I've just seen a traumatic advert

[Jah Womble]

I hope you're still talking about an advert.

[Lymeswold Snork]

Just saw someone with an extra mouth in their forehead which they had to stuff with chewing-gum to get it to stop talking. I hope it's no more than three days before that's banned or withdrawn.

[WOM]

I don't recall there being any local furniture store or mattress ads. Why are there so many mattress store ads?

This is a whole topic. See 'Mattress Firm'. It's like a cabal.

There used to be ads for some off-shoot of Circuit City that resembled Radio Shack. I think I bought a charger in one of those in Toronto. I don't recall what it was called. Anyway, both Radio Shack and Circuit City are gone, so whatever that was called is gone.*

The Source. I think it's officially The Source by Circuit City

I get the feeling that Canadians are being ripped off on mobile phone plans, internet, and cable.

100%. And we know it.

Not so many ads about bundling home and auto insurance. Is that not a thing in Canada?

It is, but we don't move shit around much. Better the devil you know, etc.

There are a lot of ads that try to attach the brand to an idealized image of white rural Canada - Tim Hortons, Canadian Tire, etc. That may be more of a hockey-specific approach rather than all of Canada all the time.

Yup. This is a big one. Also 'new Canadian finding their place' is a recurring theme. So, 'Asian kid playing hockey'.

Ads for restaurant chains named for places in the US that don't have any franchises in the US.

Right, because of the perception that the US does roadside food better than we do. Montana's, Boston Pizza, Baton Rouge, etc. Even Kelsey's is just TGIFridays under a different name.

[Hot Pepsi]

I am watching the World Junior Ice Hockey championships on ESPN+, which is using a Canadian feed with Canadian adverts.

It is interesting to see how they differ from USian adverts for similar content.

Many fewer ads for cars, trucks and insurance

No prescription drug advertising

New Iphone ads focussed on the warmth of the cellular provider rather than envy, FOMO and/or the quality of the camera

Ethnically diverse ads feature South Asians rather than Latinos

A greater sense of "we are all in this together" then we get down here, whether it be weather, road safety or amateur ice hockey

In the past, the NHL package would show the local ads. ESPN+ doesn't do that for whatever reason.

I recall there were a fair number of car and truck ads, but I don't recall any manic local car-dealer ads inviting me to come on down and score a hattrick of savings, etc.

I don't recall there being any local furniture store or mattress ads. Why are there so many mattress store ads?

There used to be ads for some off-shoot of Circuit City that resembled Radio Shack. I think I bought a charger in one of those in Toronto. I don't recall what it was called. Anyway, both Radio Shack and Circuit City are gone, so whatever that was called is gone.*

I get the feeling that Canadians are being ripped off on mobile phone plans, internet, and cable.

Not so many ads about bundling home and auto insurance. Is that not a thing in Canada? The prevalence of those ads during football is astounding.

There are a lot of ads that try to attach the brand to an idealized image of white rural Canada - Tim Hortons, Canadian Tire, etc. That may be more of a hockey-specific approach rather than all of Canada all the time.

Ads for restaurant chains named for places in the US that don't have any franchises in the US.

*In the US too, it just feels like there aren't as many ads for consumer electronics - other than mobile devices - as there used to be. As we saw in many of those old ads on the Advent Advert thread, there used to be a ton of different shops like that, regional and national. Now it's pretty much just Amazon and Best Buy.

[3 Colours Red]

Also responsible for one of the ugliest F1 liveries ever:

[WOM]

I was all-in with them for a long time because their rates were so much better, and then I got into their Streetwise Funds.

[ursus arctos]

ING Direct actually started in Canada. They were quite the thing in the aughts.

The entire framework for cell phone plans can differ quite dramatically across borders, which was a challenge for us each time we changed countries.

[WOM]

When ING Direct came here, their spokesguy was uncharacteristically aggressive Dutch actor and he used to say "Your bank wants you to save with them, but they pay almost no interest". Which was true...but now it was some foreign upstart saying it...and it worked.

But then they got bought by one of the Canadian Big 5 banks and that whole thing just went away.

[WOM]

Are Canadian ads as aggressive as US ads? One of the things that always strikes me about US ads for cars and such is how they shit on the competition directly and by name, which is a big no-no in the UK.

Not in the least. Not even between parity phone providers or parity banks. You just...don't mention the other guy.

We have a toilet paper ad that mentions 'the other guys', but nobody is really sure who they're talking about.

[Ginger Yellow]

Are Canadian ads as aggressive as US ads? One of the things that always strikes me about US ads for cars and such is how they shit on the competition directly and by name, which is a big no-no in the UK.

[WOM]

I am watching the World Junior Ice Hockey championships on ESPN+, which is using a Canadian feed with Canadian adverts.

It is interesting to see how they differ from USian adverts for similar content.

Many fewer ads for cars, trucks and insurance

No prescription drug advertising

New Iphone ads focussed on the warmth of the cellular provider rather than envy, FOMO and/or the quality of the camera

Ethnically diverse ads feature South Asians rather than Latinos

A greater sense of "we are all in this together" then we get down here, whether it be weather, road safety or amateur ice hockey

These are interesting observations. We obviously see all the US stuff frequently, but I don't hear about it much from the other side.

The weirdest ones for us are the family cellular plan ads. That just isn't a thing here. "You get 4 phones, unlimited minutes, <this thing free>, <that thing free>, all for $59 a month with no contract."

We're like 'what the actual fuck?'

Also "Rumfemerol may cause headaches, diarrhea, vomiting, anal leakage, jittery hands, blurry vision, loss of appetite. Do not use Rumfemerol if you've had an allergic reaction to Rumfemerol..."

[Ginger Yellow]

We're all about making business life easier, especially for fellow Northerners like yourselves in Derbyshire.

Teehee.

[ursus arctos]

I am watching the World Junior Ice Hockey championships on ESPN+, which is using a Canadian feed with Canadian adverts.

It is interesting to see how they differ from USian adverts for similar content.

Many fewer ads for cars, trucks and insurance

No prescription drug advertising

New Iphone ads focussed on the warmth of the cellular provider rather than envy, FOMO and/or the quality of the camera

Ethnically diverse ads feature South Asians rather than Latinos

A greater sense of "we are all in this together" then we get down here, whether it be weather, road safety or amateur ice hockey

[ursus arctos]

Amuricans say it that way

Perhaps because of the way it was originally presented

[Fussbudget]

Not so much a traumatic advert as I remember nothing about the advert except how they repeatedly pronounce the name of the company in it, but is Travelodge really supposed to be pronounced "Travel-lodge"? It's only got one L! Genuinely never heard anyone say it like that before

[Jah Womble]

Things that are nothing like ‘climbing a mountain that’s really a volcano’:

1) Accounting software

[Jah Womble]

Why is that couple fighting over a pizza in the latest Domino’s commercial?

Pizzas are surely designed for sharing - and if for whatever reason they aren’t doing that, then they’d surely have determined whose pizza it is at the point of ordering?

[Ginger Yellow]

Not so much traumatic as insultingly stupid, but here's one I got in the mail today:



Even setting aside the fall in prices and still elevated interest rate environment, my building still doesn't have an EWS1, so it would actually be a really fucking terrible time to sell.

[elguapo4]

There's been a couple of real shockers recently. The More Than insurance ad that seems to think that an Indian man saying Sausage a lot is funny is humour straight from the 70s.

There's an Irish ad on heavy rotation for Rockshore lager that seems to think that showing it's customers as braying bullying jackasses is good for business. All it's ensured for me is that I'll never buy their product.

[Jah Womble]

So, now OMD’s Enola Gay is being used in a Vitality advert - accompanied by the slogan ‘move forward with Vitality’ - just months after M&S decided it was the perfect bed for their spring clothes collection.

Have none of these planks watched Oppenheimer yet? (Or been to school?)

[Lymeswold Snork]

"Sorry, mate: my wayward tee-shot back on the fifteenth." (Verisure alarms)
Ooh, who's been trained as a classical actor, then?

[blameless]

I don't know if this would have happened anyway or whether it's because I've been checking in on the S**d* Ar*b** thead over on Football (and marketing algorithms are utterly tone deaf), but YouTube has started slinging fucking PIF adverts at me.

I've told them to shove that all the way up their arse.

[Ginger Yellow]

I've been getting some real triumphs of (presumably) algorithmic advertisement placement recently. Watching the new season of The Righteous Gemstones on NowTV, every episode is absolutely peppered with ads for a Franklin Graham event in London. And Alice Fraser's The Gargle podcast, which is extremely crypto-skeptic, has been delivering injected ads for a crypto firm.

[Gangster Octopus]

A quarter of a sovereign is a crown. So George was half-a-crown. Or two and six.

[San Bernardhinault]

You'd think the Sovereign would be a sovereign.

Second generation in line (Prince William, I guess) would be a half-sovereign.

And the third generation - Prince George - a quarter sovereign.

When the queen was alive, George might reasonably have been a 1/8 sovereign, but now she's dead his coin should be upgraded by the mint.