# Commercials with the opposite effect **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 25, 2005, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011 "2005-07-25T04:59:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011/41 "2005-07-25T18:27:42Z")
There was an old commercial that began with (paraphrased from memory), “Scientists are trying to discover the cause of global warming,” with a visual of anorak-bedecked nerds boating around an iceberg. Then the image cuts to a burger: “It’s all the sizzling burgers at Hardee’s!” Uh, no shit, Hardee’s: [flatulence from cattle](http://www.cgfi.org/materials/articles/2005/april_01_05.htm) and [deforestation of the Amazon to feed the US beef demand](http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_3540000/newsid_3546300/3546395.stm) **is** a cause of global warming. Might not want to emphasize your product’s environmental damage in the commercials. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![lhovis73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecd19e/32.png) [@lhovis73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lhovis73)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011/42 "2005-07-25T18:34:19Z")
I’ve always been put off by those idiotic “image is nothing, thirst is everything, obey your thirst” Sprite ads. The ads seem to want to teach consumers a lesson about how ads can be overly flashy, deceptive, superficial, etc., but the ads depend on the consumer not being smart enough to recognize that Sprite itself is selling a particular image here. And I wonder, too, what thirst-quenching properties Sprite imagines itself as having, which sets it apart from all other beverages. If I were to “obey my thirst,” I’d just drink water all the time, wouldn’t I? what did people do to “obey their thirst” before Sprite came along? were they just thirsty all the time? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011/43 "2005-07-25T18:36:09Z")
> [@Push You Down](#): > > …ummm… Well, they quite possibly did know… And if you’re doing an ANTI-drug ad… You probably realize that people who USE drugs think drugs in general are a good thing… So the point of the ad is “This is is your brain, a nice calm egg… this is your brain freaking out, broken and getting fried… Does that look like something you want to do to your brain?” Well, perhaps it was just me (and my friends of that time period) but whenever I saw that ad, all I could see was a raw (e.g. gross) egg being cooked into a delicious and much more preferable fried egg. Thus, the association that the ad left in my mind was that drugs tended to _improve_ your mental state. Certainly not what the “just say no” crowd intended. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011/44 "2005-07-25T18:45:50Z")
THIS IS YOUR BRAIN. THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON DRUGS. MMM…FRIED BRAINS! It wouldn’t have been any more effective, but it would’ve made me happier. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011/45 "2005-07-25T19:04:49Z")
> [@Push You Down](#): > > …“If you can find a better car… buy it.” > > Thanks for the advice Lee… I think I will. You’re missing the bigger mistake in their ads. In the one with his granddaughter, he gives a list of the attributes of the cars, then asks her, what’s missing. She replies: “A great deal.” Yes, Lee, there _is_ a great deal missing from what you’re saying. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011/46 "2005-07-25T19:08:05Z")
> [@](#): > > that they have to resort to subtle racism to compete. They actually do have a point (not that it helps them make better trucks): Japan is not a place you see a whole lot of pickups around. Anyway, my vote goes for the creepy anti-cable piracy commercials. Asiude from being badly done, the worst one features a girl telling her entire class on her feather’s cable theft on parent day. Then the next boy comes up and talls everyone how his father puts bad peope in jail as a grim-looking officer looks menacingly at the girl’s father. Then it tells oyu how to report cable theft anonymously. I always have a weird desire to steal a cable box, despite already having cable, after these commercials. ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011/47 "2005-07-25T19:12:51Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > I give up, what’s the Japanese word for “pickup truck”? I can’t think of one. > [@scr4](#): > > I give up, what’s the Japanese word for “pickup truck”? I can’t think of one. Well, there’s [軽トラック](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/search.php?MT=%B7%DA%A5%C8%A5%E9%A5%C3%A5%AF&kind=je). (basically, kei torakku, “torakku” is just "truck with a Japanese accent. It means a light truck. [They](http://w2.avis.ne.jp/~yanagi/tag_01/my_car/samba/sanba01_640x480.jpg) look a littel different form an American pickup truck tho’. The cab is more like a delivery van and the truck bed is lower. And they’re not something you would drive for personal use like the trucks here. ---
**Author:** ![lhovis73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecd19e/32.png) [@lhovis73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lhovis73)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011/48 "2005-07-25T19:33:54Z")
Speaking of the “this is your brain on drugs” ad, remember the follow-up ad, with the woman smashing up her kitchen with a frying pan? The subtle argument of this ad seemed to be: your brain on drugs is not like an egg in a frying pan, but rather, like a crazy woman breaking shit… For my money, though, the best anti-drug ad of all time was the one with the dad who confronts his teenage son with the box of drugs he found… Dad: “where did you learn how to do this?” Son: “From YOU, Dad! [sniff, choke] I learned it from watching YOU!” This ad mystified me when I saw it as a little kid…if Dad was a junkie himself, why would he be so surprised and shocked to discover that his kid was one too? and it’s weird how the kid seems to be blaming the dad for his own drug use (“I don’t do drugs because they feel good, but because you made me, Dad!”). These ads didn’t make me want to go out and shoot smack, but at the very least, they convinced me that the “just say no” people had their heads up their asses… ---
**Author:** ![Zjestika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8edcca/32.png) [@Zjestika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zjestika)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011/49 "2005-07-25T19:39:31Z")
I dislike any commercial that shows the people who make the product bragging about how great it is, especially if they’re assembly line workers. I’m thinking specifically of Honey Bunches of Oats. No one who spends all day standing up in a factory is going to like what they make. Plus, it’s depressing to think about all those probably miserable people who hate their jobs. ZJ ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011/50 "2005-07-25T19:41:58Z")
Y’know, I don’t smoke, and I find the smell of a smoker quite disgusting, but the ads against smoking by “\*truth” make want to pick up a carton of Marlboros and give packs to 10-year-olds. I GET IT! Smoking is bad. Cigarette companies are dishonest. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT FROM ME!!! George ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011/51 "2005-07-25T20:12:36Z")
> [@smiling bandit](#): > > \her feather’s cable theft on parent day. \ Hey, I _pay_ for my cable! ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011/52 "2005-07-25T20:23:16Z")
> [@lhovis73](#): > > Speaking of the “this is your brain on drugs” ad, remember the follow-up ad, with the woman smashing up her kitchen with a frying pan? The subtle argument of this ad seemed to be: your brain on drugs is not like an egg in a frying pan, but rather, like a crazy woman breaking shit… Rachel Leigh Cook, no? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011/53 "2005-07-25T20:23:38Z")
> [@Push You Down](#): > > …“If you can find a better car… buy it.” > > Thanks for the advice Lee… I think I will. That line has actually gotten LESS stupid. Back in the early 80s if you took his advice and bought a better car like, say, a Mercedes, Lido lost a sale. Today if you do the same thing Daimler-Chrysler still makes a sale. Where before it was false bravado now it’s an upsale. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011/54 "2005-07-25T20:23:52Z")
> [@singular1](#): > > …ursine sphincters… I’m surprised nobody’s beaten me to this yet, but: Band Name! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011/55 "2005-07-25T20:34:19Z")
From way back in the OP: > [@](#): > > 1. 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! Am I the only one who got this? Burger King was running an Internet ad campaign recently for “Chicken, your way”. There was a Flash video of a guy in a chicken suit, and you could type in orders for him to do particular things (“Dance”, “Lay an egg”, etc.). They had built in a bewildering variety of actions he could take, and an even larger varieties of commands he’d accept. The Carl Jr.'s ad was obviously mocking this: You don’t want a chicken to dance, you just want a chicken to taste good on a bun slathered in mayonaise. In general, though, I’m a marketer’s nightmare. Now, I genuinely prefer the taste of Pepsi, as I’ve confirmed in blind taste tests. But this is at least partly due to acclimation, from years of avoiding Coke as a child, due to their (I thought) overly arrogant commercials. “Coke is it”? No, it’s not, there’s also Pepsi, and RC, and a host of generic brands. And does anybody else remember the Ore-Ida commercials “Ever notice how everyone eats the potatoes first?”? For years afterwards, at any meal, I made it a deliberate point to eat something else before the potatoes. But then, I’m just weird. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011/56 "2005-07-25T20:42:03Z")
> [@zuma](#): > > I’ve actually stopped eating at Carl’s Jr, as their disgusting commercials have so grossed me out over the years, but currently that horrid Boston Market “eat steak” commercial makes me reach for the remote. Definitely! That song sounds like it was made up by an music undergrad with no particular talent and an extremely urbanocentric notion of county music. Burger King ran a “two cheeseburgers for two dollars” commercial, which simply shows the two cheeseburgers, and a voice-over announcer extolling their virtues even as he narrates around a mouthful of (supposedly) cheeseburgers. Like someone mumbling with their mouth full of food is going to entice me into a midnight run to Burger King. :rolleyes: The best anti-drug commercial around here is for **Becky’s Carpets & Tile** , a local chain. Becky herself stars in all the commercials, and is a whale of a woman (no real problem there), who looks like she’s hopped to the gills on Crank, wearing an expensive, glittery, mu-mu looking dress, and a tiara. One has various animals singing a lame jingle, playing instruments, and adorned with (bad!) CGI wings and elfin ears on a floating carpet with the St. Louis skyline in the background, with CGI daisies floating through the air around them. Even in her normal commercials, Becky looks like she’s channeling Charles Manson, and would happily eat your face if you happened to walk into one of her stores. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011/57 "2005-07-25T21:15:13Z")
I second the Zoom-zoom crap. :Upchuck smiley: ---
**Author:** ![malkavia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malkavia/32/5621_2.png) [@malkavia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malkavia)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011/58 "2005-07-25T21:52:29Z")
There is a McDonalds commercial where one guy is staring at his burger, musing over the excellence that is McDonalds and he exclaims, “How do they DO it?!” I was with them so far. Then the camera pans out and the most hideous young man I have ever seen says, “Duuuude. You’re talking to your buuuurger.” _hatestab_ I cannot even think of eating a hamburger without being reminded of his annoyingly bulbous head and equally annoying voice. Gah, I hate that guy! ---
**Author:** ![Meaty\_Beaty\_Big\_and\_Bouncy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Meaty\_Beaty\_Big\_and\_Bouncy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meaty_Beaty_Big_and_Bouncy)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011/59 "2005-07-25T21:53:59Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > There was an old commercial that began with (paraphrased from memory), “Scientists are trying to discover the cause of global warming,” with a visual of anorak-bedecked nerds boating around an iceberg. Then the image cuts to a burger: “It’s all the sizzling burgers at Hardee’s!” > > Uh, no shit, Hardee’s: [flatulence from cattle](http://www.cgfi.org/materials/articles/2005/april_01_05.htm) and [deforestation of the Amazon to feed the US beef demand](http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_3540000/newsid_3546300/3546395.stm) **is** a cause of global warming. Might not want to emphasize your product’s environmental damage in the commercials. > > Daniel Wow, you sure got whooshed ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011/60 "2005-07-25T21:58:23Z")
> [@Zjestika](#): > > I dislike any commercial that shows the people who make the product bragging about how great it is, especially if they’re assembly line workers. I’m thinking specifically of Honey Bunches of Oats. No one who spends all day standing up in a factory is going to like what they make. Oh, the Jimmy Dean one is way worse. “The milk comes from cows. The eggs come from chickens. And the sausage comes from Jimmy Dean!” I can’t help but think to myself how disgusting that sounds but I still don’t avoid Jimmy Dean’s sausage. Marc [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-with-the-opposite-effect/314011.md?page=4)