It’s hard to feel sorry for those pre-recession bigwigs, who got used to lavish meals, fancy hotels and private jets before they were brought down by the very financial shenanigans that allowed them to live so high and mighty in the first place.
But it’s easier to make fun of the frugality they are now being forced to embrace, and that’s just what discount airliner JetBlue does well in a new ad campaign.
A simple print ad offers a message to all "Hedge Fund Managers, Big Investment Bankers, Moguls, Tycoons" and others who "might be rethinking that next trip on a private jet … Welcome Aboard."
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| jetblue.com |
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In a recent ad for Boost Mobile, a man and a woman are heading down a sunny street on a bicycle built for two, her in front and him in back.
The setup is giving her a clear view of the street ahead, and him a face full of her flowing armpit hair.
"You think this is wrong?" she says, lifting her arm to give the viewer a better look at the under-arm mane. "It’s a little gift from Mother Nature. I’ll tell you what’s wrong – it’s cell phone companies charging hidden fees."
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| Boost Mobile |
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Pepsi Max, a diet cola marketed toward men, drew both cheers and jeers for its Super Bowl ad featuring guys getting involved in various violent accidents before proclaiming bravely, "I’m good."
To those in favor, the ad was classic slapstick. To those opposed, it was just stereotypical violence for violence’s sake.
Both those who liked and hated the Super Bowl ad might find more humor in another series of Pepsi Max ads, which feature American actors but are currently only running in Europe.
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A recent commercial for Del Taco shows your typical office drone standing in line staring at the woman behind the counter in a kind of creepy way.
It turns out he’s angry because Del Taco’s prices are so cheap he realizes that everyone else is ripping him off.
Del Taco’s solution? Send another hapless worker over and let the office drone give him a wedgie.
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| Del Taco |
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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.
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We have a lot of sympathy for the cause that the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals seek to promote. We don’t have much sympathy for their increasingly goofy attention-seeking antics.
The latest dustup the animal rights nonprofit has created involves their attempt to get NBC to air a completely inappropriate ad during the Super Bowl, and then to complain when the network rejected the softcore porn.
The ad, featuring women in bras and panties getting extremely busy with some vegetables, was rejected after NBC deemed the content too racy, according to an e-mail from NBC that PETA made available to msnbc.com. A network spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
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| PETA |
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You’d be forgiven for not realizing that a new commercial for the British arm of T-Mobile is indeed meant to sell mobile phone plans, or anything at all for that matter.
The commercial opens with an overview shot of what looks like a normal day at Liverpool Street station in London. Within a few seconds, however, music is blaring and the travelers are breaking into dance. As the ad progresses, more people start dancing, the music changing rapidly, as confused and bemused bystanders look on.
At the finale, 350 professional dancers fill the station, dancing wildly and even drawing some of the bystanders in as the company captures the scene on hidden cameras. The full-length version of the commercial, which has aired in the U.K. and is available on YouTube, makes virtually no connection between the dancers and the cell phone provider, and that’s part of its charm.
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| T-Mobile |
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In these hard times for job seekers, when unemployment is at its highest level in 16 years and the economy is mired in recession, many of us feel lucky just to have a job.
The online job search site Monster is arguing that there still might be room for improvement.
A new series of light-hearted Monster ads show people who are extremely ill-suited to their line of work, and might benefit from finding a career change via Monster’s Web site.
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| Monster |
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We’ve found plenty not to like about fast food commercials lately, so it was a pleasant surprise to see a new ad for McDonald’s that actually didn’t leave us feeling kind of queasy.
The commercial for Chicken McNuggets looks at first like a standard-issue video for your typical R&B song -- until you start listening closely to the lyrics.
Yes, the singer has that overly emotive, heartbroken look on his face, and yes, he’s making those goofy hand gestures as he sings about desperate, unrequited love. But is he craving a lover … or a piece of fried, breaded chicken?
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| McDonald's |
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As business journalists, we’ve spent what feels like a lifetime listening to mind-numbingly boring executive speeches. And we’re reminded of those every time Dan Hesse appears on our television screen.
For those of you who haven’t turned on a television in recent months, Hesse is chief executive of wireless phone provider Sprint. Perhaps that job leaves him with a bit of spare time, or maybe as chief executive he wanted to save the company a few bucks, so he’s also apparently decided to make himself the company’s pitchman.
There are several Hesse commercials, but they all follow the same formula: energetic classical music, moody black-and-white background and then Hesse himself, "casually" walking through the streets or sitting at a diner.
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| Sprint |
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