz, Subway didn’t get any of my money. Even if I was in the mood for Subway and it was convenient, I ate something else. Advertising FAIL. The whole “but you remember the product” spiel doesn’t work on me. I boycott bad advertising. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562/51 "2009-03-17T02:53:05Z")
I think we can conclude that TV advertising has just about given up on anyone with half a brain as their target market and are now only trying to sell to the dim, the excitable, and the suggestible among us. In fact they may even have adopted the policy of having members of these groups develop the creative. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562/52 "2009-03-17T03:04:16Z")
> [@Max\_the\_Immortal](#): > > For the duration of those wretched “Subway Dinner Theatre” ads featuring Jon Lovitz, Subway didn’t get any of my money. Even if I was in the mood for Subway and it was convenient, I ate something else. Advertising FAIL. > > The whole “but you remember the product” spiel doesn’t work on me. I boycott bad advertising. And now they’ve switched to a real winner, the ultra-annoying “$5 foot long” jingle. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562/53 "2009-03-17T03:17:27Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > I think we can conclude that TV advertising has just about given up on anyone with half a brain as their target market and are now only trying to sell to the dim, the excitable, and the suggestible among us. In fact they may even have adopted the policy of having members of these groups develop the creative. Well, yes and no. I think they’ve given up on actually selling anything to a conscious human brain, and instead are focusing on simply trying to make something, anything, stick to the reptile brain, or whatever they’re calling it nowadays. For all the people in this thread who insist that such tactics don’t work on them, well, that’s why they call it the unconscious mind. You wouldn’t know if it did. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562/54 "2009-03-17T03:25:48Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > For that matter, the “Whaaasssssuppppppppp!” commercials that were the biggest thing of the late 90s- how many people can remember what company they were for? Budweiser. ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562/55 "2009-03-17T03:41:44Z")
Really? I could have sworn they were for Pepsi. Guess that proves the point. ---
**Author:** ![Shawn1767](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shawn1767](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shawn1767)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562/56 "2009-03-17T03:59:40Z")
Whenever one of these discussions comes up about whether an ad “works” I remember what a marketing teacher told me in college. “If you don’t like or “get” an ad, it’s because you’re not part of the target audience.” So, it’s not whether you find some ads failing that’s the marketer’s problem, maybe it’s that you are not who they are targeting. I think the population of the SDMB is probably old enough to already have most of its brand loyalties in place. No matter what kind of great ad someone at Pepsi comes up with, a Coke drinker is NOT going to drink Pepsi. So, the ad people have to go after the market that hasn’t established a brand preference yet. I’m sorry to say that the reason a lot of us find that ads don’t work or that they fail is simply because we are not the “cool,” “hip” target audience any more. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562/57 "2009-03-17T04:46:00Z")
> [@Shawn1767](#): > > Whenever one of these discussions comes up about whether an ad “works” I remember what a marketing teacher told me in college. “If you don’t like or “get” an ad, it’s because you’re not part of the target audience.” So, it’s not whether you find some ads failing that’s the marketer’s problem, maybe it’s that you are not who they are targeting. I think the population of the SDMB is probably old enough to already have most of its brand loyalties in place. No matter what kind of great ad someone at Pepsi comes up with, a Coke drinker is NOT going to drink Pepsi. So, the ad people have to go after the market that hasn’t established a brand preference yet. I’m sorry to say that the reason a lot of us find that ads don’t work or that they fail is simply because we are not the “cool,” “hip” target audience any more. Furthermore, beer companies know that brand loyalty to beer is very strong, and that market share is very stable. Instead of trying to get people to switch brands (“Our beer tastes the best.”), they generally find it more effective to increase overall consumption (“Drink more beer!”) even if their competitors also benefit. They in turn benefit from their rivals’ advertising. That’s why beer ads are more often about parties and keeping the good times rolling than they are about the actual beer. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562/58 "2009-03-17T12:07:44Z")
> [@Shawn1767](#): > > I’m sorry to say that the reason a lot of us find that ads don’t work or that they fail is simply because we are not the “cool,” “hip” target audience any more. Dagnabit! ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562/59 "2009-03-17T12:48:22Z")
> [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#): > > [This](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRAhyl1fC4w) commercial is for you. That’s hilarious, but it shows what I’m talking about. Don’t these advertisers (IKEA aside) know that there are lots of kids movies that take inanimate objects and give them feelings? The tossed aside mop would be the hero in a Disney or Pixar movie, and the Swiffer would be the evil villain. With the romantic music, it also makes me wonder just what that lady is using the mop for :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562/60 "2009-03-17T13:37:18Z")
Several posters have mentioned specifically and intentionally not buying a product because of the ads. For me, it’s anything promoted by **Bill Mays**. I’m sure his ads are considered a “success” (his product sales and brand awareness increased), but he’ll never get my dimes - solely because of the obnoxiousness of his voice. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-that-fail/489562.md?page=4)