Commercials try to get you to do something, usually buy a particular item. What commercials make you want to do the exact opposite?
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There’s an anti-drug ad campaign out there that essentially tells parents: “You smoked pot when you were in college. Now you don’t want to prohibit your kids from doing it, because you’ll feel like a hypocrite. Well, you are a hypocrite. But do it anyway, mmmmkay?” Someone please explain to me how this encourages parents to keep their kids off drugs.
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Next, a Carl’s Jr. ad depicting a live chicken. The voice-over tells the chicken to do a variety of tasks, but the chicken just stands there. Then, “There’s only one thing a chicken is good for: eating.” I do not need to be reminded that the food I’m eating was once a living being, thank you!
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Finally, I just saw an ad showing two vending machines, one for Coke and another for Diet Pepsi. Right off the bat, you know this is going to be about the rivalry between the two, and the commercial is going to convince you that one of them is better, just like the endless Miller vs. Budweiser ads. Anyway, a truck comes and takes the Coke machine away, replacing it with an ad for some variation on Coke (Coke with Splenda, I think). Then another truck comes and replaces that one with one that says “Coke zero” or something. At this point, I honestly didn’t know if the message was “Coke keeps changing, so there’s a huge variety for you to choose from. Anything you want, Coke’s got it! Meanwhile, Pepsi just stays the same. How boring.” or “Pepsi has a flavor that hasn’t changed in a long time, because we know you like it just the way it is. Coke, on the other hand, is constantly redefining itself because they haven’t yet found a taste that people actually like. Silly old Coke. Why not pick one good flavor and stick with it?” Plus, both companies have come out with a variety of different flavors, so they’re really not distinguishing themselves very well anyway. Just as an experiment, if you have seen the ad, use spoiler boxes, and if you haven’t, guess from my description (or perhaps other Dopers’ descriptions, if I left anything out or whatever) which beverage was being advertised.