Why are ads so STUPID these days?

[Stephanos132]

Ads need a hook, and what better hook than making it profound enough to remember. From there you can endlessly repeat yourself (wepurchaseall4wheeledautomobiles) or be so incredibly abstract and unrelated to the product (meerkats anyone?) that wtf is the only option.

Also, they have to operate within a lot of creative confines these days. For example this was ok a few decades ago. You'd never get away with it now.

See also the coco pops ads of old and any ad for foods targeting children, bonus points if the health killjoys don't like that food. You'll notice they are rather different now (dancing milkman in my cereal? teh fuck?)

 

[beniki]

Adverts are stupid so you remember them.

Cilit Bang
Go Compare
Compare the Market

All ridiculous adverts but you always remember them.

I had a maths professor who used to talk like the cilit bang guy.

"And as you see here, the probability function is too complex! Just apply some differentiation, and bang, the problem is gone!"

 

[z3rostr1fe]

Still waiting for the other responses... Commercials amuse me, no matter how stupid it is. But they don't really make me buy their product.

 

[Jester00]

<youtube=3rOzHkTENsk>

the box in the end looks like a box full of explosive ammo.

i know some very good ads, but they are german and you won't understand them

 

[omega 616]

THIS STUPID AD!


Mostly because I was forced to watch it three times during every episode of a show I watched, but also for other banal reasons (might want to watch it yourself before reading on):

I mean, it's all in good fun at first. Great Escape theme, check, flinging beer ingredients into the clouds, check, but then two crazy women decide to get flung into the clouds too

Everyone stops for reflection for a moment, and for a second it looks like it might be some road safety ad about getting carried away ( EDIT Pun NOT intended), and then a reindeer shows up for no reason (though to be fair its sort of a trademark of Toohey's). Then apparently flinging it up too is some sort of brilliant idea, and they do it. The rain comes, and it's beer, and all is well.

They seem to forget though, that the ad suggests that Toohey's Extra Dry is made of Malt, Hops, Yeast, bits of Reindeer... and DEAD HUMAN BEINGS

Now if that isn't downright stupid STUPID advertising I don't know what is.

Like all the things in tht advert did, WOOSH!

Well the deer or buck (I don't think aussies have reindeer) got launched 'cos it's there animal, the one that is on the label anyway.

The girl's 'cos men buy women alcohol for one reason only, plus whats booze without girls?

 

[Malkavian]

I spologize I can nod accompany this post with a video link, but I simply couldn't find it. A description will have to do.

Right now, they are running an add for Libero diapers on danish television, which is two women filmin out the window of an airplane, and being incredibly excited because they see 4 storks outside, carrying babies. I mean really excited.

"Oh my god, oh my god, can you see that? You... you are filming, you have the camera, right? Right? Oh my gooood"

Now, I have one hug eproblem with this. It's not funny. You see, the excitement the women project is not the "AWWWW BABIES" excitement, it is "THAT IS HILARIOUS! WHAT EN EXPERIENCE WE ARE HAVING!" and, and this does not carry well into a description, it sounds so enormously hollow and forced. Add to that(pun maybe intended... you will never know) that another product has been using a similar "format" for advertising a sportsdrink here for YEARS, and this just seems like a bad copy, showing just how incredibly not funny women can be. I apologize to any women reading this: Of course, its not everyone. I know quite a lot of funny girls. But you know, there is a certain kind of humor that seems to be found only in your sex. And it sucks. And this ad I speak of... it is the epitome of that.

As a side note: How the hell do storks match the speed of a commercial airplane?

 

[YourlocalPCsnob]

Would you buy...
or
Either way you are the controller

 

[Catchy Slogan]

The Halifax ads. You know, the ones that are a radio show. On TV. WHY. If I wanted a radio ad, I would listen to a radio, not watch it on the tv.

 

[LastMondaysHangover]

What commercials? I watch my shows on Netflix and DVR, what are these commercials you speak of?

OT: As a marketing major, you may think it's a stupid ad, but at the same time it's brilliant. Even if you thought it was the most idiotic thing you have seen, chances are you will still remember the product associated with the said ad because what made you remember it was how dumb you thought it was

 

[Tharwen]

All of the adverts for the Fred movie.

Not because the adverts themselves are annoying (even though they are), but because someone paid someone else to direct a Fred movie.

 

[LastMondaysHangover]

OT: As a marketing major, you may think it's a stupid ad, but at the same time it's brilliant. Even if you thought it was the most idiotic thing you have seen, chances are you will still remember the product associated with the said ad because what made you remember it was how dumb you thought it was

I could have sworn marketers were there to sell a product, not drive people to other companies that don't advertise in a stupid manner.

I'd be downright embarrassed if I worked in marketing and ever penned an ad like that.

Marketers do more than just sell products to people, they also help in developing more effective ways of advertising a product.

Remember that annoying Slim Jim commercial with Edge? It was annoying, repetitive, and stale. Was it effective? Yes. In a good way? No. So I see where you are coming from.

Personally, I'd like to work in marketing for a gaming company because as a gamer, I'm able to relate to the demographic my company would be making products for

 

[antidonkey]

Most ads I'd say are neutral to me. Even many of the idiotic ones don't phase me. However, the Axe "dirty balls" ads make we want to firebomb Unilever and any retail store that carries their products.

 

[Sinspiration]

We need more of this.

 

[The Rockerfly]

because you will remember them. Very simply that's what ads are about

 

[Evilsanta]

That is all.

So you think the Panda Cheese ads are stupid, eh? The Panda is on to you now and he won't leave you alone until you buy his cheese.

Spoiler: 100% distilled WTF

<youtube=roPuKLKgHNI>

WTF did i just watch?! ARGH! MY EYES! THEY ARE HURTING! WHERE IS MY BRAIN BLEACH!?

OT: Sorry for the caps but that was the most fucked up ad i have ever seen...

Stupid ads, Hmm...I can't come up with any as i ignore ads and i kinda zone out when they are on.

 

[thejboy88]

I know exactly what you mean. I recently posted a forum topic regarding the decline of modern media. Adverts cout I suppose and this is just a prime example of what I was talking about. (Sigh) I miss the Budweiser Frogs

 

[Tartarga]

I really hate that Above the Influence ad where it goes "Remember that old argument that everyone is doing it?". All I can think of when I see it is "Oh shit, everyone is doing it! I better go get some drugs, wouldn't want to seem uncool". I hate all their commercials, if anything they make me want to do drugs more.

 

[Atticus89]

Advertisement has been stupid from the beginning. The fact that you remembered the product proves that it worked, though not for the intended purpose of making you buy something.

 

[BenzSmoke]

I don't know why they're so stupid these days.
Sure, the stupidity cements the product in my mind.
But they certainly don't make me want to by the product.