I've just seen a traumatic advert

[evilC]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

Has anyone cited the ad for 'The Sims 3 - Pets' yet? I just saw it in the break in The Simpsons. I have to admit I went a little bit cold! It's basically saying "Ever tried zoophilia? Go onnnnn!"

[WOM]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

Sam Kelly wrote:

That is, we'd rather they just left the ad unaltered. But you'd prefer to have it altered?

No. I'd rather have it made here using Canadian agencies, talent and crews.

/oddly unfamiliar nationalist and union-leaning tendencies.

[Sam]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

Ah, that's a little more understandable.

evilC wrote:

Has anyone cited the ad for 'The Sims 3 - Pets' yet? I just saw it in the break in The Simpsons. I have to admit I went a little bit cold! It's basically saying "Ever tried zoophilia? Go onnnnn!"

Good grief. If I didn't have the skylight closed I think I'd have just lost my eyebrows.

[evilC]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

And to think I used to quite like her. Grrrrr! (That can double both as a gutteral growling and the sound of teeth grinding, by the way.)

[Fussbudget]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

evilC wrote:

And to think I used to quite like her.

This feels a bit like watching the world's most pretentious (and least funny) stand-up show doesn't it

[Edie St Pierre]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

Fuck, that's extraordinarily poor.

To be fair I only really liked two of her films anyway and 'Ghost World' is all Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi and 'Lost in Tranlation' I only really liked for the location shots of Tokyo.

[ursus arctos]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

This is brilliant.

It's embedded Flash, so click on "Space Invaders" under the screen.

It's by the people that did the "Little Team" documentary on the Catalan five year olds who hadn't scored a goal.

[Incandenza]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

I thought you were talking about the carton of gazpacho ads. Meanwhile...gazpacho comes in cartons?

But yeah, the Space Invaders is really good.

[Southport Zeb]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

Ambi-Pur's current advert starts by saying "Isn't it dissappointing when you stopping noticing your plug-in's fragrance".
I can think of only two situtations where thats remotely true:
(a) you are so depressed that even the most trivial thing just adds to your misery
(b) your life is going so well that only utterly trivial things cause you any negative emotion

Interesting range of markets they're going for

[Boris Carpark]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

southportzeb wrote:

Ambi-Pur's current advert starts by saying "Isn't it dissappointing when you stopping noticing your plug-in's fragrance".
I can think of only two situtations where thats remotely true:
(a) you are so depressed that even the most trivial thing just adds to your misery
(b) your life is going so well that only utterly trivial things cause you any negative emotion

Interesting range of markets they're going for

The air freshener that goes off when you walk past it.
Phew! That's a weight off my mind not having to push the little button or whatever!

Every air freshener advert I always think of the spoof one done by (I think)the Airplane! people.
-Guests enter house, sniff & comment..
"Fish for dinner again?"
"Christ! Did a cow shit in here?"
- House holder looks ruefully to camera & shrugs.

I'd look for it on Youtube but thats banned by the thought police at work.

[Incandenza]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

From Kentucky Fried Movie...

Interesting excerpt from a book on advertising on the Axe campaign, and how it worked too well...

Unilever accompanied roughly 100 males (identical studies were later carried out across other European countries, North America, and Latin America) ages 15 to 50 to the pubs until three or four in the morning and (soberly, while secretly taking copious notes) watched them in action. After poring over their pages and pages of notes, via a process known in the industry as "segmentation," the Unilever team isolated six psychological profiles of the male animal -- and the potential Axe user: the Predator, the Natural Talent, the Marriage-Material Guy, Always the Friend, the Insecure Novice, and the Enthusiastic Novice.

Ultimately, they decided the most obvious choice would be the Insecure Novice, followed by the Enthusiastic Novice, followed by the Natural Talent. Why? Well, the first two segments, the marketers reasoned, with their lack of self-esteem and experience, could be easily persuaded that Axe would be the key to enhanced success with women -- they would spray it on to ramp up their self-confidence. The Natural Talent guys could probably be convinced to use Axe as a finishing touch before going out for a night on the town.

So with the Insecure Novice as the primary target, Axe came up with a series of 30-second TV commercials that preyed on what its research had revealed to be the ultimate male fantasy: to be irresistible to not just one but several sexy women. These ads were nothing short of marketing genius. In one 30-second spot, an army of bikini-clad female Amazons, drawn by the irresistible scent, storms an empty beach to surround and seduce a helpless, scrawny young male Axe user. In another, a naked, soapy young man is showering when suddenly the bathroom floor cracks and he tumbles (still naked and dripping with suds) into a basement filled with scantily clad young women who proceed to bump and grind lasciviously enough to make a porn star break out in hives.
...
However, the brand's early success soon began to backfire. The problem was, the ads had worked too well in persuading the Insecure Novices and Enthusiastic Novices to buy the product. Geeks and dorks everywhere were now buying Axe by the caseload, and it was hurting the brand's image. Eventually (in the United States, at least), to most high-school and college-age males, Axe had essentially become the brand for pathetic losers and, not surprisingly, sales took a huge hit.

[Gerontophile]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

Isnt 'Axe' the US (or generally overseas from the UK) version of 'Lynx'? Same styling etc, different names.

Oh, thank you, memory-dislodging Inca for reminding me of the greatness of 'Kentucky Fried Movie'.

[ursus arctos]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

It is.

Unilever uses different names for the stuff in different markets. It actually started in France.

[Incandenza]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

I wouldn't say that Axe is mainly identified with dorky guys (maybe it is in middle/high school, and I just don't know). I think people see it mainly as the douchebag cologne/spray of choice.

[ursus arctos]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

One also wonders how the Unilever researchers followed 15 to 20 year olds "to the pubs until three or four in the morning" in the United States.

[Gerontophile]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

Maybe the subjects gave them some Muller yoghurts (brilliant, upthread! I fell about)

[WOM]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

That Space Invaders is a great 30-second spot. What made them stretch it to 1:47?

[ursus arctos]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

Probably so that it could run in cinemas.

I would expect that there is a shorter version for television.

[Eggchaser]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

I always associate Lynx with "Smell is overpowering enough that teenage boys of questionable bathing habits can overcome their natural odours by using it".

As for air fresheners - OPEN A FUCKING WINDOW, STINKY!

[Sean of the Shed]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

Fucking cunty Halifax bastards. That lot are professional fucking singers anyway, dressed as fucking cunty Halifax bastards bank staff. It's not actually that offensive, other than it's an advert for the fucking Halifax. I despise the fucking Halifax Building Society or bank or whatever the fuck it's official fucking title is. Every single advertising campaign they have ever made has been an appalling, nauseating crock of shit, from that gormless fucking bell-end Howard Brown flying around on that fucking swan and all the other Halifax staff members who sang shit financial service related parodies of songs to every one of those pathetic tedious cunts who tried to out-cheese each other pretending to be dee-jays on those fucking radio show ads. I hate their fucking adverts. I'd hate their fucking adverts if they were presented by the Hair Bear Bunch or the mice from the mouse organ from off of Bagpuss, and they are the coolest fucking creatures on the planet. Fuck the Halifax, fuck their shareholders, fuck everybody who works for them. The nicest thing I can wish for them is year upon year of misery and pestilence followed by a slow and painful death. Cunts.

[sw2borshch]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

The ad for Littlewoods that's embedded on this page of our local rag is absolutely horrific in its mawkishness and tokenism.

The second part of the high speed police chase that comes next is on the main road round the corner from our house, as it happens, and I went the scene of the overturned car about half an hour later.

[evilC]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

One from the archives (which became a national meme at the time) for the benefit of our friends overseas.

It's the way the bloke driving the Transit shakes his head that is the killer.

[Sean of the Shed]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

If you thought M & S couldn't get any more nauseating with their adverts, think again, this year's X-Factor effort takes some beating (snow effects provided by Frankie, one presumes, hope they have fun trying to edit him out). My poor wife is going to have to listen to this shit for the next two months, she works in the local store.

[Fussbudget]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

That woman at 0:17 got a bra for Christmas? A fucking bra?? What a load of rubbish.

[hobbes]

I've just seen a traumatic advert

That lot are professional fucking singers anyway, dressed as fucking cunty Halifax bastards bank staff.

Funnily enough, that's not actually true. Or at least, it wasn't. An ex of mine had a sister who worked at Halifax. They regularly auditioned for members of staff to appear in adverts. She was passed over because as a particularly talented singer, dancer and experienced amateur actress, they said no one would believe she was staff.