The Consumerist’s guide to the top 10 worst gaffes, flops, and disasters in the history of American marketing and advertising.
commercials
Great Moments In Commercial History: Moo and Oink
By 2.15.07
We think you’ll all agree, this Classic Moo and Oink commercial is possibly the greatest thing ever broadcast over the airwaves in the history of mankind. From the piles of meat, to that one woman’s sweater, to the strange painful sounding sign-off, Moo and Oink raises the bar for all regional chain stores. We salute you. Seriously. This makes us happy.—MEGHANN MARCO
Super Bowl Ad Spoilers
By 1.26.07
Finally, this year there is a Super Bowl worth watching for the game, rather than the ads, which promise to be boring and lame. If you’d like to spoil them for yourself, check out USA Today.
Does Wal-Mart Secretly Hate The Gay?
By 10.10.06
A reader reports seeing a series of strange Wal-Mart ads that seem to exhibit a subversive, latent, homophobia on the part of the big box retailer.
Burger King Advises You To Eat Triple Whopper Like A Snake
By 10.6.06
You know, it’s funny. If they had just made this commercial starring one of Burger King’s more gelatinous and rotund customers, they doubtlessly wouldn’t have had to CGI that thin, serpentine Asian man unhinging his jaw. After all, they’re used to not chewing.
Bloodsport Does Mentos
By 9.15.06
Although sad that this Jean Claude Van Damme Mentos commercial doesn’t end with him punching a tube of Mentos Ricky-Oh style through the spurting torso of his enemies, it’s amazing how Mentos-like Van Damme’s girly little chase scene from Bloodsport actually is.
Head-On Watch Continues
By 8.3.06
It’s been a busy week for HeadOn. After making the blog rounds, it was the subject of a Slate feature and it burbled up to national media, appearing on the Nightly News, MSNBC and NPR’s “Day to Day.”
Teaser for Zune, Microsoft’s iPod
By 7.27.06
Fu Qinzhu Pimps Fu Qin KFC
By 7.25.06
In the mid 1600s, Fu Qingzhu paused from his campaign against the mindless slaughter being committed by those Manchurian Bastards to preach the perfection of the KFC Chicken Burger to his seven sword apprentices. Or so claims a KFC commercial currently airing in China and playing off of the 2005 success of Tsui Hark’s Seven Swords. Unfortunately, the Chinese don’t quite dig Fu Qingzhu’s recast as a sort of Asiatic Colonel Sanders.
Redux; Head On! Apply Directly to the Forehead!
By 7.21.06
Last month we posted the commercial for Head On! – a headache relief stick that you rub on your brow. The commercial repeats “Head On! Apply Directly to the Forehead!” over and over again.
Mary Tyler Moore, Oven Sprite
By 7.11.06
We might have unicorns in Wendy’s commercials but in the 1950’s, they had magical fairies, and Mary Tyler Moore. Before she became Mrs. Dick Van Dyke, Moore was was Happy Hotpoint, a blithe, dancing, 3-inch pixie shilling for Hotpoint appliances on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.
Chrysler’s Final 0% Solution
By 6.30.06
There are absolutely no new ideas in advertising. In this latest proof, Chrysler rips off Volkswagen ripping off Mitsubishi by playing up the combustible engine’s ethnic heritage, in this case, as in VW’s, German. The campaign introduces Dr. Z as CEO and spokesmensch. To cries of “I can’t see any lederhosen,” Daimler replies, “Farfegcocca.”
Unfortunately Placed Hotel.com Ad, Isn’t
By 6.13.06
There’s a clip going around showing a hotels.com ad right before ABC Tech Watch goes into a report about hotel.com users being at risk for credit card fraud. Ostensibly, hilarity ensues. However, the gaffe isn’t as egregious as one might think; the Tech Watch report actually ran the ad within the show, as shown by the tell-tale ABC logo superimposed on the bottom right. During commercial breaks, that logo disappears.
Video of iPod Nike Shoe in Action
By 6.2.06
Here’s an ad explaining how the crazy hooking up an iPod nano to your Nike running shoe works. Pretty f’n cool. It seems like your nano will speak to you and tell you how far you’ve run, how far you have to go, how long you ran, etc. You can then redock your nano and track all your progress on the computer.
I Am Man, Hear Me Roar… When My Heart Explodes
By 5.31.06
Misogynist reinterpretations of female empowerment songs always bring a smile to our faces, especially when it involves what appears to be a concerted campaign to give every man in American a quadruple simultaneous heart attack.
Carbon Dioxide is Our Friend
By 5.30.06
Would you believe that some heartless politicians are trying to take our greenhouse effect carbon dioxide away from us? This film by the “Competitive Enterprise Institute” shows us the Washington fatcats diabolical plans to deprive us of nature’s invisible little helper.
Red Stripe Beer Makes You Pretty
By 5.29.06
As I found out to my horror at a wedding on Saturday night, beer can make even the ugliest girls beautiful when ingested in acuity crippling quantities. But Red Stripe Beer won’t just make that belching anthropomorphic sow beautiful… just holding a bottle will make you lovely.
Boingle Bucket: 70’s Toy Commercial Montage
By 5.23.06
We saw over at Boing Boing this great montage of 70’s toy commercials. Bing Bang Boing looks particularly awesome… a Rube Goldberg game made entirely of masturbatory paraphernalia. “It’s down the Bingle Flinger, past the Hum Drums, up the Banglevator, through the Flicker Tickler, and into the Boingle Bucket!” Getting your balls in the Boingle Bucket is the last step before you win by reaching the ‘Big O’ square, we assume.
