Thursday, September 23, 2010

Advertising Fail

Have you ever seen an ad that was so obviously bad that you thought it MUST be a joke?  Did it make you wonder what kind of smacked ass at the ad agency approved such an abomination?  Here are a few of my favorite ad campaigns that were stopped just in time.*  I'm a big fan of learning from mistakes, though, so I thought it would be productive if we all took a good, hard look at these.

First we have an ad that never made it out of the KFC board room.  Not because anyone took offense, but rather because the ad was brought up for discussion after lunch.  As fate would have it, the ad was a bit too true to life, and none of the ad execs remained conscious long enough to approve this gem.  Thankfully.


The Hershey corporation immediately terminated its contract with a Tokyo-based ad agency after it received the proposal for this ad.  American slang is huge in Japan, but apparently not huge enough for this idiom to raise any eyebrows.


The I Can Has Cheezburger guy really wanted to branch away from his squeaky clean internet image, but this wasn't quite what he had in mind:



And, finally, even Apple (almost) makes mistakes sometimes: 

And...:



*I'm sure I don't really need to say this, but just so I don't get sued (because that's seriously the last thing I need even though it's highly unlikely, but, knowing my luck, it's not an impossibility) this is satire.  Clearly my shitty MS Paint drawings are not meant to suggest that these companies are stupid enough to ever market products in this manner.  Thank you.  I'm sorry to insult your intelligence with this caveat, but you really never know.

10 comments:

  1. eh none of these are that funny and the first one is just offensive

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  2. I'm sorry you feel that way, but the first panel clearly is not making fun of people with Down Syndrome. It is making fun of a disgusting sandwich and the company that produced it.

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  3. Yeaaa but the play on 'down syndrome' paired with that drawing isn't in very good taste.

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  4. You're right, it isn't in good taste, but that's the point. I am using a bad pun to insinuate that the sandwich itself is vulgar and distasteful.

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  5. I guess. But you're making your point at the expense of people with Down Syndrome, not really KFC. I think the pun and drawing are a cheap attempt at humor. Anyway, carry on!

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  6. I personally LOVE it, and that type of humor, because it is humor, is why I come to this blog! Thank you for always providing such great/dry entertainment! I will also hide behind the "Anonymous" title to balance the negative with a positive response!

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  7. lol until i read the comments i didn't even get the "down syndrome" part of "Double down syndrome"

    dave w

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  8. I love your blog. And what's that old adage, like... you know you've made it when people start hating on you? Well, I'm sure it's more eloquent than that but you get the idea.


    Cristalle

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  9. Hahah, thanks folks! Yea, it definitely wasn't supposed to read as "this is a joke about people with Down Syndrome." It was supposed to read as a normal dumb fast-food ad that, after reading it, might make you pause and say "wow, the company that made this ad is pretty stupid, I bet they didn't realize this could be taken the wrong way."

    But, yea, glad some people thought it was funny! Of course it's disappointing if someone doesn't like a joke, but the above dissenter was civil and stuck to criticizing the joke. I don't mind criticism as long as it doesn't devolve into a personal attack, so it's all good.

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  10. You know what's in good taste? Strawberries.

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