# "Worst Ad Placement" award for 2001 **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 19, 2001, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344 "2001-06-19T14:57:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2001, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344/1 "2001-06-19T14:57:38Z")
I don’t often fall off the sofa laughing during Holocaust documentaries . . . But I was watching one last night on The Hitler Channel. They had just gotten through explaining how machine-gunning Jews was too time-consuming, so the Nazis experimented with auto exhaust, then perfected the gas chambers with Zyklon-B. Break for Volvo commercial: "Germans have always taken great pride in their engineering skills . . . " Eeee-YIKES. Don’t the ad agencies or the people at the station pay ANY attention to what goes where or when?! ---
**Author:** ![Jus\_lookin\_Round](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@Jus\_lookin\_Round](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jus_lookin_Round)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2001, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344/2 "2001-06-19T15:14:31Z")
Got your attention, didn’t it? LMAO ---
**Author:** ![Medea\_s\_Child](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Medea\_s\_Child](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Medea_s_Child)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2001, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344/3 "2001-06-19T15:23:11Z")
Ouch. Someone missed that. Ooops… But, now you rememebr Volvo! Marketing in action! ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2001, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344/4 "2001-06-19T15:45:40Z")
This isn’t in the same class, but the Wisconsin Dells people are running ads around here using Lindsey Buckingham’s “Holiday Road” as the song. Since that was the theme from “National Lampoon’s Vacation”… OTOH, the Dells are even TACKIER than Wally World. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2001, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344/5 "2001-06-19T15:49:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Medea’s Child \* > \*\*Ouch. > > Someone missed that. Ooops… > > But, now you rememebr Volvo! Marketing in action! \*\* Yes, but you’d remember them in a bad way, wouldn’t you? I mean just because an ad’s memorable doesn’t mean it left me with a favorable impression. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dobbinaire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e79b87/32.png) [@dobbinaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dobbinaire)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2001, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344/6 "2001-06-19T20:28:39Z")
Can I post one from the late 1980’s or early 1990’s? I know it’s been several or a dozen years ago but it has stuck in my mind ever since. I was watching _‘War of the Worlds’_, the series (not the movie). The aliens had this clone/replicator machine. As they were trying to replicate someone, the machine malfunctioned, burning the guy to a crisp. I mean black skeleton and lots of smoke. Cut to a commercial for McDonald’s New! McRib BBQ Sandwich! Yeeuch! Yep, sometimes SomeBody ain’t paying attention. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2001, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344/7 "2001-06-19T20:33:43Z")
Volvos aren’t German; they’re Swedish. Are you sure it wasn’t a Volkwagen ad? _just being a nitpicker…_ ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2001, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344/8 "2001-06-19T20:43:03Z")
Kinsey—Nope, it was Volvo, and they did say "Germans have always taken great pride in their engineering skills . . . " I wrote it down so as not to forget. It’s entirely possible they then went on to compare German and Swedish engineering. I was laughing too hard to hear the rest of the commercial. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2001, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344/9 "2001-06-19T21:12:32Z")
Aha! I know the commercial… It’s the one that says, “if the Germans are so proud of their engineering talent, how come Swedish cars are winning the German engineering awards?” ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2001, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344/10 "2001-06-19T21:17:32Z")
Unfortunately, I can’t find a handy cite for the following - but apparently quite a large percentage of a Volvo is actually made in Germany. It’s enough so that my best friend’s family, descended from Holocaust refugees (they got out of Austria just after Anschluss) refuses to buy Volvo. ---
**Author:** ![rivulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rivulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rivulus)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2001, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344/11 "2001-06-19T23:44:20Z")
Well, this won’t win the prize, but it made me chuckle. I was watching the movie **You’ve Got Mail** on cable the other day when a commercial came on showing a cowboy out in the field checking fences or something and driving around through the dust in his pickup truck. In a voiceover some guy was asking “Have you seen that movie?” (loose paraphrase based on half-listening) “The one where two people meet over the internet [etc.] and there’s this romantic ending?” “Have you seen it?” punch line: “Well this guy hasn’t.” Implying that the manly man who drives a truck like this wouldn’t be caught dead watching a chick flick. Well, OK… But you have to wonder who their target audience was considering this was in the middle of the showing of the _very same_ chick flick! rivulus ---
**Author:** ![AndYrAStar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8edcca/32.png) [@AndYrAStar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndYrAStar)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2001, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344/12 "2001-06-19T23:59:46Z")
> [@](#): > > apparently quite a large percentage of a Volvo is actually made in Germany. It’s enough so that my best friend’s family, descended from Holocaust refugees (they got out of Austria just after Anschluss) refuses to buy Volvo. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Palandine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/958977/32.png) [@Palandine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palandine)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2001, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344/13 "2001-06-20T14:42:56Z")
So, there was nothing on tv last night and I was watching “Ultimate Betrayal” or something like that on the Victim…errr, Lifetime Network. It was the perfect Lifetime film–four sisters coming to terms with abuse by their father by taking him to court 40 years later (worst court scenes ever–these women just got on the stand and told [in flashback!] the sad story of their lives–no questioning, no cross-examination). The father was also the ideal Lifetime villain–not just a white guy, but a cop and an alcoholic Catholic of Irish descent (the four sisters’ two brothers [who stood up for bad old dad, natch] both spoke with noticeable brogues, although the sisters didn’t) who was phsyically, emotionally, and sexually abusive. Depressing. Which is why I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised to find that this cinematic gem was sponsored by . . . . . . . Prozac weekly. I didn’t know whether to laugh or stare agape at the tv (I ended up laughing). Well, at least it’s nice to know that after “Television for Women” ™ convinces us that everyone’s a victim of something, we can at least float off in a medicated haze. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2001, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344/14 "2001-06-20T15:04:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AndYrAStar \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > apparently quite a large percentage of a Volvo is actually made in Germany. It’s enough so that my best friend’s family, descended from Holocaust refugees (they got out of Austria just after Anschluss) refuses to buy Volvo. > > :rolleyes: \*\* Just curious, but why did the comment on refusal to buy Volvos warrent the rolleyes? ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2001, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344/15 "2001-06-20T15:17:39Z")
Yeah, I’m calling “bullshit” as well on you, AndYrAStar. I think that comment warrants an explanation. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2001, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344/16 "2001-06-20T15:23:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Palandine \* > \*\*Prozac weekly. I didn’t know whether to laugh or stare agape at the tv (I ended up laughing). \*\* There’s a weekly magazine for Prozac?? Wow! ---
**Author:** ![Morrison\_s\_Lament](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Morrison\_s\_Lament](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morrison_s_Lament)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2001, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344/17 "2001-06-20T15:37:29Z")
Come ON! Not buying anything made in Germany because of the holocaust makes about as much sense as boycotting American goods beacuse of slavery! — G. Raven p.s. sorry about the hijack, but I find it AMAZING that people don’t agree with the eyeroll that got, it should have gotten two ---
**Author:** ![Dark\_Lord\_Davidson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bc8723/32.png) [@Dark\_Lord\_Davidson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Lord_Davidson)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2001, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344/18 "2001-06-20T16:15:33Z")
I agree 100%…that’s like (for example) an African-American refusing to wear cotton because of slavery. Gimme a break. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2001, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344/19 "2001-06-20T17:13:47Z")
Sorry, I stand corrected. Please feel free to ridicule people who don’t share your point of view. After all that is what fighting ignorance is all about. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2001, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344/20 "2001-06-20T21:26:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Palandine \* > \*\*Prozac … float off in a medicated haze. \*\* I **WISH!** Unfortunately 😉 , Prozac doesn’t work like that. More together, yes. More aware, yes. Hazy, no. \ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ad-placement-award-for-2001/69344.md?page=2)