ABOUT ADS OF THE WEIRD

With Ads of the Weird, MSNBC.com takes a look at some of the oddest, most eye-catching, controversial and just plain interesting advertising out there today. Primary writer Allison Linn covers the retail and advertising industries for MSNBC.com. The Ads of the Weird team is always interested in hearing what ads have caught your attention, whether it's online, on television or in print.


The Super Bowl ... of advertising

Posted: Monday, February 02, 2009 10:22 AM by Allison Linn

With the economy in the doldrums and the nation’s future uncertain, it’s nice to know that some things never change.

Among them: Super Bowl advertisers continue to rely on hot women, violent gags and sophomoric humor to sell their wares.

While this year’s batch of Super Bowl ads offered a lot of the predictable fodder, there were some bright spots. Click here to see Ads of the Weird's take on the best and the worst of this year’s Super Bowl spots.

 

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What we liked:
--Am I catching a theme about the commercials that were liked?
--I can certainly understand those, especially the Cars.com--David Abernathy (I do appreciate shear arrogance).  On the other hand, all three of those commercials were not ones that somebody can absorb mindlessly--the Audi one maybe--on the couch while eating whatever crap (see that's what real people do during the commercial).  They require one to utilize deductive reasoning.


What we didn’t like:
--Teleflora, spot on with the criticism, but it doesn't take an advertising genius to realize that.
--Doritos: The question is does the commercial need to appeal to Allison Lynn or is there a different audience in mind?  We can't all be high brow with an effete notion of how to react to the classy commercial that this site seems to want.  I thought it was a clever presentation of a time-tested formula.
--Pepsi Max: I absolutely disagree with Allison here (good thing the commercial wasn't targeting her).  Diet soda tastes less good; although, men don't have the same social stigma forcing them to drink that.  Men do want to lose weight too, however.  Look, the ad actually had great continuity to what it was selling and was memorable.  When it played, I literally heard a wife say to her husband that he should try it--not something I heard for some of those other commercials.  For instance, I have no idea right now (I'd have to look it up—the Pepsi ad that Allison liked) what the Bob Dylan one sold.


Please try to think about how effective a commercial is for it's intended effect, not how it appeals to you.  Oh, let's see how MSNBC website viewers compare to Allison Lynn.  Do you get paid for this?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28802780/
What we didn't / don't like:
Allison Lynn

What an obtuse, oblivious "columnist".
my favorite was the clydesdale and circus horse in love.  the last line cracked me up.
that doritos thing was hilarious! :D
I liked the Coca Cola Mean Polamalu ad, the Doritos crystal ball, the Budweiser clydesdale playing fetch... and I thought the Teleflora one with the "No one wants to see you naked!" line was hilarious while the cars.com slot was lame.
Please get a columnist with a sense of humor.  The cars.com ad was great - right up until the point where you realized it was a cars.com ad.  The guy is a modern-day Da Vinci but he can't deal with a car salesman?  Please!  Seriously lame-o.  The Pepsi ad with the Dylan tune was slightly above "meh," as was the Audi ad, despite the fact that they did pretty much nail the decade details.

Teleflora?  Borderline too mean, but still funny.  And the "random acts of violence" Pepsi Max ad?  Hilarious.  Maybe you have to be a guy to really get it; or maybe you just need to quit using your liberal-arts education to subject 30-second TV spots to ridiculously bourgeois overanalysis.  If you never noticed, guys really ARE like that.  "Yeah, I'll be fine.  I'm just gonna walk it off..."  And generally speaking, most guys would rather just give up and get used to the idea of being fat than drink a diet soda, 'cause most diet sodas taste like ass. Pepsi knows this, ergo they are not concerned about cannibalizing their other diet soda sales.  GUYS DON'T DRINK THEM ANYWAY.  That's the whole point.


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