psst... they're both the same
Friday 25 November 2011
Giant Limahl hiding from Jareth during argument about who has the best hair.
psst... they're both the same
Thursday 6 October 2011
Wednesday 5 October 2011
Saturday 17 September 2011
Tuesday 15 February 2011
Wednesday 24 November 2010
Dawson's Crepe
It's a friend of mine's birthday on Friday and I couldn't think of anything to get her. Suddenly I remembered that she was a fan of sweet foods and the mid 90s teen telly shows. Thus the Dawson's Crepe was born.
Tuesday 9 November 2010
War on bad adverts
A while ago I decided that if I truly hated an advert on TV I wouldn't buy the product ever again (I suppose if they made a truly fantastic ad later, I might reconsider but so far no-one's come close to making that an issue).
I should clarify that it's not about an advert being annoying. I find GoCompare and WeBuyAnyCar as irritating as everyone else, but I'm hapy to give them the benefit of the doubt that the people behind them knew that. They were deliberately setting out to do it so the ad was memorable and become a talking point. CompareTheMeerkats treads this line very finely.
I only veto a product if it somehow offends me. Looking at the list the theme seems to be smugness.
1) The first advert that really got to me was for the launch of Coke Zero. It had a growing parade of Nuts reading type blokes asking why all the good things in life come without the downside - "Girlfriends without 'the five year plan'", "Mobile phones without the dodgy ringtones". I think my problem with this was the blokey-ness of the whole thing, with the underlying suggestion that drinking Diet Coke was less than manly. Only chicks and gays drink Diet Coke. Awful. Before it was even launched I decided I would never drink Coke Zero.
2) Not long after this I noticed an ad for a 'stool softener' called Dulcoease. This advert was a parody/homage/rip-off of Sex and the City. A woman walks into a cafe to meet the three friends complaining about having had a hard poo. Her clever witty (smug) mate gives her some Dulcoease she happens to have in her handbag (I'd suggest that if two or more of them are having the same problem they might want to look at their diet).
The final nail in the coffin for this one is the last line. Woman number three joins in the hard poo discussion, revealing, "I used to have a big pain in my life...", before being interrupted by her smuggest mate (the one with the stool softener always handy), "Before she ditched him!" Hilarity ensues. Firstly, it's just not funny, but more importantly it doesn't work. No-one would ever start a sentence with 'I used to have a big pain' that only works as a weak contrived feed for the punchline. I hate them.
3) Appropriately enough, the third ad was the direct competition for the product that started all this. Pepsi Max. Pepsi Max have had a number of adverts which I can't remember but early this year they started one that I can only describe as more than a little rape-ish. The premise is that a guy in a bar tries it on with a woman who knocks him back, luckily his mates fake a world ending asteroid so, believing we are facing extinction, she jumps him. Afterwards the very clever bloke goes back to his mates and they all do a happy little dance about it.
If someone says no, then you perpetrate a fraud to sleep with them, that is rape. Hopefully, when they were dancing she was giving a statement to the police.
4) ISA-ISA Baby - Halifax. Sweet Jesus. I don't need to explain. This is probably the only advert which I actively change channel during out of sheer embarassment for eveyone involved.
5) Currently the final product on the list is also the only one that I was really likely to use. I sometimes drink wine, and quite like the occasional glass of Jacob's Creek. It's cheap, pleasant enough and every shop in the country seems to have thousands of bottles. Never again though.
The latest ad feature an australian guy having some friends round for a dinner party. This man is amongst the smuggest people ever shown on television. One of the worst moments is, "It's loved by the world's most important wine critic." "Who?" "Me". I would actually leave the party at that point. I think my problem with this one is that Jacob's Creek seem to be trying to suggest that if I buy their wine I'll be buying a lifestyle (yes, I know that's half of advertising) and the lifestyle seems to be one of a massive tosser.
Whilst it's certainly not the worst offender on the list (clearly that's Pepsi Sexpest), this last advert did prompt me to step up my campaign. Not only am I never buying Jacob's Creek again, I decided to write to tell them. Yep, Pernod Ricard UK will by now have received notification down in Hounslow (really?) of my decision. I'm not entirely expecting a reply.
I should clarify that it's not about an advert being annoying. I find GoCompare and WeBuyAnyCar as irritating as everyone else, but I'm hapy to give them the benefit of the doubt that the people behind them knew that. They were deliberately setting out to do it so the ad was memorable and become a talking point. CompareTheMeerkats treads this line very finely.
I only veto a product if it somehow offends me. Looking at the list the theme seems to be smugness.
1) The first advert that really got to me was for the launch of Coke Zero. It had a growing parade of Nuts reading type blokes asking why all the good things in life come without the downside - "Girlfriends without 'the five year plan'", "Mobile phones without the dodgy ringtones". I think my problem with this was the blokey-ness of the whole thing, with the underlying suggestion that drinking Diet Coke was less than manly. Only chicks and gays drink Diet Coke. Awful. Before it was even launched I decided I would never drink Coke Zero.
2) Not long after this I noticed an ad for a 'stool softener' called Dulcoease. This advert was a parody/homage/rip-off of Sex and the City. A woman walks into a cafe to meet the three friends complaining about having had a hard poo. Her clever witty (smug) mate gives her some Dulcoease she happens to have in her handbag (I'd suggest that if two or more of them are having the same problem they might want to look at their diet).
The final nail in the coffin for this one is the last line. Woman number three joins in the hard poo discussion, revealing, "I used to have a big pain in my life...", before being interrupted by her smuggest mate (the one with the stool softener always handy), "Before she ditched him!" Hilarity ensues. Firstly, it's just not funny, but more importantly it doesn't work. No-one would ever start a sentence with 'I used to have a big pain' that only works as a weak contrived feed for the punchline. I hate them.
3) Appropriately enough, the third ad was the direct competition for the product that started all this. Pepsi Max. Pepsi Max have had a number of adverts which I can't remember but early this year they started one that I can only describe as more than a little rape-ish. The premise is that a guy in a bar tries it on with a woman who knocks him back, luckily his mates fake a world ending asteroid so, believing we are facing extinction, she jumps him. Afterwards the very clever bloke goes back to his mates and they all do a happy little dance about it.
If someone says no, then you perpetrate a fraud to sleep with them, that is rape. Hopefully, when they were dancing she was giving a statement to the police.
4) ISA-ISA Baby - Halifax. Sweet Jesus. I don't need to explain. This is probably the only advert which I actively change channel during out of sheer embarassment for eveyone involved.
5) Currently the final product on the list is also the only one that I was really likely to use. I sometimes drink wine, and quite like the occasional glass of Jacob's Creek. It's cheap, pleasant enough and every shop in the country seems to have thousands of bottles. Never again though.
The latest ad feature an australian guy having some friends round for a dinner party. This man is amongst the smuggest people ever shown on television. One of the worst moments is, "It's loved by the world's most important wine critic." "Who?" "Me". I would actually leave the party at that point. I think my problem with this one is that Jacob's Creek seem to be trying to suggest that if I buy their wine I'll be buying a lifestyle (yes, I know that's half of advertising) and the lifestyle seems to be one of a massive tosser.
Whilst it's certainly not the worst offender on the list (clearly that's Pepsi Sexpest), this last advert did prompt me to step up my campaign. Not only am I never buying Jacob's Creek again, I decided to write to tell them. Yep, Pernod Ricard UK will by now have received notification down in Hounslow (really?) of my decision. I'm not entirely expecting a reply.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
