Not sure how ineffective this ad might be, but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen anything like it. Yesterday in the parking lot of the grocery store near my house I noticed writing on the divider lines for the parking spaces. Turns out that every white line had an ad for an insurance company printed on it. 
:smack:
See! Just thinking about the ad made me dumber!
Somewhere along the line, I combined “that he didn’t already know that 9 was greater than 6” and “that he would believe that 6 was greater than 9”, I think. Either that, or the ad really did make me dumber.
The Old Milwaukee “men should act like men” commercials are a scourge.
Apparently, in order to be a man, one needs to be a stupid, sloppy, insensitive, macho idiot who does nothing but hang around with his friends, scratch himself, do manual labor, and avoid any culture or emotional expression. Failure to act like this merits crushing with a giant beer can.
Oh, and the beer sucks.
The Hummer ads, glorifying waste. I wouldn’t have bought one anyway, but now I think those that do are all the more disgusting.
It’s like, how much more firm could this mattress be? And the answer is none. None more firm.
There’s an anti-drug public service announcement on the radio around here that I always think is a cell phone commercial. It touts the features of cell phones for about 20 seconds then in the last sentence mentions that you can use one to call your kid and see where he is. This is supposed to prevent him doing drugs, I guess.
I think the goal of that ad is too make the audience *need *the product.
I love these ads.
For your background, the Wallace family has produced 4 drivers for the NASCAR series. Rusty, Mike & Kenny are all brothers, and Stephen is Rusty’s son. Rusty was great, and has retired to do TV commentating of the races, Mike runs in the Busch series, and Kenny is a clown (partly a compliment) who sometimes drives in the Nextel Cup series, and drove full time in Busch last year. They are playing off the ‘racing family’ theme.
Mike Wallace drives the Geico car in the Busch series, and they are making fun of the whole sponsor driven attitude in racing today. The 4th cousin, once removed Lauren, is making the claim that he’s driving to sell insurance, not to win races, which “The greatest thing to ever climb into a race car.” finds to be a horrible reason to drive, so “It’ll end with me putting him in the wall.” “Putting them in the wall” is a common theme spouted by drivers who are upset at another driver, and used to be a common ‘payback’ method, though this is tougher now that so many cameras are covering the races.
They are looking for more brand recognition here, and mention the Geico name at the beginning and end, and Mike Wallace is in uniform most of the time. IMO, better than the caveman commercials, but slightly behind the gecko. [come on, who doesn’t like pie & chips??? It’s not bacon… and salt… but it’s close! :D]
As for the preponderance of NASCAR themed commercials in your area, remember that NC is home to most of the race teams currently competing. Within a 2 hour drive of Charlotte, 90%+ of the teams have their shops. I’m a huge NASCAR fan, and here in the Northeast, you’ll only hear about racing twice a year, when they visit Louden (NHIS) NH. If I get to relocate, that’s one of the changes that I’m looking forward to. I’d love to hear racing related sports shows on the radio on a daily basis. On our upcoming trip, we’re driving from Raleigh/Durham area towards Charlotte, specifically to visit some of the shops.
Those “E.D.” commercials with all the horny couples being prevented from porking because of all their interruptions…What is up with the couples ending up in their own bathtubs holding hands!!! WTF! Can someone please explain this to me?
If you want to watch a plethora of unmemorable and ineffective ads that will leave no impression on you whatsoever, just watch CNN or MSNBC during the late morning and afternoon. They basically run the same 10 ads throughout the whole day interspersed with promos for their own programming. And it’s always totally random shit, like carpeting, tax assistance, and denture adhesive.
One ad that certainly does belong in the hall of fame though is the anti-fungal cream ad that shows the animated toe fungus creature lifting up a toenail. So. Gross. I’d also like to nominate the Quizno’s ad where the girl says, “It’s not lackin’ any meat… and that’s what real women need!” and then proceeds to laugh like a (in the words of one blog) braying gay donkey.
They’ve probably been listening to a little too much Jimi Hendrix.
Luvvly-jubbly of you to say so, and a nice compliment from such a tidy lass! And now you’ve got my todger all tickety-boo, haven’t you? 
But maybe I wouldn’t be so hot if I weren’t so fagged and could get off my arse to turn the AC from zed to eleven.
Or they read the Dope.
Thanks for fighting my ignorance, butler1850. My only exposure to NASCAR when I was living in Chicago was the occasionally references made on the local country station by several of the DJ’s. When I started visiting a friend in the Raleigh/Durham area (which eventually led to my deciding to move down here) I was warned about the local college sports rivalries but the presence of NASCAR managed to elude me. The occasional culture stock still hits, like when we had the big snowstorm last January (almost a full inch of snow fell overnight, and the morning news was full of warnings to be careful driving).
A large management consultancy had a rebranding ad campagin which went along the lines of a suprising statement of new technology of current world affairs such as
Chinese To Become #1 Web Language by 2007.” or
Bacteria tested as microchip.
Followed by the tag line
“Now it gets interesting.”
If you ever wanted an ad to say ´´Frankly if you are calling us about something that is not of earth shattering importance, please don´t, because it is not interesting. In fact anything you do is probably not even going to rate the same as a gentle tickle on the back of the nut sack as far as raising our interest goes´´, well this would be that ad.
There’s a commercial on TV for a Nature Valley product (granola bars?) that shows a view of Convict Lake, in the eastern Sierras. Beautiful spot–it gives us the POV of an woman floating in the water, looking over her outstretched legs towards the mountains in the west.
As someone who has dunked himself in Convict Lake, I know that you don’t just float around in it, enjoying the view. That water is friggin’ cold. Nature Valley wants us to believe that the waters of Convict Lake are a nice place to lounge–what other lies are they capable of?
While buying groceries a couple of days ago, I was cruising in the frozen food section, looking for something junky, something cheesy and just awful to snack on. I spied a box of Totino’s Pizza Rolls and reached out for them. They looked pretty good. Then, somewhere in the back of my mind, I heard a child’s voice piercing the dark night: “I LOVE TOTINO’S PIZZA ROLLS!”
I jerked my hand back and closed the door. Damn. That ad probably saved my arteries.
<GASP!> a full inch??? :eek: How ever will they survive??? 
The same thing happens in DC… of course, I laughed at everyone that I was working with, and they weren’t happy that I thought their 2" storm was a joke.
Any ad by Truth makes me want to jam scores of cigarettes into my mouth, nose, ears and anus and smoke, smoke, smoke.
I knew there was one that was bugging me, but couldn’t remember what it was until I saw your post.
The reality about advertising is that anything that appeals to 18-27 year olds, will usually also appeal to 12-18 year olds. (Camel characters & pretty girls [for the boys] come to mind).