I’ve seen some ads in print recently that just made me go euuuuu. A couple of the most memorable ones are:
A Pepto-Bismol ad that shows a plate of fries and a hamburger. All the food is bright pink. I think they intended to get across that with Pepto, you can stomach the food, but that vile pink food just completely killed any appetite I had at the moment instead.
An ad for Cottonelle toilet paper that shows a roll of toilet paper with a few sheets hanging off. The end of the paper has been photoshopped to look like a bath towel. Yes, I know bath towels are nice and soft and in turn they’re saying their toilet paper is nice and soft, too, but imagining wiping my butt with a towel just made my insides squirm.
What are some well-intentioned ads you’ve found unappealing?
I can’t remember the name of the company or even quite what they do, but there was some ad that appeared frequently in the NY Times and Wallstreet Journal and such places that featured a huge and rather alarming spider as the only graphic. I’m not particularly afraid of spiders, but turning the page and seeing that thing sitting there still startled me a bit. I can’t imagine why they thought it was a good idea, given that a significant number of people are seriously skeeved by spiders. I did notice recently that they have switched to a somewhat cuddlier version.
Quite a few years ago, there was a commercial for a laxative. It might have been Ducolax, but I don’t recall. They were promoting their capsules.
The capsules were, of course, cylindrical with rounded ends: (===) They were brown. For a laxative. Whose purpose is to produce something not unlike that shape and color.
It gets worse. The commercial showed them cutting into the capsule. A thick brown liquid oozed out of capsule. Slowly.
I understand form following function, but my reaction was “I’m sure as hell not going to put those in my mouth.”
I’m turned off by any ad that uses the phrases “mouth-watering” or “taste buds.” I just find that gross and not something I want to think about.
Also, any ad that shows people eating like pigs: talking with their mouths full, making loud crunching/smacking noises, licking their fingers, getting sauce smeared on their faces, etc.
Our paper has been running an ad that says: “Have your hemhorroids come between you and and old friend?”. I know they are referring to the easy chair in the background, but I still hate this ad. Yuck.
The commercial for Mucinex with the giant booger makes me want to lose my cookies every time I see it. What I want to know is who came up with the idea to have a giant cartoon booger as the spokesperson for this product? Sick, sick, sick!
Another laxative commercial, I think it was for Ex-Lax, used to have the following coda on its TV spots:
“However…age has changed it! Now available in…”, etc.
Just great. Remind your customers why their GI tracts don’t perform as well as it used to.
Preparation H commercial shows a guy who just can’t get comfortable in the theater, next to his wife, shifting from one cheek to the other in obvious distress…
Then, thanks to PH he appears happy and comfy and sits down
The missing part is what counts. He 1) had a tube of prepH in his pocket. 2) went into the public restroom of the movie theater, and 3) took his pants off, squirted some PH on his finger, and 4) managed to lift his leg high enough in that public restroom to allow the application to the affected area, 5) applied it, perhaps with a sigh, and then redressed.
I would hate to be the guy that ran into him in the middle of his contortions
The newest one from Metamucil, where they feature “The Regular Guys.” Every day, at the same time, these three guys greet one another and walk into adjoining bathroom stalls to take a dump. That is just SO nasty!
It’s only fair, right and proper that threads vaguely artistic get dump…er, relocated into the aesthetic laps of the Cafe Society.
This thread isn’t Pollish enough.*
TVeblen
IMHO mod
That isn’t the actual reason but I’ve waited ages to use that line.
The new campaign of Pepto Bismol ads features groups of people doing a Macarena-esue dance to a chorus that rhymes off what the product relieves (upset stomach, heartburn, etc.) with each symptom, they mime the actions of someone suffering such afflictions.
The part that irks me is when the get to “diarrhea” and the dancers clench their ass cheeks together like they’re trying to prevent wet feces from squirting uncontrollably from their anuses.