The kind of thing which makes you say “how could they possibly have thought this was a good idea?”
Decades ago, Coca-Cola was trying to enter the market in Saudi Arabia. They ran an ad where “pilgrims” walked around a giant coke bottle, in the same way that Muslim pilgrims in Mecca walk around the Kaaba during Hajj and Umrah. It was very, very poorly received, to say the least, and many attribute it as the main reason why Pepsi has dominated the market instead of Coca-Cola.
How deliciously blasphemous. Makes me almost want to drink a Coke. Almost.
Australian supermarket promoting the freshness of their produce on ANZAC day, the national holiday in rememberance of fallen soldiers.
Woolworths takes down Anzac ‘Fresh in our Memories’ website after social media backlash
This ad honestly reads like satire. I can’t believe this came out of Texas.
Wow, it gets worse the more you read!
Another one near me, not technically an ad but a name: The Dead River Company. They deliver oil.
That old Saturn Ion commercial. A car ad about a world without cars, accidentally showing what a complete waste of space their own product is.
A local bank once did a mailed ad campaign that went along the lines of:
“Tired of living with your parents? Check out our mortgage rates” and stuff along the lines of your parents won’t be doing your laundry anymore.
Like have they never heard of renting?
I was abroad recently. At the radio I got an ad for a company from my country. At the end of the ad, they said their slogan… in their own language. How do you expect people to get your slogan if it’s in a language they don’t speak!?
Slogans in foreign languages are sometimes considered prestigious or exotic. They’re saying it for the vibes, not for the literal meaning of the words.
Rock and Roll Hairstyle USA
Wow, really? I’d never heard a slogan in a foreign language before. It must vary by country
Volkswagen had “Fahrvergnügen” in the early 90s. I can remember that campaign took off for a while.
Fun fact: That word didn’t exist in the German language before, it was created specifically for this ad.
I remember a good take on it! An ad in one of Nordic languages where a happy family sings to a metal or punk(?) radio tune which refrain went “I want to f*** you in your ***”.
It was an ad to promote learning foreign languages.
Your country doesn’t speak English, by chance?
No no of course not xD
Really strange Applebee’s ad during news coverage about war in Ukraine, ad at roughly 0:27 - https://www.mediaite.com/media/tv/applebees-apologizes-pulls-ads-after-cnn-plays-annoying-commercial-during-invasion-of-ukraine/
Oh boy I hope that’s not the Chicken Fried inciden—okay yep it’s the Chicken Fried incident
Anything related to AI nowadays
i can only pick one?
twizzlers and lawn care ads have been leaning heavy on AI slop and the lack of good writing and ideas is really showing lately. none of it is remotely cohesive.
I once saw a billboard that only had text and a picture of some guy.
The text read “You can’t block this ad”
It made me so irrationally angry and I still to this day don’t even know what they were advertising for.
Ooh, I saw something like that once. What they haven’t considered is that you could just cover it up. Hey presto, blocked.
Ooh, I saw something like that once. What they haven’t considered is that you could just cover it up. Hey presto, blocked.
I’d guess it would be the owner of the billboard advertising the space. I’ve definitely seen that before, often accompanied by a “x thousand people see this every day!” type message.
Advertising advertising is one of the most hilarious things to me.
I hate ads on principle but an ad for an ad is just a level of debauchery I can barely fathom
I’m not sure if this applies. Yesterday, in Canada, I saw a commercial for a cellphone network provider company that showed a bunch of their logos dot across Canada on a globe map and they said “anywhere in Canada” and then the globe spun around as far away from the usa as possible and they said “or anywhere in the world”. I thought that was a very subtle diss against the usa. Sometimes I see Jesus on burnt toast though so maybe I’m reading something that’s not there.
How is that tone deaf?
Every time the self checkout prompts me to donate to charity.
Sir this is a Loblaws, why don’t you donate.
(They’ve jacked the cost from “round up to the nearest dollar” to like $4.95 for some reason too)
IMO, the easiest answer is always gonna be literally any pro genAI ads, so I’mma go with something different.
I don’t remember the brand, but it was this car ad where someone sealed themselves in their car in their garage and was doing the thing where you set it up so the emission fumes backfire into the vehicle and you commit suicide that way. The ad basically boiled down to how their car was so clean you couldn’t kill yourself off the emission fumes and shit.
I really hope anyone involved with it and/or approved it were either fired and/or had to take some sensitivity course because suicide is something you should never joke about.
There was a partnership between a genealogy group and a cruise line. It makes sense that the people who like one would like the other. The cruise line put out an ad “sail the Atlantic and trace your family” Which is kind of tone deaf for a number of people.
Great learning opportunity if you chain them below decks the entire time.
That sounds right up Boomer alley
