The IKEA one is my current favorite.
“You are probably feeling sad for this lamp. That’s because you are crazy! It has no feelings. And the new one is much better.”
You can watch it at www.unboring.com
That campaign is actually used as a case study in advertising classes. Everyone loves the cat ad, but no one remembers the company, so some people try to use that as an example of an ad that, while entertaining, isn’t effective.
The better advertising classes also point out that although no one associated the company to the ads, that company’s light bulb sales went up dramatically.
Philips. It was Philips.
No one mentioned DeBeers yet? Possibly the most offensive ad campaign ever:
Women are whores and you are a dumbass – buy them diamonds so they will love you!
T. It’s what’s for dinner.™
I remember when they got rid of the clown a LONG time ago, in an effort to make their image more adult. But they did right to bring him back as a sort of coolish cultural icon. Good work, Jack.
Hate the two Christmas-shopping-at-Ross preteen girls. Where did these two get the money to buy everyone in their families–including a bowl for Jimmy the dog–unless someone gave it to them? Also that bit about Jimmy loving his new bowl–A dog does NOT love a new bowl unless it’s got new food in it!
Love
AFLAC–one of my favorites is the one at the barbershop featuring Yogi Berra.
Love:
Ali Landry Doritos ad where the chip is fired out of the tennis ball machine and smacks her in the forehead. First time I saw that one (after seeing her acrobatic catches in the previous ads), I nearly spewed soda across the den.
Loathe:
Personal Injury Lawyer ads.
I kind of like the previous Dell Interns spot, where they just look like morons generally. For example, they’re standing around kibbitzing the guy assembling a PC, and he keeps shooting them down. “Don’t touch that.” “They call you The Customizer?” "No they don’t. I don’t know why but I enjoyed watching them go down like that.
As for Steve the Dell Dude I don’t understand why (a) everyone hates him so much, and (b) everyone think’s he’s a stoner. Well OK, maybe a character like that could be a user, but he doesn’t fit my concept of a burnout case.
My favorite fast food used to be Carl’s Jr. I hate, loathe and despise their ad campaign (“if it isn’t all over the place…it’s not in your face”) so much that I have taken my patronage elsewhere.
Also hate Old Navy and Herbal Essence (organic experience) commercials…although the new one with whats-her-name from Ally McBeal…um…gets to me…
Loved the Louie the Lizard Budweiser commercials. And I never had an issue with Mazda’s “Zoom zoom”.
Like:
Radox bath bubbles ad with a big fat lady singing in the bath. I like it because she isn’t lounging back in an unrealistic mountain of bubbles, surrounded by candles and sighing languidly. She’s singing. It has an air of reality that I like in an ad for bubble bath.
Virgin mobile phone ads involving Wyclef Jean. Wyclef signs an autograph for a resoundingly ugly young woman. It turns out to be a marriage contract. Wyclef has to go and live on a trailer park with the woman, her children and her many cockroaches. The tagline is that Virgin don’t expect you to sign a huge-ass contract without reading it. (in a later ad, Wyclef escapes, and gets thrown in jail for breach of contract)
the Lilt ad that ripped off the Levis “running through walls” ad. The Lilt ladies (two rotund West Indian ladies of about 60) run through walls, stopping to catch their breath, and enjoy a nice can of Lilt at the end of it all. The Levis ad really needed the piss taking out of it, and this ad does the trick brilliantly.
I like the Peugeot ad where the young Indian man uses a combination of panel-beating, welding and elephant to turn his Hindustan Ambassador into a replica of a Peugeot 206. This is mainly because I like the music in the ad, and the bloke himself is extremely hot.
The Kronenbourg 1664 ad which has the premise “what would happen if France took over Britain” is rather sweet. There’s be more sex, and we’d go to the dog track to watch poodles racing. And we’d drink French beer.
Hate:
the “Holidays are coming” Coca-Cola ad. I have difficulty expressing the level of bilous loathing I have for this ad. I hat the song, I hate the trucks, I hate the smug face of Santa, I hate self-satisfied super-sanitised setting of the ad, and I have nothing but contempt for the incredibly flimsy premise of the ad. Christmas equals coca-cola, does it? Since when? I thought Coca-Cola was an all year round drink. Mulled wine = Christmas drink. Coca-Cola=/= Christmas drink. I have the impression that Santa’s red ‘n’ white get up was originally concieved by Coca-Cola, to turn him into a kind of Coca-Colafied St Nick, and that’s bad enough. Holidays are coming, and that has sweet Football Association to do with brown fizzy beverages.
Vauxhall Astra ad where three cars slalom through a concrete car park with about 1 metre’s gap between each of them. In real life, you can’t tailgate while playing silly buggers in an obstacle course. In real life you shouldn’t tailgate anyway. In real life, Astras are shite.
My faves are few and far between but include:
The Ikea ads. “That is because you are crazy” has become my motto of late.
The New TNN ads featuring the lazy guy and the ad survey guy. They make me laugh.
The new Meow Mix commercial.
I kinda like the Geico ads.
I also like the Telus ads with the animals using the Mac.
Hate:
All car ads, especially the Mazda ads. Die, “zoom zoom” kid, Die!
Carrot Top and Alf ads. How are these guys celebrities? They weren’t famous back when they were famous!
Cell phone ads. A new cellphone will make my life better? Hey, guess what? The day I got rid of my cell phone, the sun shone a little brighter, my food tasted better, and the whole world became a happier place!
Any ad that implies the tag line “It’ll get you laid.” As in the aformentioned Axe ad, where a nerd, who could never get a woman in a zillion years, scores the hottie in the elevator because of Axe deodorant. Axe: It’ll get you laid. Or the razor commercials… Gillette: It’ll get you laid. Or the Michaelina’s pasta ads. Michaelina’s: It’ll get you laid. Or the…
My favorites as of late have been the GMC truck ads. Good tunes, effective, non-intelligence insulting ads. They are professional grade indeed.
Unfavorite as of late-- any cell phone service provider ads. Its going to be “hard to hear you now” where I am going to shove that annoying cell phone of yours buddy. :mad:
Oh oh oh oh-- and the Ray Lewis line in the Madden 2003 ads.
All these football players are trying to look and sound tough for the camera but end up looking silly (especially Zach Thomas who ends up sounding like a yippy little dog).
They end with Ray Lewis turning slowly towards the camera with an actual genuine Bad Mofo look and he says in that low voice of his “are you feelin’ me?”
I crack up every time. Now that’s a bad man.
Favorites:
The Yellow pages ads, which someone else mentioned. Those were masterful…not just the ones on TV. In the NYC bus shelters, they’d have an unlabeled picture of something bizarre, like a sheep being suspended from a magnet. Then two weeks later, they’d replace it with the same picture, but with a caption…“Steel Wool”…if it’s out there, it’s in here (the Yellow pages). Every time I spotted a new one, I’d try to figure out the pun that was intended.
Joe Isuzu, “He’s lying.”
Least favorite:
Levi jeans had this series of commercials in the 1980’s which were just…incomprehensible. Cartoon people, somewhat distorted, making weird noises…until the word “Levis” at the end, you had no idea what they were selling.
My favorite running ad campaign has got to be Jack in the Box… the new image they’ve carved for Jack is awesome. I loved the “Wendy’s” and “McDonald’s” ads for Jack in the Box, and the new “Chipotle” ad is hilarious. The “Fake Shake” ad was the best.
My least favorites… too many to name…
happyheathen mentioned the Tom Shane ads, which are some of the dullest, stupidest radio ads ever made. I may remember the name, but I’ll never go there for jewelry. Those are local, I think, to the Seattle area.
For the same local area, the Vern Fonk television ads are some of the worst I’ve ever seen. Of course, you have to be watching at about 12:30 AM to see them…
For a national campaign, the Herbal Essence ads take the cake. It was old the first time I saw it, and it hasn’t gotten any better since then. There’s something wrong when a shampoo maker equates hair care with great sex. Ugh.
Like – Jack in the Box, Sprint
Loath – UPS
The “brown” campaign. Yes, I know the trucks and uniforms are brown, but why do they want to be refered to as “brown?” Awful. And a while back they were using the song “Bad to the Bone”, except is was reworded as “Brown to the Bone.”
Aaarrrgggghhhh
I hate, hate, hate the Subway ads with that smarmy blond-headed guy, with his little stupid smile and everything. It irritates the hell out of me just to think about them.
But Jared rules, if only b.c I have a friend who totally looks like a cross between pre-skinny Jared and mid-90’s Seinfeld.
Tom Shane is in Seattle? Man, I thought he was local/regional. I knew he was in Louisville, Indianapolis and St Louis, but Seattle?
He sounds like Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller only ten times blander and monotonic.
Hmm… I guess he’s not as local as I thought! Goes to show what I know. But yes, he has a store here… [Tom Shane]"Just off I-5 at the Alderwood Mall Boulevard exit.[/Tom Shane]
Your description of his voice is perfect.
I didn’t mind the ads so much, but what really got me was that on two separate occasions I went through the drive-thru of two different Carls Jrs and they only gave me ONE NAPKIN.
If it get’s all over the place, chances are that one napkin isn’t going to cut it.
I don’t go to Carls Jr. any more.