And now the time has come for another post about ridiculous advertising!
1) "What part of chicken is nugget?" KFC
I was watching TBS yesterday, and I saw this commercial about a billion times. KFC makes a good point... what part of the chicken is nugget? But KFC, what part of chicken is popcorn? Even after viewing the commercial for the 23rd time, their argument still didn't make much sense to me. Nice try, KFC, but really?
2) "Just Bitten" by Revlon
"Have you ever been bitten?" Who the heck came up with that line? And how did it ever make it off the concept boards and onto TV?
You know, I have been bitten. A Great Dane bit my arm once... not fun. I've also been bitten by mosquitoes on many, many occasions. Those bites are particularly annoying because they itch for a few days. And...just a few weeks ago, my roommate was bitten by at least one cat. She really didn't seem to enjoy the experience one bit!
So Revlon, what exactly are you trying to say about your product? That it will make my lips red, itchy and swollen? (Or is the correct word "plump?") I don't see how associating your product with a negative experience will help sell it... but okay, Revlon.
3) Manhattan Mini Storage
I was with two friends on the subway when I first saw this ad. We put our three brains together and none of us could figure out what the line had to do with storage.
It's an interesting approach—I guess Manhattan Mini Storage determined that their brand's visual language was well established enough that their copy no longer needed to actually promote their service. People will see their ads and immediately recognize them as belonging to "the company that runs the blue (and yellow, if we're talking about color) ads." If they're lucky, their audience might even realize that they're looking an advertisement for a storage company... and not some kid's Twitter account that took a wrong turn and somehow made it's way out of the intertubes and onto a billboard.
I'm just saying... it seems a bit odd to put an unrelated political view on an ad instead of a promotional message. Imagine if McDonald's put out billboards that said "Abortion stops a beating heart." Well yes, that's true, it does...
I enjoy commercials. Sure, they're rather annoying if you're watching some sort of epic movie on TV with commercial breaks every 5 minutes or when you're watching a reality show and the host is like "And the winner is... going to be revealed after this commercial. HA! Gotcha! *cut to commercial break.*" But even when it's not the Superbowl, many of them have some entertainment value, whether it's because they're genuinely funny or they're awful in a Rebecca Black "Friday" sort of way.
I also sometimes enjoy looking at the ads in magazines more than reading the articles. I think it's interesting to see what strategies companies are taking to try to persuade me to buy their product or use their service.
Some of the strategies are ridiculous, though. Either illogical or incredibly ironic. I'm numbering this post because although I've only come up with three for this post, I'm sure I'll find more over time. So here we go.
1) "Love Your/My Body" by Victoria's Secret
Out of respect for any males who might read my blog, I'm cropping this image, but you can view the whole thing here. Even if you don't view the link, I'm sure you can make a pretty educated guess at what the rest of this image looks like.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but advertising is supposed to try to sell a product, right? Victoria's Secret has never done a very good job of convincing me. See, I like men, a lot, so the female sex appeal thing just doesn't work on me. It just doesn't. And just look at the women in that picture. They look so distressed... maybe a little constipated. That's supposed to entice me to buy a product? It's pretty impressive that Victoria's Secret sells any underwear at all to women... the target audience for their advertising seems to be teenage boys!
I first saw the "Love Your/My Body" (I've seen "your" and "my" used, depending on the context) campaign while I was in San Francisco. My first reaction was "Hmm... I love her body... but mine doesn't look like any of those models. I guess this product is not for me and the only bodies worth loving are the ones that look like that? Wow, Victoria's Secret, thanks for the uplifting message... :("
Among the many roles in advertising, you have Art and Copy. Art creates a visual to a line given by Copy, Copy writes to a visual created by Art, and back and forth until something awesome, legal and client-approved is born. "Love Your/My Body" is ridiculous because of the disconnect between the line "Love Your/My Body" and the visual. Few woman would get the warm fuzzies for their own body after viewing images like that. They can see why the model might love her body, but what does that have to do with them? The line "A Body for Every Body" also appears frequently, next to the images of several women with very similar bodies. Also a disconnect—they say they have a Body bra for every body... but they don't prove it; instead they just show several women with similar bodies. Weird. The disconnect comes from the fact that a line like "Love Your Body" just isn't on-strategy for Victoria's Secret. Victoria's Secret doesn't want women to love their bodies. They want to sell sex, but since prostitution is illegal in most states, they just sell bras and panties instead.
2) Nutella
If you watch TV, you've probably seen this commercial:
I find it pretty funny in this time of talk about the "obesity epidemic," one brand would deviate from the trend of promoting healthy eating and instead spread the message that most people have known for years: When you cover it with sugar, food just tastes better. Especially to children.
Yes, Nutella is a hazelnut spread, but doesn't have a lot of nutritional value. The protein content is pretty pathetic and the primary ingredient is sugar. That's why it's delicious.
So when I watch this commercial, what I see is a mother saying, "I can't stand up to my kids and get them to eat healthy... so I've just going to cover everything in sugar instead!" Yeah... I don't think that's a good idea/way to instill good eating habits in children...
I love Nutella... and Nutella on toast is probably still better than a lot of sugary options... but the message of "the only way to get my kids to eat toast is to cover it in sugar" puts this ad on the list of ridiculous advertising.
3) Above the Influence - "Tree Service"
(Video is no longer online, unfortunately)
WOOHOO! I guess they have finally gotten all the kids out there to stop doing drugs, so they're using their remaining funding to tackle the wasted squirrels epidemic.
If you've ever seen Over The Hedge, you know that the last thing your neighborhood wants/needs is a high squirrel. Squirrels are crazy enough as it is... the last thing we need is them using drugs. So I think Above the Influence has a good mission here... they're just forgetting one key thing:
Squirrels don't watch TV!
I also didn't know squirrels got high, but if it's on TV, it must be true... right?
