Sure, Super Bowl ads are a great way to generate a lot of buzz for your company or product. But how do you fare in the long term? Consumer Reports Home took a look at two stars of Super Ad Bowl 2009: Cash4Gold and General Electric.
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Customer Gets Payless To Compensate Him For Text Message Spam
By 10.23.09
Peter was pretty frustrated when Payless Shoesource ignored his two opt-out texts and continued to pester him with SMS spam. His complained via email and got taken off their list, but then he decided to see if he could get back the money those texts cost him.
Burger King Welcomes Windows 7 With Seven-Patty Whopper
By 10.22.09
What could be more American than celebrating the launch of a new product with an almost comically unhealthy fast-food product? Unfortunately, the seven-patty Windows 7 Whopper is only available in Japan.
Ralph Lauren Is As Weirded Out By This Ad As We Are
By 10.7.09 — Updated: 6.17.16
Fashion advertising has a long tradition of lying, but this comically stupid Ralph Lauren ad seems to have confused the human anatomy with a box of Pocky. Unfortunately, Ralph Lauren doesn’t want to be mocked for its own advertising, so it started sending out DMCA takedown notices to blogs who have posted the ad—both Boingboing and Photoshop Disasters have been ratted out to their ISPs. Blogspot took down the pic from Photoshop Disasters while it investigates, but Boingboing has posted it a second time.
Gee, Jay Leno Sure Does Like Talking About Products
By 10.2.09
Edrants.com recently edited together all the moments of Leno & guests dropping product names. Yes, this is just one episode’s worth of product references.
Internet Speeds Are Lower Than Advertised 50-80% Of The Time
By 9.30.09
Anyone who reads the fine print when signing up for Internet access knows that the speeds advertised are “best case” scenarios, or more cynically that they’re total fabrications meant to lure in customers. Now the FCC, as part of its larger study of how to expand broadband access, has reported that “actual broadband speeds lag advertised speeds by as much as 50% to 80%.”
50 Cool Billboards
By 9.29.09
Most billboards are either ugly jumbles of giant text, or unfortunately memorable things like this. Here’s a list of 50 mostly cool ones (we think the Texas one is ‘shopped, and the anti-American one can suck it). Hey, if you’re gonna advertise on a billboard, you may as well make it entertaining.
Reminder: Amish Heater Is Still No Miracle
By 9.28.09
The supposedly classy New York Times Magazine had a 2-page ad for the Amish Heater this weekend, so with that and the cold times a-coming, now is a good time to remind everyone that the Amish Heater is just a standard space heater plus overpriced particleboard faux-wood mantle on wheels.
UPS Now Delivers Bonus Junk Mail Packages
By 9.25.09
What does the United States Postal Service do for you that UPS doesn’t? Deliver junk mail, you say? Not anymore! Next week, UPS will test market delivering solicitations along with your packages in a few lucky, lucky markets.
Nigeria Demands Apology For Sony Ad Implying They're A Source Of Scams
By 9.18.09
Nigeria is mad at Sony for its latest ads that suggesting a lot of scams come from the country. Heaven forfend!
Comic Duo Offers To Make Free Commercials For Local Businesses
By 9.17.09
Love local commercials? So do Rhett & Link, a couple of comics who film ads for local businesses everywhere. The spot below, for example, makes a delightfully inappropriate plea for racial unity while plugging North Carolina-based Red House Furniture (“We make furniture for black people and white people!”).
Play Doh Ads Make Crying Out For Help Fun
By 9.16.09
These Play Doh ads from Singapore don’t seem to be aimed at kids. Then again, the message “safe no matter what you make” seems to be aimed directly at parents of kids who play with Play Doh, which leads us back to our initial thought, which is wtf kind of kid requiring parental supervision is shaping eerily realistic looking bottles of pills and razor blades for fun? Play Doh, the fun sad toy that tastes like tears!
Danish Government Promotes Unwanted Pregnancies, Tourism
By 9.16.09
Here’s another one for the apology pile: the Danish government is apparently very, very sorry for creating one of the most bizarre tourism campaigns ever. VisitDenmark, which promotes tourism, created a fake website for a pretty young mom who got drunk one night, had sex with a stranger, ended up with a baby, then made an internet video to find the father. The story was purely a hoax—the young woman, an actor; the baby, not hers—and many people sucked in by the sad tale are now pissed off.
Chris Walters On BBC Tomorrow
By 9.16.09
Consumerist’s Chris Walters is slated to be a live guest on the BBC’s “World News Today” tomorrow morning at 7:30 am Eastern, shown on the BBC America and BBC World News cable channels. He’ll be talking about those talking ads in the Sept 18 issue of Entertainment Weekly which combine singing greeting card technology with tiny LCD screens. Set your DVRs, and bust out the tea and crumpets.
Chamber Of Commerce Attacks Proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency
By 9.10.09
Maybe you forgot about the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency in all the health care sound and fury, but it’s still out there, and financial companies are still very much against it. Now the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is launching an ad campaign that shifts the focus from credit card companies to smaller businesses that they insist will be affected, although the scope of the proposed agency is still kind of unclear.
Unethical, Annoying, And Ubiquitous Ads: Internet Miracle Cures For Everything
By 9.4.09
Advertising rates have fallen in all media. This has helped along the implosion of the print media, led to near-saturation of infomercials on TV, and produced the ads for flatter stomachs, whiter teeth, and vanishing stretch marks nearly everywhere you click on the Internet. We know where infomercials come from, but who’s behind these banner ads? Who had the brilliant idea, in a recession, to promise ugly duckling-like transformations at the end of a free trial? Slate’s The Big Money decided to find out.
