Commercials that shoot themselves in the foot

[Sue]

Well IMO anyway. I've noticed this before - a commercial that makes you wonder whose creative mind made them think this would be a good idea.

Anyway the one that triggered this: it's a commercial for tripago where you book vacations and end up paying significantly less for the same hotel than someone who didn't book that way. They contrast a nice looking "classy" woman who paid too much with a stereotypical clearly meant to be blue collar "fat" guy who looks like everyone's Uncle Joe - the life of the party who dances on the table with a lampshade on his head.

Don't they think it through that for every slobby "Uncle Joe" they might attract they are turning off all the potential customers who don't want to end up in upscale hotels with "Uncle Joes"?

[crocoduck_hunter]

I believe I've seen the commercial you're referring to, and yeah, it does make it look like they're saying that you'll end up in the room next to this unpleasant guy.

The commercials for that dating website, Zoosk kind of shoot themselves in the foot IMO, given the way they always have the woman fantasizing about a date that ends up going horribly wrong, then saying that she thinks she'll just stick to Zoosk and sitting at her computer: makes it look like she's going to end up just reading profiles instead of going on dates.

[quink]

Three that come to mind:

The Charmin commercial from a few years ago where they decided to take the mysterious blue water thing one step further and use toothpaste to represent the, uh, product toilet paper was supposed to be used on. Instead of coming up with a non-offensive way to show the effectiveness of their brand, they just flashed 'Toothpaste = S***!!!!' all over the screen.

The Febreze commercials that are supposed to show how effective their stuff is by bringing blindfolded people into rooms filled with rotting food or old gym equipment and commenting about how fresh it smells. TV is visual, so now I'm going to end up associating the product with the visual of three day old pizza and gym socks, no matter how much the Not-a-paid-actors tell me they're smelling fresh fields.

Finally, there's a hair colour commercial that twists my brain into knots whenever I hear it. It's a guy talking about how how he's aged, but his wife is still the woman he married and how "Kate is still Kate". So, somehow naturally going grey would make her less of who she really is than artificially altering her appearance (not to mention that he's allowed to get older, but it's implied that he loves her all the more because she still looks like the young thing he remembers). It rubs me completely the wrong way, even though I happily get highlights put in my own hair. I do it because I like the colour better, not because I think it makes me more 'me'.

[Gibbie]

We've got a local spot for a plastic surgeon where the jingle goes "It's your great attitude, that makes you you, **** Plastic Surgery, it's all about attitude." But that's a lie! If your patients were all about attitude they wouldn't need to come see you, you clearly think they need work to have attitude!" (And he's clearly advertising elective plastic surgery, not reconstructive, so yea.)

Gibbie

[Sue]

There's another one for some organization of restaurants (I have no idea who they are) where they're showing a gang of assorted restaurant chefs heading for someone's house acting very angry and brandishing frying pans and the like - the pay off is they stand outside the window looking threatening as they are watching someone cooking a meal because this is somehow going to encourage people to eat out at their restaurants rather than eat at home. I don't know about anyone else but the last place I'd want to eat is some place where a stalker chef works .

[Lambda]

It sounds like 'Don't Cook, Just Eat'.

They are to try and encourage eating takeaways over here, so I don't know if it's the same company over in Canada. Your points certainly apply to the British one.

[Brad from Georgia]

Any drug commercial that ends with a horrific list of side effects. I'd love to play the Apothecary in Romeo and Juliet, sell Romeo the poison, and reel off, "Caution: while using do not ride a horse or drive a coach. Side effects may include impotence, vomiting, baldness, standing close to the rhino, deafness, blindness, difficulty in urination, rapid heartbeat, seizures, incontinence, liver failure, the blind staggers, and living."

[Sue]

Originally Posted by Lambda

It sounds like 'Don't Cook, Just Eat'.

They are to try and encourage eating takeaways over here, so I don't know if it's the same company over in Canada. Your points certainly apply to the British one.

I think they may actually be the same commercials, my husband has commented that the streets the "gang" walk through look very much like streets he's seen in England and had wondered if they were made over in the UK.

I don't know why but we've actually got quite a few "made in the UK" adverts on here now. Sometimes they voice over with a North American accent (like this one) but usually they just leave the British accent in.

Originally Posted by Brad from Georgia

Any drug commercial that ends with a horrific list of side effects.

Agreed! Talk about the cure being worse than the disease.

[LyndaD]

Before Christmas there was a radio spot for a store that stocked masectomy prosthetics and lingerie. It was telling Santa to take Mrs. Claus there to help her feel sexy after her masectomy.

So....it implies Mrs. Claus had breast cancer, and is less of a woman because of it/ Santa needs to take her shopping and buy her fake boobies and special nighties so she'll be attracive again.
Yeah.

[crocoduck_hunter]

Originally Posted by Brad from Georgia

Any drug commercial that ends with a horrific list of side effects. I'd love to play the Apothecary in Romeo and Juliet, sell Romeo the poison, and reel off, "Caution: while using do not ride a horse or drive a coach. Side effects may include impotence, vomiting, baldness, standing close to the rhino, deafness, blindness, difficulty in urination, rapid heartbeat, seizures, incontinence, liver failure, the blind staggers, and living."

I'm pretty sure I've seen one of those that listed both drowsiness and insomnia, and another that listed constipation and diarrhea as possible side effects. I wondered if they meant that both side effects would happen together...

[Jay Temple]

any commercial that thinks that having people (most often children) sing badly is a positive association with their brand

Incidentally, one early ep of The Cosby Show taught me that there's one thing worse than children singing badly—children playing instruments badly.

[Lainie]

Originally Posted by quink

The Charmin commercial from a few years ago where they decided to take the mysterious blue water thing one step further and use toothpaste to represent the, uh, product toilet paper was supposed to be used on. Instead of coming up with a non-offensive way to show the effectiveness of their brand, they just flashed 'Toothpaste = S***!!!!' all over the screen.

Ye gods yes, my least favorite ad ever. Who decided it was a good idea to associate those two substances.

Originally Posted by crocoduck_hunter

I'm pretty sure I've seen one of those that listed both drowsiness and insomnia, and another that listed constipation and diarrhea as possible side effects. I wondered if they meant that both side effects would happen together...

They list what's been reported, and drugs affect individuals differently. So a drug may cause constipation in one person, diarrhea in another, and no digestive side effects in yet another.

[Mickey Blue]

Fast food commercials (particularly Hardees/Carl's Jr) where they show somebody bite into a burger and make a horrible slurping/crunching sound like they have the microphone inside their mouth.

Makes me gag watching it and totally puts me off their food that I would otherwise probably like.

[Floater]

Originally Posted by Sue

Don't they think it through that for every slobby "Uncle Joe" they might attract they are turning off all the potential customers who don't want to end up in upscale hotels with "Uncle Joes"?

I've seen that ad on Swedish commercial TV any number of times but for some reason today was the first time I took notice of it. Even though I'm a non slim middle aged man my immediate thought was "I would not want to stay at the same hotel as that fat bastard".

[Chloe]

I have never been aversely or positively affected by the weight of the person in the neighboring hotel room.

[Sue]

Originally Posted by Floater

I've seen that ad on Swedish commercial TV any number of times but for some reason today was the first time I took notice of it. Even though I'm a non slim middle aged man my immediate thought was "I would not want to stay at the same hotel as that fat bastard".

Exactly! They make him out to be the worst possible stereotype of the "big fat slob" that you could possibly imagine and then they try to convince you to buy the same product this guy is buying? It's utterly bizarre - and even more bizarre that this is an international commercial.

[Dark Blue]

The Snickers commercial where two sharks are being interviewed about which person they ate tasted better, the one who had just eaten a Snickers bar before the shark ate them or the one that had not. So A) As I am not a shark, cannibal, or zombie I don't care about the tastiness of humans or what effects them. B) Being human I can now assume sharks will want to eat me if I eat this product. C) Something puts me off about the idea of a shark tearing a person to shreds and somehow getting the taste of Snickers in the process. D) I just thought it was kind of tasteless as while I know shark attacks are very rare, there are people who have had loved ones killed or injured and have to see such an event used comically to promote a product.

[crocoduck_hunter]

Originally Posted by Lainie

They list what's been reported, and drugs affect individuals differently. So a drug may cause constipation in one person, diarrhea in another, and no digestive side effects in yet another.

Yeah, I know. I just found funny the way they tended to be listed two mutually exclusive possible side effects since it seemed to imply that both could happen at the same time.

[Mateus]

Originally Posted by crocoduck_hunter

I'm pretty sure I've seen one of those that listed both drowsiness and insomnia, and another that listed constipation and diarrhea as possible side effects. I wondered if they meant that both side effects would happen together...

Originally Posted by Lainie

They list what's been reported, and drugs affect individuals differently. So a drug may cause constipation in one person, diarrhea in another, and no digestive side effects in yet another.

But if they caused both simultaneously, would anyone notice?

[JoeBentley]

Any commercial that basically says "Do what we are telling you to do and what you see all these people doing if you want to be a rebel, iconoclastic individual."