h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just a little off topic, try what my mentors taught me some fifty years ago. " what are They are trying to sell me"... It is now called critical thinking . One can not be sold anything without our thinking we want/need this comotite. To manipulate any of us, plays on an understanding of how we as social mammals work. In the world of instant information, to take the moment of reflection is a very quaint but nessary reflection!

I just saw an advert for Butlins holiday camps, backed by a song by a Russian singer named Eduard Kihl, which has come to be known as 'the trololol song'. If you look it up on YouTube, it won't be hard to find. So famous is it throughout large chunks of the internet that it is almost as reliable a shorthand for a troll as Rick Astley.
One wonders what message they are trying to send by the use of this exact song.

The new Citroen advert, where astronauts fold the Earth to become the car. What coke-addled ad exec thought that was a good idea?

the advert for some tv show...

me and my father

no

my father and me


NO! if your going to correct it in the advert do it properly its
my father and I

at least thats what my grandmother always told me

I'm finding adverts increasingly obnoxious/smug recently. The Jeep one doing the rounds at cinemas just rubs me up the wrong way for some reason: "We've always won awards... because that's who we are."

pedant alert - that advert IS properly corrected. It's the object of the sentence. If it was the subject it WOULD be 'My father and I'.

well it doesn't sound right as my father and me, it just seems rather clumsy

strepsils.... or whatever they are called

unlike unmedicated cough sweets they contain medicine...

I'm shocked... truely shocked

Hmm.

this is the ideal site for debating the stupidity of adverts and has given me enormous pleasure. i think you will like it too.

Problem: can i post the name of the site without giving offence?

Let's see. if this goes against house rules, i will not argue with the decision. But a shame, as the name is contentious.

http://adturds.co.uk/

My take on a truly badly thought-out advert, as taken form the aforementioned site:

And the strangely named Citroen C4 "Cactus" car. (What next, the Vauxhall Venus Flytrap? The Audi Aloe Vera? the Lexus Lousewart?)

Just another generic car advert... except that in another Crime Against Music, it harnesses that 1967 hippie anthem "White Rabbit", by Jefferson Airplane, to the noble ideals of Making Bread For The Man.

has anyone stopped to ask whether a song extolling the virtues of taking lots and lots of lovely lysergic acid diethalymine (LSD to us) is, er, appropriate, for an advert selling a car - a potentially lethal vehicle that legally requires its driver to be sober and straight of head before getting into the driving seat?

The song "White Rabbit" expresses what in 1967 was the novel proposition that when Alice in Wonderland got down that rabbithole and encountered the goodies marked "EAT ME" and "DRINK ME", she then had a mother of a drugs trip. Everything else in the book was then hallucinated under the influence.

OK, so say I drop a tab then get into my Citroen Cactus. After all the advert condones this - doesn't it? Halfway round the M62, say at Stockport Pyramid (a bizarre WTF building coincidentally owned by the Co-Op Bank - who recently stressed their integrity as a bank expecting us to gloss over the fact their CEO was a drink-and-drug crazed incompetent..), I then start tripping out and seeing talking chessmen, dope-smoking caterpillars and red queens with axes. all over the motorway. The Greater Manchester Police are just going to love that.

I notice the advert keeps the "Feed your Head!" line from the song... which in Grace Slick's time, guys, meant "Keep doing the drugs". Ah well. I did hear Grace is broke and needs the money...

'Crime on 5' is currently sponsored by Airwick National Parks Fragrance Collection, so strictly speaking this isn't Advertising Stupidity, but a weird thing that marketing does for companies that produce or use fragrances in their products. I'm referring to stupid names given to such fragrances. In the past I've complained about 'Jasmine and Black Diamond' (or something) used in soap powder/fabric conditioner. Now it's air fresheners - Cairngorm is 'Spiced Apple & Snowy Mountain', which hubby summed up as 'Spiced Apple and Wet Dog'. Other fragrances are Midnight Berry & Shimmering Mist (fruity wet dog for Lake District), Golden Woodlands & Sweet Nectar (wet leaves and something sickly for New Forest) and Mountain Sunset & Vibrant Zest (rocks and oranges for Snowdonia).

There is no point in companies coming up with fancy names like those for their fragrances. Any sensible person will ignore at least half the of name and judge the product on the part that has some meaning - spiced apple, berry, citrus. (I've no idea what the New Forest fragrance is meant to smell like. Does nectar have a smell? What does a woodland smell like?)

Glad to see that Sainsbury's advert up there at number 1 in that link above

That actually had be shouting 'how dare they!' at the TV when we saw it - it was withdrawn the next day.

Apparently it still came second to the John Lewis ad in the 'advertising awards' the other day though

What on earth were they thinking?

Love the PETA one though

Sainsbury were probably thinking of people from different backgrounds putting their differences aside at Christmas. The advertisement is set during the 'Christmas Truce' of 1914, after all. The only saleable commodity in the whole ad is a bar of chocolate, which makes a refreshing change from ads encouraging overspending and overconsumption, IMO. Oh, and 50p from the sale of each bar of chocolate goes to the Royal British Legion whose logo is clearly visible at the end of the ad.

I had family members who fought and/or lived through both World Wars on both sides of the conflicts. As such I have no issues with the Sainsbury ad. It certainly doesn't make me think 'How dare they?' or 'What were they thinking?'

Well it did me - and so do I have family members who fought and died in both wars.

Essentially my thinking was - 'how dare ANY company exploit something like that for financial gain?' Your mood clearly varies - it was almost immediately withdrawn so I guess I wasn't the only one. It also came number one in that list for a reason.

But if you don't mind it, that's cool.

Actually I can't find any evidence that it was withdrawn, my wife told me she'd seen that somewhere but I can't see that it has anywhere. I haven't seen it since.
Interesting that the grandson of one of those said to be involved in the football match has been involved - that certainly mollifies me a little.

AFAIK the ad hasn't been withdrawn. I've seen it a few times recently.

Obviously different people see different things in the ad, which is as it should be. If everyone saw ads the same way, they'd all be the same. I don't want to think about that situation!

a radio advert I heard today
don't buy musical socks, get them a digital radio with all the stations you love plus some extra digital ones...

well... as far as i know there is a significant price difference between musical socks (they must still exist somewhere) and the cheapest of DAB digital radios they are different categories of gift really not just cost wise but I dont think anyone buys musical socks because of the good quality music...

Yeah I thought she'd said it was withdrawn, in fact she just commented that we hadn't seen it again.

Well it's won on one front - we're talking about it - that's advertisers heaven

On a less contention issue - of course the Andrex one where they get people talking about their own bum-cleanliness over coffee and muffins was of course also supreme ridiculousness

Thought I'd share this. A paracord bracelet is a length of string coiled up and worn around the wrist by campers who may have a need for a piece of string. My brother-in-law is a Scout leader and I thought it might make an interesting gift so I looked online. Typically available at £2-3, I found a seriously pretentious retailer selling one for £20. Obviously, asking ten times the going rate requires some advertising magic, so how's this:

"The Jet Black Paracord Bracelet is a very masculine and serious, yet versatile-colored bracelet. The color black relates to the sophisticated, hidden, the secretive and the unknown, which creates an air of mystery. Black keeps things bottled up inside, hidden from the world. A serious color, black is traditionally worn at important events and is used in everything from sophisticated eveningwear, weddings to funeral dress. Black signals seriousness, authority, simplicity and elegance. The human eye detects black when we see NO light, and therefore, NO color. This makes black unique as it’s NOT a true color. Nature is its foundation, scientists developed it, the military standardized it and paratroopers relied on it in demanding, life and death situations. Paracord, the paratrooper’s lifeline and a versatile tool, is now a fashion accessory with an unexpectedly proud military tradition. Naimakka Paracord Bracelets are as tough as they are a beautiful fashion accessory. Woven from immensely durable nylon cord, they have an amazing minimum breaking strength of 550 lbs (249 kg)! When unravelled, the bracelet is transformed into an incredibly strong, multifunctional, 8 foot (2.4 meter) long tool that tests the limits of your imagination in its variety of applications. These paracord bracelets are composed of seven intertwined strands, woven together to give the material amazing strength – and a great look as a fashionable bracelet for everyday wear! The bracelet’s individual strands can be unwound and used in a wide-variety of situations and for a multitude of purposes.

Only your creativity sets limits to the usability of the Naimakka bracelet. But to get you imaginative juices flowing, here are just a few uses for Naimakka Paracord Bracelets: * Lash Gear to Your Backpack * Fashion a Clothes Line * Use It as A Fishing Line * Make Snares, Traps -- or Even Snowshoes * Start a Fire Using the Bowdrill Technique * Create a Splint for a Broken Bone * Tow Your Car or Boat * A Fashion Accessory Individual Strands Can Be Used As: * Sewing Thread * Stitches * Dental Floss * Fishing Nets

In the “wilderness” or your everyday life, it will be up to you and your imagination to find innovative solutions to problems that can be solved with the help of this versatile, yet beautiful, material."

http://www.tiso.com/shop/naimakka/parachute-cord-bracelet-2/