# Most ill-conceived ad campaigns? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 18, 2009, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872 "2009-08-18T19:02:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872/81 "2009-08-19T19:38:42Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Despite what the ads have you believe, the sandwiches are not premade at McDonalds. Not anymore, anyway. They used to be, and that was why BK’s “Have It Your Way” was a legitimate way to differentiate themselves from McDonald’s. Back then, if you wanted a special order, it was a comparative hassle at McDonald’s. Within the past decade, McD’s undertook a pretty expensive program to refit all of their kitchens (an expense which the franchisees didn’t like), in order to allow all orders to be made “on demand”. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872/82 "2009-08-19T19:46:32Z")
> [@shy\_guy](#): > > BK must be seeing some results from the campaign if they’ve kept it going for several years. I think this is a very telling thing. About the worst job security you can have is to be Chief Marketing Officer at a restaurant chain…most chains seem to cycle through CMOs every 12-18 months. And, the first thing every new CMO will do is to conduct an agency review, and scrap the old ad campaign – he (or she) knows that he has a very limited time to demonstrate his skill, and the advertising is the most visible example of it. BK’s been with the same agency, and the same campaign, for at least 5 years now. That’s an eternity in this industry. If the company, or their franchisees, didn’t think it was working, The King (and, by extension, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, their ad agency) would be gone. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872/83 "2009-08-19T20:05:38Z")
Here’s the [Burger King](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al1GZyS-dRw) from my childhood, sort of a cross between the Wizard of Oz ([book version](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://a2.vox.com/6a00e3989986f9000500e398bab8da0001-500pi&imgrefurl=http://jessmiloo.vox.com/library/book/6a00e3989986f9000500e398bab8da0001.html&usg=__gdD1Rk4688nyrCao1vwceo6qAuY=&h=475&w=347&sz=55&hl=en&start=95&um=1&tbnid=q_XpeKn8mntwCM:&tbnh=129&tbnw=94&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwizard%2Bof%2Boz%2Bin%2Bbook%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN%26start%3D90%26um%3D1)) and the King in the Wizard of Id. This cute little guy made the modern King even MORE scary to us early Gen X-ers. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872/84 "2009-08-19T20:10:35Z")
> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#): > > Yeah, those are fucking disgusting. And this might be TMI, but what kind of excrement/TP combination results in flecks of paper on the undercarriage( I dunno what kind of combo it is, but Marcal TP is dingleberry city. Marcal’s campaign is good, though. “Marcal-culate and save!” It’s dorky and it’s been around for a zillion years, but it gets the point across. The slogan always pops into my head when I see the stuff piled high on an endcap at the stupidmarket, and I think “hey, good value!” Then I have to remind myself not to actually buy it. Which shows how good that clunky old campaign is–it makes me reach for a product I don’t even _like_! (I don’t recall if they’re still running with that slogan, however. It seems like they’re focusing more on their green cred. And it’s not BS (bearshit?). They’ve been making recycled paper products forever.) I do have a point… I think one of the biggest causes of ill-conceived ad campaigns is the endless drive to come up with new campaigns all the time. While you don’t want to let things go too stale, there’s definitely value in imprinting a consumer with one message over years and even decades. ---
**Author:** ![SaharaTea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SaharaTea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaharaTea)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872/85 "2009-08-19T20:20:23Z")
The ad campaign that completely baffles me is Old Navy’s [“SuperModelquins.”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DpEx_GLgVU) The commercials are super creepy, and the print ads make it look as if Old Navy is just too cheap to hire actual models. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872/86 "2009-08-19T20:25:43Z")
Any commercial that is just so damned annoying you want to strangle the person responsible. Best examples I can think of: The Free Credit Report dot com commercials- Og knows how many millions they’ve spent on these things that have annoyed the hell out of tens of millions of people and are actually deceptive (that site is a pay site). “HEADON! Apply directly to the forehead! HEADON! Apply directly to the forehead! HEADON! Apply directly to the forehead! HEADON! Apply directly to the forehead! HEADON! Apply directly to the forehead!” Commercials that are clever and memorable but have so little or nothing to do with the product that you remember the commercial but not what they’re advertising. When I say “Whassssuuuuuuuuupppppppppppppppp!!” you instantly know the commercial but you’ll probably have to stop and remember what it was advertising. Ditto the “great cat roundup and drive” commercial that EDS aired during the Superbowl around the same time- great funny commercial, but nothing to do with EDS and just remembered as “that commercial with the cowboys and the cats”. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872/87 "2009-08-19T20:39:49Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > **Larry Mudd** said: > Sounds like they might be trying to imply a double meaning for the word “ventured”, something like: > > Nothing attempted, nothing exciting happens. But that’s what the original expression means, and there isn’t any way to use that verb to mean anything significantly different from “risked.” It’s baffling. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872/88 "2009-08-19T20:41:10Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > I think one of the biggest causes of ill-conceived ad campaigns is the endless drive to come up with new campaigns all the time. While you don’t want to let things go too stale, there’s definitely value in imprinting a consumer with one message over years and even decades. IME, there’s two things going on there: 1. As I noted above, CMOs have the lifespan of mayflies. They know that they have to produce results NOW, or they’ll get fired. So, the moment that they see any data suggesting that the current campaign isn’t working, they’ll pull the plug on the current campaign (“come up with something new and better – fast!”) 2. When the CMO gets replaced, the new CMO will want to (a) make his own mark as quickly as possible, and (b) work with someone with whom he’s familiar. So, that almost always leads to a new agency, and new creative. When you work on an account, and your client fires their CMO, you know it’s just a matter of time before you lose the account. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872/89 "2009-08-19T20:47:48Z")
Ooh, I’ve been contemplating starting this thread. There are two that really irritate me right now: AT&T’s campaign where the mother constantly berates her children for throwing away their rollover minutes. Why would I want to buy a product that people discard unless an angry woman screams at them to use it. State Farm’s commercial where the scruffy guy finds a door abandoned in the alley, takes it home, spends all day finishing and painting it, then props it up in the entranceway of their crappy apartment. When his wife comes home, he’s fussing in the kitchen, and he tells her the door is a promise that someday they’ll own their own home. Well, if you want to see to it that you and your wife own your own house someday, why don’t you go out and get a _job_?! That would put you on the road to home ownership a lot faster than wasting your whole day picking through other people’s garbage and fixing up a door that does nothing but get in the way. Even in the commercial itself, his wife’s reaction is as much perplexity as it is warmth. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872/90 "2009-08-19T21:00:53Z")
I know some will say it was just a myth, but I remember the ad for the early Toyotas. **From the people who brought you Pearl Harbor!!!** It didn’t last long, but I remember it in a magazine (no not _“MAD!”_). Stan Frieberg wrote the ad and as I remember, he said he knew it was in bad taste, but was trying to get out of his contract with the ad agency he was working for. ---
**Author:** ![badbadrubberpiggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@badbadrubberpiggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badbadrubberpiggy)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872/91 "2009-08-19T21:03:24Z")
> [@SaharaTea](#): > > The ad campaign that completely baffles me is Old Navy’s [“SuperModelquins.”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DpEx_GLgVU) The commercials are super creepy, and the print ads make it look as if Old Navy is just too cheap to hire actual models. I actually mentioned these in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=11438418#post11438418) about creepy stuff: > [@me](#): > > I was shopping at Old Navy the other day, and in the stores they play those commercials with the creepy talking manequins. The little girl mannequin couldn’t decide which wonderful Old Navy product she wanted to wear, so the mom said “Don’t worry, I brought you an extra torso!”. > > This same thing played 4 or 5 times while I was in there. “Don’t worry…I brought you an extra torso.” How is that NOT creepy? Even if it wasn’t an incredibly unnerving commercial, the fact that they seemed to be playing it on a loop wouldn’t been annoying on it’s own. I did stay & buy things, but only because it was the 1 time out of 10 I actually find things in there that I like and that fit me properly\*, and I wanted to take advantage. \*I keep shopping there because the one time I do find stuff I’m going to buy, I end up buying a lot and getting a lot of use out of whatever I get, so it’s worth the fruitless effort the rest of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872/92 "2009-08-19T21:09:38Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > All this time I thought I was the only one who remembered it. (shudder) > > We need to form a support group. From Uranus 😛 Even I knew this one was wrong and I was like 7 or 8 at the time. Jack in the Box’s comercial where the barbeque with a large rim for its lips talks to a kid. \ Hello dere little boy. What be your name? \ Rodney Allen Rippy My stepdad says the one that showed Jack’s heads blowing up at the drive-thrus traumatized kids to tears. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872/93 "2009-08-19T21:20:09Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Have it your way. 😉 I see what you did there. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872/94 "2009-08-19T21:22:30Z")
> [@SaharaTea](#): > > The ad campaign that completely baffles me is Old Navy’s [“SuperModelquins.”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DpEx_GLgVU) The commercials are super creepy, and the print ads make it look as if Old Navy is just too cheap to hire actual models. I can’t remember an Old Navy ad campaign that I did like. That old lady with Harry Carray’s glasses and a dog was dumb and everything beyond that up to and including the modelquins is lame. ---
**Author:** ![Mogle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mogle/32/12021_2.png) [@Mogle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mogle)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872/95 "2009-08-19T21:28:49Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Care to enlighten the rest of us? To a non-Swedish speaker, all I see is a pretty lady with a nice voice singing, and then a panel at the end of what I assume are some sort of beauty products. That’s pretty much what I see too, the song is essentially a love song containing a lot of weather references, but apparently some people think that it(the ad, not the song itself) belongs in a horror movie or something. One newspaper claims that 100’000 people have joined a facebook group called ‘I’m afraid of the woman in the Apoliva ad’. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872/96 "2009-08-19T21:41:10Z")
> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#): > > Ooh, good one. Axe seems to be selling “douchebag” in their ads. Surely they understand that only the most naive 13 year old boys buy into the miracle of their aromatic properties. Everybody else, of course, is laughing or gagging at you. And they sell oodles of the shit to kids and douchebags. So how is the ad campaign ill-advised? IIRC, the famed Paris Hilton ad where she’s draping herself over a Bentley in a swimsuit (Thw swimsuit is on Paris Hilton, not the Bentley) to sell Carl’s Jr. hamburgers became very famous and yet did very little to sell hamburgers - because people didn’t know what the product was. You can occiasionally see she’s holding a hamburger, but there’s no indication as to where you can buy this particular hamburger. Only at the very end of the ad do you see the briefest glimpse of a Carl’s Jr. logo. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872/97 "2009-08-19T21:47:15Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > And they sell oodles of the shit to kids and douchebags. So how is the ad campaign ill-advised? Is it effective? Probably so, but I just think that the ads capture a segment of the potential population that might use their product. It’s kind of the Drakkar effect. In the late 80s and 90s every teenage boy in America used the stuff. Now it’s hopelessly lost to that time and that demographic. I’m sure Axe knows what they’re doing. But look at how Old Spice is rebranding itself… they’ve got hooks in young folks and the older guys who recognize the name from back in the day and find the new ads funny. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872/98 "2009-08-19T22:08:18Z")
When I was googling for “rape” (yeah, I know, I have sick hobbies), I found this [http://www.feministing.com/archives/006645.html](http://www.feministing.com/archives/006645.html) from a while ago. A lot of people thought of it as a horrible pro gang rape ad, so I suppose it counts, though I myself didn’t really find it all that evocative of a gang rape. More like a bunch of models who carried the, “I’m really young, hot, and bored–why did I get out of bed for less than $10,000?” look a little too far. ---
**Author:** ![Weedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/weedy/32/301_2.png) [@Weedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weedy)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872/99 "2009-08-19T23:27:47Z")
There was an ad for White Wings pre-packaged cupcakes promoting them as snack for a kid’s lunchbox. The punchline of the ad was that anyone who made their own cupcakes was a stuck-up, perfectionist, control freak that needed to get a life. It aired for about two days before it got pulled; then they started re-showing it with the punch-line removed. Which meant the ad didn’t even make sense any more. I guess they had their campaign all set up, and didn’t have time to come up with a brand new TV ad. ---
**Author:** ![bleach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bleach/32/3106_2.png) [@bleach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bleach)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872/100 "2009-08-19T23:53:24Z")
An ill-conceived TV ad that I remember was for a chewing tobacco product. I don’t remember the brand name, but I don’t believe it was a mainstream brand. This was in the late 70’s, early 80’s and there was no cursing on USA TV (because NYPD Blue hadn’t been invented yet). 😛 The scene: Rugged cowboy resembling Charles Bronson in a ranch setting. **Cowboy:** [Brand Name]. One hell of a chew. Says it right there on the bag. Close-up of the tobacco pouch. Indeed, it reads “[Brand Name]: One hell of a chew.” **Cowboy:** [Brand Name]. One hell of a chew. Something like that. It couldn’t have been more than a 15 or 20 second spot. I saw that ad exactly twice within a couple of days and then it vanished forever. I suspect that it was yanked because of the cussin’. [_spits_] pTING! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ill-conceived-ad-campaigns/506872.md?page=6)