Archive for the ‘bad ads’ Category
Awful.
Posted on: June 27, 2009
- In: bad ads | web
- Leave a Comment
I am not a violent person. However, I would like to physically harm who ever created the pop up people that talk on websites.
Dear Merchant Circle,
Please disable your the popup lady who tries to sell me on your package deals.
Thanks.
To experience the annoyingness for yourself – click here.
Bumpit.
Posted on: April 26, 2009
In this time of economic crisis, are you really going to spend your money on bigger hair?
I don’t ever want to “bump a pony” thank you very much.
Is the woman dancing at 1:48 even wearing the thing?
I’ve lost all hope for the future of humanity.
Rotoscoped.
Posted on: April 7, 2009
- In: agencies | bad ads
- Leave a Comment
Charles Schwab commercials have been using the rotoscoping technique in their ads since about 2005. These ads have always annoyed me. I can’t stand the use of animation purely for the sake of using animation.
Advertising Rules #72 – In commercials targeted towards adults (especially middle aged adults), animation should only be used if real live people could not execute the story line more effectively.
Esurance commercis are a great example of when animation helps the message and the spot. There is no way those storylines could be executed with the same tone, message and slickness if real people were used. Charles Schwab, on the other hand, really doesn’t need to animate people’s faces as they sit on a bench in front of a camera and bitch to you. Real live people could pull that off just fine.
But then there’s Charles Schwab who is trying to sell itself as an upstanding and reliable finance company. Do the cartoonish characters really support the focus of the campaign? The use of less smug and REAL people would be so much more effective.
Talk to Chuck is such a great line and its completely laid to waste after a viewer sees the douchy characters rotoscoped to ultimate creepiness.
Charles Swchab recently put its $100M media into play, with incumbent Omnicom’s PHD, Universal McCann and Aegis’s Carat all being invited to pitch. How about you put creative into play too? Your media buy is going to remain ineffective so long as your creative is this terrible.
I couldn’t find a recent spot as an example, but this one from 2008 looks exactly the same as the one from this month.
Based on the youtube comments, I guess I’m not alone in my distaste for rotoscoping…
Creepy.
Posted on: February 12, 2009
The “I lost my job but am now making a ton of money from Google” ads are blanketing Facebook. I just thought they were annoying spam ad, then I noticed that the frankenstein hands inserted into the pictures. These ads are f’ing creepy!
When in the creative process does one say “What we’re really missing are some yellow Frankenstein hands!”
Facebook recently sent me a survey as a previous advertiser asking me why I no longer publish ads on the site, well take a look. Why would I place any of my clients within the same ad space as these ads?
Excess.
Posted on: February 10, 2009
- In: bad ads | banners | media buying | social marketing
- 1 Comment
So raise your hand if in the last few weeks you’ve noticed these ads EVERYWHERE online.
While these ads annoy me to no end, I would kill to work on this account. This is one of the few accounts that has increased their spend recently and they are just blanketing the web.
Not sure if their on a behavioral buy (although I don’t look up diet information), could be demographic (because all 25 year old women are obsessed with their weight) or maybe they’re just buying remanent ad space by zip or DMA.
The website (yes I clicked, I was curious) is positioned as a San Diego woman’s blog. Anyone else click through on these and have a website targeting their DMA?
Recap.
Posted on: February 2, 2009
You had to know it was coming…the Superbowl ad recap. BTW You can check them all out on Hulu.
Overall, Hyundai was the clear winner of the super bowl. They presented a clear and cohesive message through memorable (if a little boring) ads. Hyundai is going after market share in the recession through a very well thought out and beautifully executed campaign. While their ads might not be the ones everyone discussed today, they’re keeping the brand alive and in a positive light through messages that will outlast the Superbowl spotlight.
Other stand outs include:
1) Doritos Crystal Ball – The only spot that made me really laugh out loud. While it was a little strange and incredibly funny, the spot didn’t deviate from the brand image or try to hard. Yes, people are hating on Doritos for doing a user submitted contest for their creative (which is soooo 2007), but I say excellent work!
2) CareerBuilder.com – I hated this and almost muted it until they kola was punched. Then I was giggling fool. Punching a kola that’s wearing glasses and drinking coffee = WIN. I liked the Monster.com spot, but this spot was waaay better. It was repetitive and annoying but so are some jobs, right? So they were pretty much spot on in what they were try to sell. Side Note: In the spot break that ran the Monster.com spot, a voice over did a name mention for CareerBuilder.com while going back into the game. I don’t know how CareerBuilder did it and as a media planner I would be asking for a partial refund if I was Monster.com. If a station is not going to bother with category exclusivity within a spot break for a $3M spot, then they are clearly just whoring out ad time.
3) Hulu.com was the unexpected awesomeness. Hulu is a great service and a cool brand, but I’m pretty sure its relatively unknown amongst the non tech people. The ad was memorable, funny and pretty honest. Side Note: My favorite tweets regarding the hulu spot were ones like this from Allen. I’m sorry guy but I think you missed the point of your favorite ad, Hulu is a place you can go to see videos online. Its like youtube but with a higher quality…so maybe you could try going to hulu to view the ads?
4) Audi (yes I know I just said Hyundai was the overall winner) but Audi had a fantastic spot that was visually stunning and a brilliant depiction of their brand. Classy, powerful and sexy. I want an Audi A4.
Despite the hype, the Cash4Gold spot wasn’t all that great. Ed McMahon looked so old and feeble. Plus its sad because we all know he’s really in need of money. McHammer was funny, but funny is not going to get me to do business with the scam that is Cash4Gold. Meh.
Same.
Posted on: December 29, 2008
I’m pretty sure the type of people who fall for email scams are the same people who click on banner ads like this
I would love to meet the designers behind these ads. How do you sleep at night knowing you’ve put something like this out there?
Saturn.
Posted on: December 14, 2008
I know I shouldn’t be picking on automotive companies right now. They’re hurting…bad. And they’re taking a bunch of fellow advertisers as they go. But really, you expect these commercials to bring customers back? Why not just call it a going out of business sale and save some money on production?
Please help me understand what this commercial trying to say. This is what I get from it…I think I’m missing the point.
Saturn’s are ugly, cheap cars most people normally wouldn’t be caught dead in, but now that the economy is shit please buy from us because we’re still cheap!
Surprise, Saturn dealerships are still open!
Yes, this is Saturn, the dealership that runs the same red tag event every year and yet always fails to sell cars.
Why the “Red Tag Discount” of only $924? You couldn’t spare 76 dollars and make it an even grand? Hell you couldn’t spare a dollar and make it at least $925?
While my memory of Auto Advisory guidelines is slightly fuzzy because I’ve been off of auto print for a while, I’m pretty sure the bottom line is supposed to say Total Discount from MSRP, not Total Value Compared to MSRP.
Ok I’ll stop, now I’m just being mean.
Corky’s.
Posted on: November 4, 2008
Another example of just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
It looks like they took their full page penny saver ad and tried to make it into banners.
Does Corky’s really get rid of ants in your pants? And for only $69?? Glad they put that in a starburts or I would never be able to find the price within all the copy in the leaderboard. I’m surpirsed the guy isn’t actually dancing with the spiders in his pants.
I can’t even write about the big box ad accompanying it….tragically bad.
I just want to help you Corky’s! Write a comment on this blog and I will help you with your online ads.
