What Raza said. I have quite a lengthy boycott list I’ve made of companies whose brands I won’t buy because of their idiotic ads.
And yet you remember and can cite both the product AND the ad details some 20 years later–by the above-bolded standard, this ad should therefore not be considered a failure.
Those commercials need to just die. When somebody mentioned the reference to Juno upthread, I was reminded of everything I hated about that movie and its stupid hipster music. Whatever the reference happens to be, it’s not cute or clever. It’s creepy and annoying. And the commercial goes on for-freaking-ever. I haven’t watched it the whole way through since the first time I had the misfortune of seeing it, but I remember thinking, “OMG when will this end?”
We use Dish Network for TV and Comcast for internet. We don’t have much of a choice since we don’t have a landline at our house and are therefore limited to companies who provide cable internet. So, I guess Comcast wins.
Of course you may. Why should today be different?
I’ll go past suggestion and actually claim that. The trailers for the forthcoming Julia Roberts/Clive Owen movie “Duplicity” prompted me to make a note of the title to make sure I don’t get roped into going to see it.
I’ll tell you two that fail for me, because they feature physical grotesqueries I can’t stand. The absolute worst, that sent me scrambling for the remote, was for Sears H&R Block and how they will take a second look at your tax return. But it featured this guy with one huge eye in his forehead, instead of two eyes. I’m ok with Cyclopses with a regular size eye, but this was one HUGE eye. I couldn’t stand it and swore a mighty oath never to use their services, and maybe not to go to Sears at all.
The second is the one for the lottery, with the guy who is a little bit of luck. But instead of a proportionally shrunken person, it’s a shrunken body with a big head. Not as bad as Sears, but horrible too.
Oh, and the xBox 360 with the hideous hollowed-out human heads.
barf
The repulsive ad featuring the redhead hippy chick on a bicycle with 3 foot long underarm hair.
I don’t remember what they are selling, but whatever it is, I aint buyin’.
Speaking of, the ultimate in failed ads (my opinion anyway) was when Sonic would advertise in the Chicago area despite there not being a Sonic within 150 miles of my house. I checked online. This went on for years.
They have one in Aurora, IL now but I’m not driving clear out there for a burger. Especially not since they changed commercial casts from dopey guy/sarcastic wife to annoying kid/annoying mom.
Also, forget Denny’s. I wanna eat at whichever restaurant it is that has Nannerpuss! 
That only works if the unconscious association is a positive one. If the person takes away a negative association from the commercial, then whenever they think of the product they are going to have a negative reaction, and be less likely to purchase it, even if they can’t remember why.
I’m not sure if it’s still running but a couple months ago I was seeing a series of commercials for Microsoft which showed a succession of really grainy, web-cammy clips which seemed to feature only the super-dorkiest Microsoft users claiming “I can do blah blah blah- I’m a PC”.
OK, uber-geeks and their low-quality web cam videos… are supposed to be selling me on the idea of buying a Microsoft product. I don’t think you’re really sending the message you think you are.
Yes, I remember it, but all those commercials did was reinforce in my mind my aversion to all things Microsoft.
One of them was “I’m a PC, and I eat pancakes.” WTF? Horrible ad.
While advertising the lottery (beyond telling people how much the jackpot is, because that’s what really drives sales) has to be the stupidiest thing ever, my wife and I hate these commercials because we think the little bit of luck guy looks like a sexual predator. The guy’s real head on his real body probably looks like a sexual predator too.
Yes! They did the same thing in upstate/western New York. The nearest Sonic at the time was about 100 miles away (I checked online too) and now the nearest one is 200 miles away.
How about commercials that tell you what they are advertising, but you’re not sure why they’re advertising it. Like, “Radio is heard here. Radio is heard everywhere.”
What is Radio advertising (on radio, of course)? Is this to counter HD radio? If so, it would be nice if they’d tell is that, because I’m likely to associate HD radio as radio, but maybe better. Or are they trying to counter TV, Internet, etc? But the ads are on radio, so it’s not like they’re reaching out to a new audience. What am I missing?
The Microsoft commercials that are fake telephone interviews, where some guy is talking with a CEO. I guess the overall message is the importance of technology in business (stunning insight!), and the one commercial has a conversation with the head of Pacific Sunware or something. He’s asked “What does an economic tsunami mean to a surfing CEO?” and the CEO goes through some droll, meaningless response about using technology to “stay ahead of the wolfpack” while they show animations representing what he’s saying. At one point, the other guy says “Uh huh,” which they also represent by showing an animation that says “Uh huh.”
Everything about this commercial bugs the shit out of me. Besides not really indicating what Microsoft product is being advertised, it has this whole attitude of “I am a vital cog in the economy and the things I say have great importance for everyone listening, and the weight of the world rests firmly on my shoulders.” Computer/business people: you’re not heroes. Get over yourselves. You goddamn nerds aren’t going to bring us into some golden age of technological bliss.
And don’t forget the ad that shows the same kid SPITTING UP. Why would we want to see that in an ad???
I really like Sonic commercials, but yeah. I have never seen a Sonic in my life. Great commercials, but the restaurant may as well be mythical for all I know.
Also, I think people generally remember that the “wassssuuup” ad was for Budweiser. Back in the day when it was an internet meme, it was always “Cookie Monster/Thundercats/whoever does the Bud commercial.” The second line of the thing is, “Watchin’ the game, havin’ a Bud,” after all.
I think the commercial with the redhead with the three-foot-long armpit hair is for Axe deodorant. I’m not 100% sure because the commercial makes me recoil in horror, and I’d never buy Axe anyway.
There was a similar bad one a few months ago where they were advertising some kind of body spray that smelled like chocolate (wtf?) and this guy turned into a big chocolate version of himself and sexy women ate him as he went about his day.
Really creepy and gross.
That reminds me of the insufferable “Ask Chuck” Charles Schwab animated “real people”. “Some people are just lying there and taking it. That’s not me.” Well, fucker, if you have so much power over the market, bully for you. :rolleyes:
And the really sad ones in the face of the digital switchover: “Remember when you family would gather around two channels? Come back to local TV. We’ve been here the whole time.”
My brother is in advertising, and he contends that the “best” commercials are the ones for AFLAC insurance, because 1) they’re funny and watchable; 2) you remember the name of the product ; 3) you remember what the product does.
Those commercials make me squirm. I always wonder if they’d be as, like you say, insufferable if they ditched the weird creepy animation technique, but I’m not sure.
I LOVE Nannerpuss! Hands down, one of my favorite Super Bowl commercials of all time.
You still couldn’t pay me to eat at Denny’s, though.
Well, except that that’s not exactly what they’re doing.
Sonic has traditionally been in the southern half of the U.S., where the weather’s warm enough for enough of the year to make a drive-in work (Sonic restaurants don’t have inside service). Only now are they starting to expand into “cold-weather” markets like Chicago.
But, they’ve been in enough of the U.S. for the past few years that it’s more cost-effective for them to buy advertising on national networks (albeit mostly, if not entirely, cable networks, rather than the big broadcast networks), rather than buying ad time only in those markets where they actually operate.
If they were specifically buying ad time in Chicago for years, despite not having restaurants here, then I’d say it was a failed idea.
I also suspect that they’ve been using the fact that they’ve been running ads in markets that they don’t operate in to build awareness / interest in the brand for when they do move into those markets. They recently opened a restaurant in Bartlett (far W/NW Chicago suburb), and that place is jammed. I strongly suspect that it wouldn’t be nearly so busy if the locals hadn’t seen years of Sonic ads.