Advertising you just don't get

[Elok]

By "don't get," I mean stuff that instead of inspiring you to buy the product, makes you feel ill at ease/frightened/enraged/nauseous/etc. I'm thinking particularly of that creepy family on Netflix's TV spots. I think they're called the Wrightnows or something, and I can't understand how they're supposed to make me want to use Netflix. The whole family acts relentlessly cheery, talks in odd catchphrases, and stares vacantly when speaking. It's like they've been worked over by some sinister cult that kidnapped them and forced them to watch TV Land for days at a time. Except for that cranky Uncle Hector guy, he's just a crotchety heel. The whole set of ads frightens me, makes me want to change the channel.

The only logical explanation I can come up with is that Netflix wanted to improve sales among Moonies, Scientologists, and other people who actually act that way, and they were confident enough in their hold on normal people to not worry about scaring them off with their glassy-eyed army of cinema ghouls. Like crazy people are the last niche market Blockbuster is still holding on to or something. Or else it's just a very, very bad ad campaign and someone's going to get fired.

Also, those mercifully short-lived "Little Deviants" Scion commercials featuring these hideous mutants that live in the sewers and only come up to murder the equally creepy-looking "sheeple" and use their heads for hood ornaments. All the while this sinister narrator is reciting a singsong verse about the clever little deviants. I guess they were supposed to appeal to the rebel nonconformist market, but if so they overshot badly--the "malicious antisocial psychopath" market is pretty limited, and most of them spend their money on guns and paper for blueprints of their high schools. Really, those spots just screamed "Scion: Dylan Klebold's vehicle of choice." Probably that's why they no longer run them, but I have to wonder how those gruesome abominations even got funding.

And I'm just getting started. Does anyone else ever wonder if maybe the ad industry has troubles with drug use? Is that why Ming is so inactive lately?

[Lorizael]

There seem to be trends in the advertising industry that persist for a variable amount of time. The current trend, I think, is advertisement of the absurd.

It doesn't matter what happens in the commercial, what the actors say or don't say, whether or not the product appears good or bad, or who the target audience is - all that matters is that the commercial is so strange and absurd that it becomes unforgettable.

And if they manage to make the association between the indelible impression the commercial has left on your brain and the product the company is attempting to sell, then the advertisers have done their job. I think.

[Ming]

Re: Advertising you just don't get

Originally posted by Elok
And I'm just getting started. Does anyone else ever wonder if maybe the ad industry has troubles with drug use? Is that why Ming is so inactive lately?

Drug use in the ad industry...

Being in the business, I too have to wonder when I see stuff like that on the air. The first question I always ask is, "what is the objective of this ad"... and after looking at the ad, and I can't figure that out... I know I'm looking at another terrible ad. Creativity for creative sakes is a bad reason to produce an ad.
Especially when the ad sucks.

Like all things in life, there is the good and the bad. When it comes to advertising, I'm afraid I see a lot more of the bad than the good.

[Japher]

Dominos pizza should stop showing their pizzas in the ads... makes me want to vomit

[-Jrabbit]

The thing that has bothered me most (and increasingly) over the past few years is the trend to portray the user of the product as a moron, usually in a vain effort to inject "humor" into the ad.

The message they are sending: "Our customers are idiots!"

Examples are too numerous to mention.

[Ming]

And what is weird is that not making the customer look like an idiot is simply marketing 101.

It's ok to make the husband look like a moron if you are trying to sell the wife... but NEVER EVER make your end customer look like an idiot.

I guess some people slept through that class

[Elok]

It's pretty sad that there has to be a class at all. Perhaps there was some sort of exception to the rule way back when that everyone's trying to emulate? Maybe an ad that said, "Volkswagen: perfect for '***** like you" and moved a million Golfs, or something like that?

Also, the Jitterbug ads. Mostly I'm baffled by their decision to sell a phone that looks like it was manufactured by Fisher-Price for $150 not including service fees. That's not the advertisers' fault, I know. But the commercials actually look and sound like something for a Fisher-Price play phone, only the stumbly child actors are replaced by modestly-talented senior actors. Does the wittle geezer-weezer want to pway with our shiny, nonthreatening plastic object? We know you old farts are incompetent with technology, so we've made a kiddie phone just for you!

Oh, and of course the Carrot Top ads for collect calls. I don't really need to elaborate on why those were a bad idea. This thread will probably sink like a rock once I run out of things to whine about, huh?

[Ming]

DISCLAIMER... I HATE the Carrot Top ads...

The Carrot Top ads were never meant to be aimed at me or you Elok (I assume you are a smart person that is not poor)

They were targeting poor people who still use collect calls. Carrot Top's low humor does well across that demographic. So at least I can understand when I see a company using Carrot Top to reach an appropriate demographic segment. You wouldn't use some high brow comedian to reach that target.

While I hate many commercials, it doesn't really bother me if the commercial isn't targeting me. But it really bothers me when I hate a commercial that I know is targeted to me. That is simply bad advertising

[Aeson]

I'm sure there are people out there who think getting outwitted by a monkey is a step up...

Presenting their product's end users as exhibiting a higher level of consciousness might be too absurd to be believable?

[Barnabas]

I like this one about cakes

[Winston]

Get rid of your TVs, people. Then you'd have to actually make a determined effort to encounter these braindead commercials.

[Ming]

Then I would have to give up live sports... And I would rather have to put up with commercials than pay some stupid TV tax

[snoopy369]

Fortunately it costs little to watch ads And it's a good break for the bathroom

[alva]

Then I would have to give up live sports... And I would rather have to put up with commercials than pay some stupid TV tax

Really Ming? I don't to be honest.

I've been watching some (American) poker shows (torrents) and they annoy me to no end.
"The player's Snickers cards brought to you by the Wiener Hole cam on the Budweiser Blue table...!!"
Not even going start on the interrupts every two and a half minutes (which luckily are cut out on the versions I get), for which of course they have to warn us and recap on what has happened and then when they do come back from a 'break', they need to recap again, which in turn leaves about one minute of new footage/commentary to start the cycle again. Grrrr!!!

But I guess that's not the topic at hand.

There have been a few very good commercials but as I understand it, quality is not the main objective as people tend to remember a good ad but then often forget the product, whereas with annoying ads, people tend to remember the product better.

case in point would be the 'Get uppa' ad (guy with a a broom in a bar going/mumbling: "getupàà", the goes outside obviously waiting for something, car comes by, loudly playing James Brown's 'Get on up"). Many remember the ad, hardly anyone remembers what is was for.

[Kidlicious]

Re: Advertising you just don't get

Originally posted by Elok
By "don't get," I mean stuff that instead of inspiring you to buy the product, makes you feel ill at ease/frightened/enraged/nauseous/etc.

Almost all of them. Particularly ads that just reinforce brandnames like billboards, magazine ads, and most tv comercials. Also, stupid jingles. Ads aren't informative, and they are a waste of our time. The whole deal would make me sick, if I didn't become used to it. But I still don't like them, because they are a waste of resources and time.