UPDATE: Be sure to check out the 2011 edition of our Worst Ad Round Table! [More]
advertising
Quiznos Responds To Worst Ad In America Nomination
By 9.23.10
Among the five aggravating ads duking it out for in the battle royale that is Consumerist’s first ever Worst Ad In America Awards, is the “Singimals” campaign by sandwich shop Quiznos. Surprisingly, the sandwich company actually responded to our request for a comment on their inclusion. [More]
'Pit Boss' Star Calls For Burger King Boycott Over Pit Bull Ad
By 9.23.10
Even though the Burger King ad featuring a mail man singing about being chewed on by attack dogs hadn’t been out long enough to be a Worst Ad In America 2010 nominee, we’re pretty sure it will have one semi-famous person, Shorty Rossi of Animal Planet’s Pit Boss, backing its nomination next year. [More]
To Make A Good Lady Logo, Choose A Squiggle, Tree, Ribbon, Or Spiral
By 9.22.10
If you’re going to make a logo for some kind of lady group, you have four leitmotifs to choose from: squiggle, tree, ribbon or spiral. In her entirely .jpg-based essay, artist Shana Moutlon looks at how we reinforce gender stereotypes through bad logo design. [More]
KFC Pays College Girls To Advertise Double Down On Their Butts
By 9.22.10
Some might look at the KFC Double Down — aka the bacon and cheese sandwich with fried chicken “buns” — and say “a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.” But the fried chicken chain is hoping you’ll associate the sandwich with the rear ends of young college women. [More]
Auto Garage Door Closer Protects Your Cat From Armed Robbery
By 9.22.10
This ad, which uses an image that’s been passed around online for a few years, seems to suggest that while you are gone from home, a burglar might sneak into your house through the open garage door and stick your cat up at gunpoint. [More]
Budweiser Reminding People It Exists By Giving Away Free Budweiser
By 9.22.10
Looks like the King of Beer’s crown could use some polishing. Bothered by sagging sales and the availability of other beers that aren’t Budweiser, the folks at Anheuser-Busch InBev N.V. LLD, DDS, PhD, Esq., have decided it’s time to give a few hundred thousand people a massive lager lesson — by giving away samples of Bud. [More]
CAPTCHA Codes, Now With Ad Slogans
By 9.22.10
A company called Solve Media is rolling out a new CAPTCHA interface that requires you type in an ad slogan instead of a nonsense word, reports AdAge. Advertisers are looking for message comprehension,” says the company’s owner, “And you know what they say, ‘If you write something down, you remember it.'” And if you force a customer to repeat your slogan during an unrelated transaction, does he resent you for it? [More]
Next Stop, TV Ads Inside The Subway Car
By 9.22.10
Mark another “safe from motion-based commercial messages” area off the list. New York is trying out adding TV screens inside subway cars as a way to bolster flagging revenues. The first campaign is a “full body wrap” – what graffiti artists used to call “bombing” – on the 42nd street shuttle for TBS’s baseball playoff coverage. The (silent) monitors will show highlights from previous games. [More]
Here Are Your Nominees For Consumerist's Worst Ad In America 2010!
By 9.22.10
Readers of Consumerist: We asked you to tell us which commercials you hate the most, and oh boy, did you let us know. Finally, after sifting through thousands of your suggestions, we bring you your nominations for Consumerist’s First Annual Worst Ad In America Awards. [More]
Apple Makes Newsday Take Down Awesome iPad App Ad?
By 9.21.10
Last week Newsday put out a hilarious new ad to promote its new iPad app, and now Apple has made them take down the most widely distributed version, according to an insider tip posted by by Network World. Maybe it was because the ad shows a guy who has replaced his newspaper with the iPad trying to swat a fly with the device and ends up smashing his iPad into shards. The tipster said Apple told Newsday had to get rid of the ad, or they would eject their app from the App store. Touchy, touchy. In case you missed it, here is the ad again (reuploaded by another user): [More]
McDonald's Slams Ad Equating Big Macs With Heart Disease
By 9.20.10
Last week, we wrote a group called the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine that had produced an ad that made a direct link between McDonald’s food and heart disease by showing a corpse in a morgue clutching a partially eaten Big Mac. Believe it or not, McDonald’s was not pleased with the TV spot. [More]
Announcing Consumerist's First Annual Worst Ad In America Awards
By 9.20.10
Those of you with good memories may recall that we recently asked readers to nominate the worst ads currently airing on U.S. TV. What had been intended as fodder for a one-off poll has blossomed into something much bigger — Consumerist’s First Annual Worst Ad In America Awards. [More]
UK Bans Ice Cream Ad Featuring Pregnant Nun
By 9.15.10
It’s not surprising that some people might be a bit offended by an ad that tries to sell ice cream by using a photo of a pregnant nun. What is surprising is that the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority has actually banned the ad for fear of ticking off Catholics. [More]
Spike TV: Home Of The 10-Minute Commercial Breaks
By 9.13.10
How long can a cable channel run commercials before viewers forget what they were watching and — literally — tune out? That’s the question that the folks at Spike TV appear to be tacitly asking their audience, as it stretches the length of some of its commercial breaks well past existing standards — some to as long as 10 minutes. [More]
What Happens When You Let 100 Cats Loose Inside An IKEA?
By 9.10.10
Who knows better than cats what the most comfortable and interesting spaces in your house are? That’s the idea behind a new commercial for IKEA. To get the crucial kitty footage, one hundred cats were–why not?–let loose inside the Wembley store after hours to romp and nap for the cameras. [More]
Strip Club Nearly Blinds Southwest Pilots At Love Field
By 9.6.10
Strip clubs and cockpits don’t mix, at least not when there’s a spinning search light involved, says the FAA. The agency has asked Bombshells, a club near Love Field Airport in Dallas, TX, to keep its newly installed rooftop light turned off after the pilot for a Southwest flight reported his cockpit was flooded with light while trying to land the plane. The pilot feared that it was a laser strike, which can cause temporary blindness. [More]
Snoop Dogg Partners With Norton To Fight Cybercrime
By 9.3.10
Security software maker Norton has hired rapper Snoop Dogg to be the face of a new contest that asks people to upload to “hackiswack.com” a 2 minute videos of themselves rapping about cybercrime. Winners get to hang out with the Snoop Dizzle, free tickets to his concert, and a new laptop preloaded with Norton Internet Security 2011. The partnership makes sense, as computer on Norton runs as fast as if you “smoke weed everyday.” [More]
