We love to praise great advertising but, admittedly, we find far more glee in trashing the crap this industry so often vomits up. Take this ad for Fujitsu which attempts to inform its been the king of the tablet PC since 1989. With bad dialog, poor dubbing and a concept that likens the purchase of a tablet PC to black market human trafficking, this commercial is so bad (good?) it inspired one commenter to write, "I don't just like the Fujitsu tablet... I love it, I want to marry it, to felch it, to reach around it from behind and tug gently on it"
Probably not the fetishistic freak show Fujitsu was going for.
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So here we go again with another brand caught lying. Or so it would seem. Samsung debuted a new video at CTIA Wireless touting its new 10.1" Galaxy Tab. The video includes "true life stories of Galaxy Tab users." But just how true can these stories be if they are delivered by actors. That's what Technologizer's Harry McCracken discovered when he viewed the video and did a little research about the "real" people in the video who shared their "true life stories."
McCracken discovered two of the supposedly real Galaxy Tab users are actors. In the video, Joan Hess is passed off as being a freelance travel writer. In reality, she's a New York-based actress. CEO Joseph Kolinski is actually New York actor Joseph Kolinski. A third character in the video, Karl Shefelman, plays the role of a filmmaker. In real life, Shefelman is, indeed, a filmmaker who - surprise, surprise - has done work for Samsung.
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At LiviRae, no bust is too big or too small. But if you want a bra that can't support you while you jog down the street in slow motion as your boobs bounce wildly up and down threatening to knock you out, then head over to any retailer because, well, they just don't care about your boobs.
But if you want a bra that keeps your prodigious pulchritude in place...while running down the street in slow motion...then head over to LiviRae. Because they care. They've got what you want. And because..."We fit 'em all."
Good God! It looks like this commercial was made by a car dealer.
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We must say, we have to agree with AgencySpy on this one. OMG! Did we just say that? Yes we did. Why? Because we hate the new Bristol Palin/The Situation PSA from the Candies Foundation touting safe sex.
Upon watching this commercial, AgencySpy wrote, "After watching this, I want to punch my computer in the face, hop on a plane, punch the fucking Situation in the face, hop on another plane, punch Palin in the face, then shoot myself in the face so I never have to experience this monstrosity again."
It's that bad. It really is. It's hypocritical. It's poorly written. It's poorly acted. It's inane. It's painful to watch. Seriously, don't even bother to watch it. If you do, you'll hate yourself for the rest of the day. You have been warned.
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The Denver Egoist gathered up a few product placement clips from the soap Days of Our Lives. We have to say, these placements are the most heavy-handed, in-your-face, horrifically written product placements in existence.
Seriously? The brand and the writers couldn't have worked together to come up with a more subtle and effective placement? These placements literally transform the daily drama into a full on commercial. And a really bad one at that.
Granted, the writing on soaps sucks so perhaps expecting a well crafted product placement is asking too much but an illiterate imbecile could have come up with a better solution than the writers of these disasters did.
Some of the worst advertising we've ever seen.
Here's a really, really...REALLY bad lingerie ad but since out charter requires us to cover any and all use of sex to sell, we are obligated to share this drivel with you. You can just hear the thought process of the concepting session for this ad: "Dude, let's riff off the women in prison thing. It will be so hot!"
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Backpedaling from one of the biggest marketing gaffs in recent history, Gap, following overwhelming public pressure, has, unsurprisingly, announced it will box it's new logo and return to the original design. Announced last week, the new logo, designed by Laird & Partners, was roundly mocked by the design community, especially when the brand asked designers to "crowdsource" new ideas (un-related to the new logo the brand insists) for free.
A statement on the brand's Facebook page now reads, "Ok. We've heard loud and clear that you don't like the new logo. We've learned a lot from the feedback. We only want what's best for the brand and our customers. So instead of crowdsourcing, we're bringing back the Blue Box tonight."
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Unless you can find the word "versality" in the dictionary, it looks like a Benjamin Moore POP suffered a proofreading oversight. Writing on Dumb As A Blog, Susie Felber wrote, "What is Benjamin Moore's marketing department on? And do they need a new copywriter? 'Cause I am available." Well, BM, give Susie a call because it seems you need a better copywriter. Or at least a proofreader.
Over the weekend, 9/11 memorials were held across the nation. In New York, one such memorial was held at at City Hall Park. Organized by inventors Steven Brandstetter and James Devlin of J&S Gaming, the event featured the pair's Lottery Ball Characters which were turned into life sized costumes to represent the likeness of a police officer and a fireman.
According to the press release, the purpose of the rally was to "pay tribute to the men and women who put their lives on the line on a daily basis to protect and serve our communities." Brandsetter and Devlin put the rally together with the consent of retired NYPD police officer Stan Jefferson who was reportedly forced into retirement because of an illness he contracted while working at Ground Zero.
Apparently, the government isn't doing all it can do and the rally aimed to bring that to the attention of the public.
The campaign also brought something else to light. The sad fact some people are so lacking in the common sense department, they have no idea when something grotesquely oversteps the line of acceptability. To diminish the lives of those lost during 9/11 to a couple of stupid lottery characters - as if the event were sponsored by Tony the Tiger or something - is deplorable, inexcusable and plain idiotic.
That is all.
In the It's So Stupid It Could Only Happen in Advertising category, we have an update on GeniusRocket and 99 Designs' attempt to rename crowdsourcing. The effort to do so was launched back in May. It was stupid then and it's stupid now.
Whether a proponent crowdsourcing or not, the process already has a name and its a perfectly good one. This renaming project just reeks of late 90's high tech companies which, over and over, just made up new names for categories they wanted to own hoping they would stick. OK, so some terms did stick but renaming a category isn't something you take on lightly. And not for a stupid $1,000 prize.
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