Sheesh, they’re trying hard to make their city seem like a pulp universe, instead of the geezer/Middle Americans/college student hotspot it is most of the time, right?
What other negative advertising can you think of to get our attention? Like the jeans that are supposed to be really rough (okay, weak example), or the car commercial I saw once that had a dark-themed horror parody that was meant to grab attention, or the commercials for reruns that say ‘if you haven’t seen it it’s new to you.’ That one’s weak, but the ad obv. has little to argue so it just makes a weak stance.
And don’t talk about how advertising is inherently negative by giving us a sense of what we should have but don’t or are lacking in; I know ;). Just name ads that use a negative aspect of their product/whatever to sell/get you interested in it. Also, no political ads.
There was an advert fairly recently for the Skoda Octavia that indicated the only benefit of the car was that when you clicked your remote central locking device, the car went “beep” rather than “beep-beep” like all the other cars.
Oh, just thought of one based on yours- the Hardees (or Carl’s) big chili burger thing. It advertises a woman eating it and the chili dripping into the box. She saves it in the fridge for later.
At least subway can advertise their low fat content. These people just baske in the huge boxes of dripping fat messes they sell. That and Paris Hilton…
Not necessarily shock value, but there was a laundry detergent ad recently that showed a woman dropping a sock on the floor while taking it out of the dryer. She looked at it in horror and promptly re-washed it in the detergent being advertised because the animated ad showed it infested with scary creepy-crawly bugs and germs. Definitely a “WTF?” moment for me.
If I drop a sock getting it out of the dryer, I don’t rewash it. My basement floor isn’t sparkly-clean, but it isn’t that dirty, either.
I think the point of the ad was that the laundry detergent was anti-bacterial or something, but it certainly wasn’t going to make me buy it. It made me think the problem was your floor - it you drop a sock getting it out of the dryer and it gets so dirty in 2 seconds that you need to re-wash it, rather than buy germ-killing detergent, maybe you need to mop the floor.
I’ve heard that those scary Burger King commercials where some poor slob wakes up to a grotesque plasticy faced king staring down on him are actually horrifying by design. The idea being that, for whatever reason, people associate McDonald’s far more then BK w/ breakfast sandwhiches, so they needed an add campaign that would shock people into remembering that BK has breakfast stuff as well.
It worked, I now remember that BK has breakfast sandwhiches. The downside is that I now associate them more with creepy royal personages watching me sleep then I do with tastyness, so I’m not sure how that add campaign will work out for BK’s bottom line.
I hate the home security commercials that have the poor woman clutching her terrified children while the evil burglar is trying to kick the door down. “Hello, this is Brinks Home Security, are you OK? Help is on the way.”
There was a cruise line which used Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life (a song about heroin addiction) in it’s ads. I’m not sure which is a worse mental image: Half naked old people sunning themselves or half naked junkies flopping about with needle marks all over their bodies, syringes hanging out of their arms, and covered in foamy drool.
“With a name like Smucker’s, it HAS to be good.”
SNL did a great parody of this in the 70s - each cast member would come up with a more disgusting name.
Why do I have this sudden image of Carnival Cruise Lines hiring William Burroughs (yes I know he’s dead but bear with me) to be there offcial greeter for the Over 60 Lust for Life cruise package?
Slate’s Ad Report Card had a great line about this. “Somewhere between the drugs and the strip tease, it hits you: this is way more than an ordinary vacation.”
Not exactly. The Arch was supposed to draw business away from Burger King’s Whopper, but it ended up mostly drawing business away from the Big Mac, which was a lot cheaper to make and therefore more profitable. I worked at a McDonalds when they introduced the Arch. We had to have special training (not that it’s really that hard, but you know how stupid your average fast food worker is) because it used a different bun, different seasonings on the meat, leaf lettuce instead of shredded, that sort of thing.
This story might not fit here. The ads I understand, I see what they’re trying to say. It’s my mother who ruined them for me.
Any ads for adult incontinence products, ie: Depend.
The ad shows older couples out enjoying their life, often dancing. This I understand, they are trying to show how they can go about doing things they would normally enjoy while wearing the product without feeling embarrassed or uncomfortable. Watching one of these adverts one day with my mother, she began giggling. When I looked at her, she says, “they’re peeing their pants.”
So now every time I see those commercials, that’s what I think. There they go, dancing. Peeing their pants.
Very juvenile, I know. I get it from my mother.
Anyway, as for ads with shock - I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate the Clorox ads and their damndable “body soil”. The one where the man goes to leap into his bed only to find it’s a bubbling pit of body soil goop? Frock that all to hell. It’s enough to make a hypochondriac out of anyone. This picture they’ve been painting lately of living one’s life in a disinfected bubble irks me out a bit. I’m a big fan of being clean and personal hygiene and all that good stuff, but cripes. I prefer the Sunlight ads: “Go ahead. Get dirty.” And I’m speaking as a little priss, mind you. Body soil, seriously. However did we live so long without Clorox to save us?! :eek: :rolleyes:
As far as the Las Vegas ad campaign, I just wish they’d add a little disclaimer to the effect that Vegas weddings are real weddings and you’ll still be married to that slimeball when you get back to Wisconsin.
