Posted on Sunday 30 March 2008
Watching the NCAA tournament has given me the chance to enjoy the best ads that Madison Avenue has to offer. Unfortunately, there seems to be a fair amount of craptactularity in the rotation. Some of my least favorite spots:
- CBS: Did you know CBS has CSI and Cold Case? Did I mention that CBS has CSI and Cold Case? Could someone please solve the mystery of why we need a cop show every other hour of primetime?
- Charles Schwab: Let’s have people complain about how their current broker doesn’t take them seriously. Oh, and we’ll show them we do take them seriously by caricaturing them as cartoons.
- Guitar Hero: Who hasn’t got a funny feeling in their throat and thought, “Gee, maybe I’m about to puke Slash from Guns N’ Roses”?
- Viagra: The most disappointing thing about this commercial is they’ve spilled the beans on what guys really do when they get together. Rare is the occasion where someone doesn’t start strumming a few chords and next thing you know everyone is singing about erectile dysfunction to the tune of Elvis songs.
- Lamisil: Upon reflection, the pharmaceutical industry really is a factory for terrible ads. I don’t think this one is on the air, but it’s so bad as to inspire an entire Slate article. Evidently, someone thought an effective way to sell their product would be to induce nausea in the audience with a little impish creature who rips off someone’s toe nail to crawl under and wreak havoc. Yea, pretty much let’s show a torture technique being applied to someone…that’ll sell the produce.
- Cialis: Another one of those pharma classics. The poor guy seems to have been a victim of mis-diagnosis. His problem doesn’t so much require Cialis as it does moving over to the other tub. So many questions: Why are their two bathtubs overlooking the mountains? Where are the towels and toiletries? Is this situation really a turn-on?
Tags: commercials, Sports
I don’t know why we need so many cop shows. Maybe that’s where the Homeland Security funding is going…
At the end of every episode of Cold Case I keep hoping that the muderer realizes that there would be no actual evidence if they just don’t admit that they killed the other person. Every episode ends up with the murderer coming clean and then they arrest him/her. Not that I’m necessarily rooting for the bad guy, but come on, you can go ahead and kill someone in cold blood, but you crack when presented with that fact that the police suspect that you may be guilty.
The funny thing is that you have NO idea how much goes into making a TV spot! Companies spend tens of thousands of dollars testing these with focus groups, too. Sometimes the point of a commercial is to simply be disruptive so you’ll pay enough attention for them to get their point across, even if it’s disgusting or weird.
The Schwab commercials held my attention long enough to check out their checking account that builds interest. Yeah, I hate the cartoons, but that and the others were effective enough to warrant this blog. So, I’d say, mission accomplished, in some roundabout sort of way.
Is it just me or are they killing the tournament with commercials? I think there are more commercials than the Super Bowl. I guess with DVR, they need to increase the volume of commercials to counter the decrease in exposure from all the people fast forwarding through on the breaks.
Can I add another bad pharmaceutical commercial? Detrol LA. If you’re in the bathroom talking to the figure from the restroom sign, you’ve got bigger problems than an overactive bladder.