We uncharacteristically dropped our head and strode past the bell ringer in front of the supermarket the other day. Too busy. Too beaten down by this unforgiving, apprehensive year. Too eager that, if by rushing through it, we could make time hurry too and just be done with it. And, we have to admit, a little too tired of giving.
Season of giving? This was the year of giving. Although, unlike the giving the patient bell ringer who dealt with the slow but constant snowfall was seeking, it was less the charitable sort than the bailout sort. Banks (ridiculous). Investment banks (worse). Automakers (yet to be seen how bad a move). Airlines (lining up in the wings we hear). Contractors eager for a chunk of the billions Obama wants to (wisely) spend on infrastructure – and maybe can convince the government that retrofitting is so tired and public schools need the McMansion treatment that has served the real estate market so … never mind. And of course homeowners (oops, our mistake, that’d be socialism after all).
You’d think that in this supposedly resolute and independent country, there’d be a business not seeking a handout, and customers eager to subsidize that virtue. Well, one bank in rural Oregon makes that case.
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| Evergreen Bank |
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When Burger King decided to run a campaign called "Whopper Virgins," with the premise of doing a Whopper versus Big Mac taste test in rural international outposts, you can imagine what they were thinking: Controversy!
People will love it! People will hate it! People will debate it incessantly! It’ll be great!
Perhaps they should have found a way to make a little more interesting.
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We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again: Sex does not sell everything. And one thing it really doesn’t sell very well is fast food.
The latest entrant in the surprisingly crowded "fast food as erotica" genre comes from Arby’s.
The chains’ recent ad for the chicken cordon bleu sandwich begins with a pudgy guy wearing sweats and white socks sitting on a bed, surrounded by pillows and candles.
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Wal-Mart commercials have definitely improved since the days of the tacky flying smiley face and uniformed employees, but let’s face it: The retailer’s ads are not usually the stuff of creative wonderment.
That’s one reason we were pleasantly surprised by a new holiday commercial from Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola.
The ad, currently playing in movie theaters and online, features a young, geeky guy wandering through his own holiday party with a reusable Wal-Mart tote bag, handing out bottles of Coke while singing a little ditty about his guests.
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Here’s a recipe for an annoying commercial: take all unpleasant stereotypes known to man (and woman) and mix in a predictable plot.
For extra credit, make the commercial really, really, really long.
That just about sums up the strategy that is apparently at work in JCPenney’s new holiday campaign, "Beware of the Doghouse."
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The economy is in the doldrums, and that means it’s even more important that parents, grandparents and other out-of-touch grown-ups don’t waste their hard-earned money on holiday gifts a teenager will never use.
But in trying to suss out that perfect gift, it’s best to avoid the porn said teenager has hidden under the bed.
A new commercial for the videogame retailer GameStop shows the unfortunate unintended consequences that could occur if a parent goes rooting around a teen’s room looking for hints of what he or she might want for the holidays.
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A new commercial for the migraine medicine Treximet starts out in relatively humdrum fashion, with a close-up shot of a woman’s face as she discusses the gripping pain of a headache.
Then the ad cuts away to its surreal horror movie moment – the woman in question is actually literally holding her head in her hand, and her body is decapitated.
Or, at least it would seem at face value to be a horror movie moment. But instead, the commercial treats this development as if it is nothing special. Creepiest of all, the woman in question is standing in front of a school bus, one arm cradling her head and another arm draped over the shoulders of her young son.
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| treximet.com |
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It’s rare that you can praise an ad and also say that it is hard to watch, but that’s perhaps the only way to accurately describe a recent commercial for the financial institution HSBC.
The ad, featuring haunting music by harpist and vocalist Joanna Newsom, recounts a vicious confrontation between police and anti-logging protesters. As the police drag the protesters away, a group of loggers walk by, saws in hand.
The twist -- and symbolic message of the commercial -- is that one of the loggers is in a relationship with one of the protesters, which you don’t realize until he bails her out of jail and they ride off together on a motorcycle.
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We here at Ads of the Weird have generally tried to stay away from political ads during this seemingly endless election cycle, preferring instead to leave the good, the bad and the ugly to our friends in the Politics section.
But this being Ads of the Weird, Election Day edition, we’re making an exception. No, we don’t plan to jump into the minefield of speculating as to whose ad is more effective/negative/misleading. Instead, we’re going to focus on the one thing we hope everyone can agree on: The right to vote.
This year, as in years past, there are a plethora of public service announcements aimed at getting people to the voting booth. And this year, as in years past, they run the gamut from pretty good to pretty embarrassing.
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| declareyourself.com |
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With the presidential election just one week away, nothing seems to be getting Americans’ hearts racing like a new opinion poll. Perhaps wanting to get in on the action, Dunkin’ Donuts decided to commission a poll about its own high-stakes race: Dunkin’ Donuts coffee versus Starbucks coffee.
According to a commercial the donut chain made to go with its poll, the results show that: "In a national taste test, more hard-working Americans preferred the taste of Dunkin' Donuts over Starbucks."
The first question that springs to mind, of course, is: what criteria did they use, exactly, to find out whether these people were "hard-working"? And why do they have to be "hard-working" in order to judge coffee?
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| Dunkin' Donuts |
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