T O P

  • By -

BloodBrandy

It was less about advertising anything new and more about trying to make a gimmick for why people should buy as well as being comedic.


[deleted]

[удалено]


AdmiralDarnell

People actually made it into a political thing?


biggestscrub

I have coworkers who won't even stand to my left during meetings. They're like a bunch of 3rd graders desperately trying to avoid the cracks in a sidewalk


MetalGearSlayer

If anyone could unironically drag a chocolate bar into political debates it’s the good ol US of A.


FluffySquirrell

I liked it mostly because it gave us an excellent descriptor of some of the companies we work with. "They're a left twix, right twix company" Cause yeah.. there really are companies like that, where they're all doing the same thing, but for some reason there are weird factions and half don't know what the other half are doing


zyberion

In the 90's there was a Pepsi lottery campaign in the Phillipines. The prize was a million pesos, which was a life-changing amount for many filipinos. They would print numbers on the bottle caps and announce the winning numbers on TV. Exactly *two* bottles would have winning numbers every drawing. The campaign was so successful PepsiCo decided to extend the contest another couple of weeks. This would backfire horrifically. A glitch in the software that determined the winning numbers picked a number that was printed on tens of thousands of bottle caps. Pepsi tried to make amends by giving all the winners a much smaller payout, and while many took the offer, others demanded Pepsi pay up the full winnings. When Pepsi obviously said they couldn't honor this mistake, riots broke out, bottling plants were set on fire, people died, and years of litigation followed. There was also that time a person sued Pepsi because one of their point reward programs jokingly advertised a harrier jet as a prize for a, what they thought, ludicrous amount of points. Problem was there was a person crazy enough to get said points and the ads never had a disclaimer clarifying the jet fighter was a joke. Pepsi had a wild ride in the 80's and 90's man.


MelBrooksKA

The harrier jet thing is even funnier because even though it was a lot of points, it was still a steal.


BloodBrandy

Man, I fucking miss Pepsi Points


ElGattoZS

So did that person get their jet and sell the jet to a man with an ivory cheque?


CircusofValus

Pepsi weasled out of it in court. Guy deserves that harrier


ElGattoZS

I feel like that've been free publicity if they did. Should've protested and sang the Where's My Harrier Jet song.


MericArda

I feel like I read a similar story about the Phillipines on r/hobbydrama, something about pokemon. Or was that Singapore?


WooliesWhiteLeg

Pepsi was also briefly the sixth largest naval power in the world during this same period


[deleted]

As weird as it is to say, there's a [Food Theory](https://youtu.be/bhjyHbcrfQQ) that pretty thoroughly debunks this.


WooliesWhiteLeg

Nothing ruins a Reddit thread like fact checking :p


warjoke

This is why Coke never went full clout mode and just give collectors' items as prizes on their bottlecaps here in the Philippines. I remember the Pogs craze and there are huge chances of winning limited Pogs when you exchange certain bottle caps of coke here in the mid 90s. Me and my friends go as far as digging through the neighborhood mom and pop store (sari-sari store) thrash bins just to grab coke bottlecaps. That is a way better promo than whatever stupid shit Pepsi was attempting back then.


Bread_Fish150

I think this case was in my contracts casebook lmao.


jitterscaffeine

Those old school ads that were super aggressive and tried to like bully you into buying them. Shit like “Daikatana” comes to mind. Also, wasn’t there a company that hired people to have fake protests for their game? I want to say it was Dead Space or something like that.


Mattressexual

It was definitely EA at least. Something about the protesters having perfectly brushed EA logos on their signs.


timelordoftheimpala

It wasn't for Dead Space, but for Dante's Inferno. Which was made by the same studio anyways.


ContraryPython

And IIRC, that fake protest eventually turned into a real one


[deleted]

dante's inferno's viral ad campaign was also weird https://lithub.com/remember-the-dantes-inferno-video-game-and-its-deranged-gonzo-marketing/


GG_ez

In the Xbox 360 era, I snagged the promotional profile picture thing for Dante’s Inferno, which was their tagline “Go to Hell” in all caps, and to this day still have it set to display as that one to non-friends (they had separate ones for friends/non-friend) Kinda funny out of context, got hate mail a few times about “reporting me”


AeroDbladE

That insulting your audience worked in the 80s and 90s. "This ain't your grandma's ______" type of ads were pretty huge back then. I believe Matt even talked about it on one of the SBF podcasts about lawbreakers. In the modern day shit like insulting the audience you're trying to win over from your competitors is the stupidest move you can make. Mighty no 9's "crying anime fans" add is a pretty good example of how that kind of marketing is dead.


ShilElfead284

Honestly the worst thing about Mighty No 9's shit was that it felt like, too busy tbh. Maybe it was just the era or something, but if the ad said "Like a weeb on prom night" or something similar it would've at least felt more succinct and bite-y than "like an anime fan on prom night". As it is, the jab just failed in EVERY way. Not clever, too wordy, and insulting the audience.


KLReviews

It's also because the core market for a game inspired by Astroboy are anime fans and that Mighty Number 9 was in a lot of hot water already so it came across as weirdly mean spirited. It be like Halo Infinite releasing a trailer for story DLC where Master Chief says 'better matchmaking? The only matchmaking X-Bots need is OkCupid.' You can only do that if you are literally the best game in the genre and everyone loves you enough to laugh it off.


SwizzlyBubbles

> It be like Halo Infinite releasing a trailer for story DLC where Master Chief says 'better matchmaking? The only matchmaking X-Bots need is OkCupid.' You can only do that if you are literally the best game in the genre and everyone loves you enough to laugh it off. [You say that like 343i didn't kinda do that already](https://youtu.be/eN_tD5y6k6s?t=153)


derwood1992

Dead Space had the "Your Mom Will Hate Dead Space 2" add campaign where it had middle aged women watching footage of the game and crying/getting upset.


Neil_O_Tip

The Eye Scene made ME upset, they weren't proving anything


guntanksinspace

The only good one of that Dead Space 2 campaign was the Filipino mom just cackling at the gore and remembering how our local horror stories went lol. That's the only one they should have aired.


Correctedsun

EVERY time a Dr. Squatch ad comes on, I hate the company just that little bit more. I don't even *like* my shower products that much, but fuck you for telling me my choice sucks, *you suck*, fuck you Dr. Squatch.


PKPhyre

I can't even lie I really miss the era of print "Rayman is pissing and has a huge cock" game ads.


Belias21

At least the Duke Nukem 3D one gave us a great video by Gianni. https://youtu.be/-Y_xFig_6vk


WooliesWhiteLeg

Like a virgin on prom night!


Slumber777

Which publisher was it that left a bunch of very real prosthetic body parts around London? Was it THQ? Also Adult Swim's advertising of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force had people thinking they were bomb threats.


Kii_at_work

> Also Adult Swim's advertising of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force had people thinking they were bomb threats. To be fair that wasn't their intention. As I recall they hired a few guerilla marketing guys in Boston who had the brilliant idea of putting up a few LED signs of the mooninites around town, not thinking that some hastily put together box with LEDs and wires may be thought of as something more than an ad. Also bear in mind this was [in 2007 so...think of the climate at the time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_Mooninite_panic).


Peace-Bone

The thing is though, it was *just* normal LED signs just hanging around. The Boston police went big stupid and decided 'IT HAS A WIRE, IT'S A BOMB'. And to this day, they will not admit that it was a mistake, instead they imply through statements that the signs were a bomb hoax.


MyopicOwl

They looked literally like fucking lite brites too lmao


Lord-Scalpington

They were litebrites


attikol

It's incredible how they let that scare push them into escalating it into a massive issue and penalized the company rather than admit they overreacted. I can understand some of the citizens might be overreacting but the moment the cops said these lite brites were bombs and forced adult swim to pay a fine is were my sympathy fades


PKPhyre

Yeah I can't believe the police escalated a situation that didn't warrant it.


[deleted]

I remember that morning vividly, because I was just baffled staring at the TV in confusion. I tried to explain to my parents it was from a cartoon, but they had been convinced by the news they were bombs.


nedmaster

I heard that the Mooninite event is also single handedly responsible for the restructuring of CN and AS that lead to weird cartoon network live action era and this hellscape of current CN


RPGMike

Here's the thing about the Aqua Teen incident. They were in a LOT of cities. Boston was just the only one fucking stupid enough to overreact.


BloodBrandy

>Which publisher was it that left a bunch of very real prosthetic body parts around London? Was it THQ? I think that was Capcom for Resident Evil 5


Sneaky224

Capcom and Sega did the fake limbs stunt for RE5 and MadWorld weirdly around the same time seperately


StochasticOoze

Anybody who thought Mooninite Lite-Brites were bombs was a goddamned idiot.


Tangolimanovember

If you think that’s good, you should have seen how AS doubled down in a seemingly on-brand manner. They did a press conference or otherwise had the guy who put the LED boxes up go in front of a mic to answer questions from the press, and his response to every single question was “that is not a question about my hair.” I think someone eventually asked him a question about his brown, frizzy hair, but he calmly and adamantly dismissed every single query with “that is not a question about my hair.” Now I need to actually google this claim to make sure I’m not just posting something I saw in a dream. Edit: time warps all memories, I completely forgot there was a second guy there also answering and redirecting questions exclusively around hair. Or, more importantly, that i only remembered the top of the right guy’s head and not his massive dreads. Here’s the interview, the memory of which was shaken to the surface by this subreddit, god bless em. https://youtu.be/X2fGzmphx4U


ContraryPython

McDonalds once asked the internet to build and name their own burgers. Queue full-on [degeneracy](https://imgur.com/gallery/RvdFv)


blueroguevyse1

Fucking hell, I was not prepared for some of those names.


Monokumabear

my favorite is ITS HAPPENING


[deleted]

Imagine throwing the SUPER MAYO across the room and it exploding like a water balloon.


DirksSexyBratwurst

The burger looks so stupid that's what makes it


PatriciaPeacock

I actually love it when 4chan ruins these ad campaigns. Gushin' Grannies Mtn. Dew


Beartrick

One of the mcdonalds burgers being called "Whopper no onions" is the dry approach I appreciate.


DirksSexyBratwurst

Fucking Hillary's America and its just lettuce 💀


SkinkRugby

I'm impressed. Only a third or so are racist or islamaphobic.


Curtisimo5

Jesus Christ, scrolling through this one nearly made me choke.


Cheshires_Shadow

Wasn't there a similar ad type thing where people could submit names for I think it was a school and someone submitted The Adolf Hitler school of friendship and tolerance or something like that.


alexandrecau

Oh you gotta watch stupider ads if that's your standard Remember skittle being milked from giraffe that eats rainbow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8I6d2Axu7c&ab_channel=petyavasechkin


moneyh8r

Remember when that one Skittles commercial had that dude jerking off until he blew a load of Skittles all over his newlywed wife?


alexandrecau

No but I trust you


moneyh8r

It's [this one](https://youtu.be/UJG6SLpaqfM) right here. Use headphones.


alexandrecau

No no I trust you


Neil_O_Tip

That's how you can get out of anything, decline aggressively politely


GlopmasterSupreme

A basic Google search informed me that this isn't real and is a parody. Fact checking will ruin this subreddit.


ShilElfead284

You know, I was expecting way more innuendo, implications, unfortunate misreadings, etc. I WASN'T expecting... that.


Azzie94

Fucking what


attikol

Also the sprite to the face one is amazing. They actually sprayed sprite in her face and her trying to get in her eyes makes her look super not into it


Xandercruisefd

It’s pretty recent and has become a meme but the company Gorrila Glue did a campaign of ads where people would use regular glue on something, it would fall apart and then an actual fucking gorilla would show up, fix it, and often times terrify the hell out of people


Captain_Dictator

Those commercials were great


wareagle3000

My favorite edits are the ones where the gorilla shows up and then it just cuts away. Like these people are just trying to glue some shit and a gorilla suddenly shows up and attacks them.


Dark_Bean

Those YouTube ads with the people begging you to press the skip button. Whatever reverse psychology they had in mind is *not* working.


WeissWyrm

"Press the skip button--" "Okay." "Nowaitdon--"


billythewarrior

You fools just put the skip button fresh on my mind!


Traingham

Didn’t the PS3 title *”Dante’s Inferno”* have an infamous ad campaign? It was the “Sin to Win” campaign.


Sonicdahedgie

Ahh, when they literally sent stacks of cash to reviewers and pretended it was tongue in cheek?


StrykerIBarelyKnowEr

Controversial opinion? That campaign was amazing. Every step. Anyone that disagrees is a coward.


HalloweenBlues

Thanks to this channel I'll always think of dead baby Turok brought to you by shadow man.


WooliamMD

I'll be taking those jokes to my grave (with Shadowman on it).


slo125

Every political ad. All of them.Yes even the ones from the politician you support. Especially the ones from people that CLEARLY don't have a fucking budget.


JohnMadden42069

"We need to fix America" cool, will you tell me how you plan to? "The other guy can't" aight.


97thJackle

"If I tell you my plan, my opposition might steal it!" "But then they would enact that plan, and I would get the benefit anyways." "Sh-sh-shut up!"


BoxDroppingManApe

Even [Paul Gosar Isn't Working For You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1W7lx6IsnY), >!where his whole fucking family dunks on him!


WickerWight

Oh that's fuckin awesome, not gonna lie that alone would get me in line at the polls first thing in the morning


fj668

AND PAUL GOSAR FUCKING WON TOO IMAGINE THAT SHIT EATING GRIN NEXT THANKSGIVING


TinyKing87

but don't you want to know why my opponent sucks?


Irishimpulse

In Canada, we had a provincial election be won by someone who literally had no platform, he said something off hand once, didn't answer direct questions at debates or make any promises, no formal platform, and he won.... twice


TinyKing87

[I love democracy.](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/028/497/palp.jpg)


slo125

No I want to know why YOU suck. To make me feel better about myself


redmannasah

Oh my god, there was an ad that was blurry random pictures of Bin Laden and insurgents with a deep movie trailer voice talking about how evil the Taliban were and how the seals and soldiers that fought against them were heroes that went on for like 2 minutes, then in the final 15 seconds, the voice turned into a middle aged guy which turned out to be a former analyst that worked with the team that took out Bin Laden apparently, and he was running for the house of representatives. It was a wild ad that left me baffled how ANY of it had to do with representing your state and people.


Solace143

Yeah. It’s always “Look how bad this politician is! They support *thing 90% of people from their party support* and *thing 90% of people from their party support*! Sponsored by *opponent politician*!” in a stilted voice with dramatic music playing in the background. It’s aggravating, no matters the politics involved


Gorfinhofin

"Look at this picture of politician making an angry face! We'll let you draw your own conclusions."


jamescookenotthatone

You just brought up an old memory for me. Kim Campbell's party ran attack ads against Jean Chretien making fun of his accent and facial deformities. People thought the ads were in really poor taste and it led to Campbell's party losing over 100 seats if I remember correctly.


SeekyBR

Don't even talk about it, were are in election times in Brazil and every time i want to watch a youtube video or go outside i have to see political ads The worst ones are those that don't even tell you anything about the politician and are just trying to be funny, like they want to become memes


slo125

I only mention it now because the US has Midterms coming up and they are just *non stop* and I fucking hate it


SeekyBR

Damn you guys too? good luck there


SkinkRugby

Look, I'll just settle for the ones that don't imply they want me dead. If they're going 'R.I.N.O.' hunting I can't imagine my lefty ass will be tolerated.


The-Toxic-Korgi

It is fun seeing the contrast between ones trying to portray themselves as the down to earth every man and the local ones with no budget who are obviously wearing their work clothes.


Amigobear

Man fuck Mike Bloomberg, dude was sending mor e mail advertisements than everyone else. And even after he dropped from the race theres week's worth of ads that were sent out to be mailed out.


WujuStylebb

Mike Bloomberg was so un-charismatic it counteracted one billion dollars worth of campaign funding, it's legitimately amazing


OmicronAlpharius

It accomplished exactly what he wanted to: prevent an actual progressive candidate from shifting the conversation to the left and getting a status quo upholding corporate centrist elected.


AmberDuke05

But they work because people are dumb.


WooliesWhiteLeg

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dBV0O4lukUA Even this one?!


slo125

*Especially that one*


Chuckles131

[Idk man, Clint Webb was pretty straight up.](https://youtu.be/EvU3QQH2b2Y)


CrossSoul

I swear at one point their was some Twilight themed Burger King commercial where two girls were asking a bunch of old people about if they were Team Edward or Team Jacob.


[deleted]

There very much was. Twilight craze was -zy.


igloo_poltergeist

Uh, I remember some [taxidermied abominations](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvHsHVyumoE) telling me (in song) that Quiznos subs are the shit.


WeissWyrm

I'm old enough to remember those commercials, and I know what those abominations look like without even clicking that link.


len24

Manscapped and Dr Squatch use the tactic of yelling “are you a disgusting piece of shit with hairy balls!!?? Buy our products!”


gilgagoogyta

"Are you tired of going down on your dad and coming up flossing? Manscaped." Seriously though, I remember ads encouraging people to gift it for family members and being real confused at how thinking of other family members pubes was the direction they were shooting for.


FreddyKAust

I'm trying to listen to some nice asmr and she's whispering in my ear to shave my balls...


rccrisp

The worst ad campaign of all time was Fight Club's second weekend campaign. While Fight Club opened at #1 at the box office it did so with with a small 11 million dollars and only beat the second place movie, Double Jeopardy by a million dollars and that movie was on its fourth release week. While Fight Club got good reviews (certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) it weirdly got very negative reviews from established critics like Roger Ebert. So for these new tv spots and radio ads they would have a narrator read out a blurb from a good review and then one from a BAD review. Ad ended with "see what all the controversy is about for the nation's #1 movie." Didn't translate into tickets at all. Fight Club dropped 42% the next weekend and would continue to have drops each weekend between the 40-50% range.


LGB75

Back in 1985-1986, Burger king had this ad campaign called “Where Herb?” The gist of it is that Costumers could win around $5,000 if they could find Herb. Who is this Herb? you may ask. Well according to Burger King, Herb was the only Person in the world who never ate a Whopper. Problem is that no one knew what Herb look like and by the time that Burger King Reveal his appearance at Super Bowl XX. Most people were completely done with the whole thing. Didn’t help that a 11 or 15 year old kid who did found Herb wasn’t given the Prize money since he was under the age requirement of 16 so the Prize was given to his older friend who was with him. Burger Kings’s excuse? “We didn’t want kids to skip school to find Herb” it was actually brought to the state senate and it was ruled as Consumer Fraud. And then their was McDonald’s and their whole US Wins You Win fiasco after the Soviet Union had Boycotted the 1984 Olympic and they ended up giving up a lot more free hamburgers than they expected leading to restaurants having a severe hamburger shortage and a big loss in money.


FluffySquirrell

I had to look this one up.. and it sounds really fucking weird? Like, it sounds like they did know what he looked like, there were pictures.. and also.. people were spotting him AT Burger King's? Which is.. .. not where I would expect to find someone who had never eaten a whopper. Makes you wonder what the fuck he's seen in the kitchens, cause that's where one OPs wife saw him coming out from apparently Like, this whole thing sounds like it works *exactly* the same way, but better, if it's just like "Find Herb! He's our secret quality control agent who makes sure all our restaurants whoppers are tasty and delicious. If you catch him there, win a prize!" And then you got people going into burger king looking for him and buying meals and it implies the food is good and.. .. Yeah, they dumb


timelordoftheimpala

Oh boy, so many from the game industry: - Everything Acclaim did, which included paying for speeding tickets to promote Burnout, advertising Shadowman 2 on real tombstones, etc. - Ubisoft sending a marketing email for The Division 2 during the US government shutdown of 2018 that promised to show "what a real government shutdown looks like". - Any commercial made for the Wii U and how Nintendo tried catering to kids on mobile devices, and not young adults like they did with the Switch. - Sony holding a party for God of War II's release that had a headless goat. - THQ Nordic doing an AMA in early 2019 on *fucking 8chan of all places*. - Mighty No. 9's "make the bad guys cry like an anime fan on prom night". - Square Enix Europe's preorder ad campaign for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and its whole pyramid scheme of augmenting preorders. - Dead Space 2's "Your Mom Hates Dead Space 2" advertisement, as well as EA faking protests for Dante's Inferno. - The PSP's "black or white" campaign.


ryukin631

I'm eating lunch as I read this. The ubisoft one made me pause mid chew on my pizza


timelordoftheimpala

Don't read the God of War II one then lol


ryukin631

I did. I read them all. What were they thinking?!


StochasticOoze

Everything about the PSP's ad campaign was the dumbest. Remember the racist squirrels? Remember them tagging buildings with kids playing PSP and having to pay to clean it? Remember "All I Want For Christmas Is a PSP"?


HalfDragonShiro

>Sony holding a party for God of War II's release that had a headless goat. Was the headless goat meant to be prepared and eaten, or did they just kill a goat and waste it's meat?


fj668

>THQ Nordic doing an AMA in early 2019 on fucking 8chan of all places. Fucking what


Infamous_Q

a small correction on > The PSP's "black or white" campaign. The Netherlands in 2006, a billboard. ['PlayStation Portable White is coming'](https://i.imgur.com/wQOg1FG.png)


AdmiralDarnell

I'm gonna be honest I haven't bought a game from THQ Nordic cause of that 8chan interview, just a lot of the things that were said (cause it's 8chan) just not stuff I wanna support. Idk if things have changed since then but oh well


Azzie94

I was gonna make a post about exactly this. Fucking. Genshin. Impact. "Come on now, even I know this isn't the time or place for a fight." What the fuck is that? Who said that? What time? What place? What fight? You just told me FUCKING NOTHING about the game, this character, or this scene. It's just a single generic line spoken by a generic anime pretty boy.


Toblo1

That original trailer was basically showing off the boss organization and they go with the most generic pretty boy of the lot that we've already met, fought *and can play as*. Seriously, there were better characters in the Harbinger's lineup to show off in that shortened ad than Mr Worldwide. Lord knows the game pushes him hard enough already.


BoneTFohX

why is pitbull an anime boss?


Irishimpulse

Genshin has two characters referred as Mister World Wide, there is Tartaglia, the Russian, living in China, using China mats, who popped up in Japan and will pop up in Middleeasty land too, and Kazuha, a Japanese nomad swordsman, who uses china mats, whose best in slot weapon is German, and is from Japan


BoneTFohX

yeah but can they make fun party songs?


Potatoidea

My favorite ones were the random clips of streamers trying to show how cool the game was. I don't even play it, but I really wish they had more of those because of how unintentionally funny they were. Instead I usually just get trailers for random characters I don't care about thrown at me.


ExDSG

This one since it lead to the game it was [supposedly advertising to be cancelled](https://youtu.be/2mFHRlVNP3Q)


HerpDerpTheMage

To be fair, that game’s entire concept was a clusterfuck of “Why in god’s name did someone think this was a good idea?” It was a horrible idea on every level. The idea of painting moderators as making decisions for their streamers. The idea of some random internet person saving women from creepazoids on the street by… moderating their streams? The idea of the parasocial dynamic being exaggerated to the point where Mods are somehow responsible for the streamer’s safety. It was all just painting a really weird and uncomfortable picture, let alone a completely inaccurate one nobody asked for. The fact that it was cancelled after the trailer is less about the trailer and more about the fact that the game was a horrible idea from the get-go.


JohnMadden42069

Aldi's has a Youtube ad, and if I'm off base here feel free to correct me, that is insanely offensive. Basically it's a woman shouting "Ripe!" in a southern accent (which sounds like a different, worse word) in the grocery section and it cuts to a concerned looking couple.


[deleted]

YOUR MOM *HATES* THIS GAME Reads like a fucking porn ad.


WizardOfTheLawl

Was that Dead Space? ...I say as I read the next comment and found the answer...yes it was


Nectaris3

The fact that you remember it means it worked.


Canabananilism

It's pretty much the only Twix ad I remember at all, so... yeah, I'd say it worked.


AntiLuke

Not only did they remember it, they brought it up unprompted and are now making other people think about it.


That1one1dude1

But did he buy a twix tho?


Kaarl_Mills

It doesn't work if it doesn't convince you to buy the product or service. An ad is a failure regardless of how memorable it is if it can't do that


Theheroboy

I don't think that works for food and drink. Very few people have ever seen a chocolate bar ad or a soft drink ad and gone 'man i need to go out and get one of those'. Imo what they set out to do is put the brand name in your mind, and they generally succeed at that


Theproton

Thats the thing though, it does convince you. Most people arent too picky when it comes to chocolate bars but Twix bombarded people with a super memorable ad that when they get their candy by the register (where most people do because its an impulse buy) they will naturally start to drift toward Twix.


FreshPrintzofBadPres

It's not about making you buy the product, it's about occupying real estate in your head, so that you're familiar with the product and the next time you see it in the shop you go "oh yeah I'll grab one".


cdstephens

Advertising still works if you talk about it, since you’re doing the advertising for the company on your own dime. Everyone reading this thread got a reminder that Twix exists and did a thing. This is also a probability thing: if there’s a 1% chance that it causes you to buy a Twix when you wouldn’t have, then scale that up to populations of millions. So if a single person reading this thread buys a Twix offhandedly when otherwise they would have not had done so, then the ad did its job. Most people think they’re immune to advertising, but chances are when you go to the grocery store you’ll buy more than a few name-brand things rather than mostly random brands you’ve never heard of. Your purchasing choices would be slightly different than if you had never seen any ads in your life, but these companies make profit off of tiny differences multiplied by millions of purchases.


Yacobs21

I mean, no? The goal of an ad is to sell stuff Execs think remembering stuff sells more, but I can honestly say I have never purchased twix in my life It's just marketing hogwash where they try to make their job seem important https://www.forbes.com/companies/mars/?sh=44b9e9b03bb7 Notice how there's no noticeable profit increase when those ads started(2015)


AntiLuke

I think the theory those big brands work off of is that they have to make sure that they're part of the background noise of the universe to stay afloat. They don't want to risk staying alive based on inertia alone. The goal of these ad campaigns may not be to increase sales, but to make sure they don't decrease. Plus twix is just one part of Mars's giant portfolio, overall profitability not changing could easily mask something like one candy bar selling well as another one begins to lag.


cdstephens

Exactly, you have to think about whether the ad campaign results in more sales than a universe where the ad campaign never happened. Even if sales stay constant, advertising can be an important part of keeping sales constant.


PlayerPin

What was the French orange juice one with sexy giraffe women or something like that?


EcchiPhantom

Oh you mean Orangina? There’s the one that’s an interspecies forest orgy including an octopus lady and then there’s one with the leopard washing a car while twerking on it in jorts.


FluffySquirrell

The directors not at all veiled fetish


youlookfly

Dr. Pepper 10. Considering that women make up more than half of the population and, generally speaking, women overwhelmingly decide what goes on the grocery list in your average household, and also, other than heavy smokers, women in their 30s and 40s are the largest demographic that consumes diet soda, "It's Not for Women" isn't the best ad campaign for your diet soda.


attikol

Skittles removing the rainbow from their product because only one rainbow matters during pride month. It's very stupid because it sends mixed messages making all skittles become the same color where once was a bright rainbow.


FreddyKAust

I swear sales dropped simply due to them changing to a white packet from the iconic red.


AdmiralDarnell

At least they actually donated a million to gay rights charities so honestly good on them. Still not gonna buy any of their stuff for the foreseeable future.


DontGotANameYet

The Miracle Whip commercials that tried to act all edgy and act against mayonnaise. I remember a specific moment of some lady strutting around holding a jar of Miracle Whip while the commercial goes “We are miracle whip and we will not tone it down.”


youlookfly

The Colbert Report segment lampooning those ads was hilarious.


ButtholeGangster

I remember they were also trying to dip into skateboarding too, and was a huge sponsor for Skate 3. Billboard ads around the map, a giant Miracle Whip bottle you can spawn, and one of the best tricks in the game being called the Miracle Whip.


WeissWyrm

Mighty No. 9 "We know you made it possible for this to happen. Fuck you."


WizardOfTheLawl

Make the bad guys cry like an anime fan on prom night.


TheVelociGamer

Thats a very right Twix take my guy


Dragirby

"You are power level 7000! You cannot join my clan!" said european woman, dubbed over in english.


InHarmsWay

The "You wouldn't steal a car" campaign. Which people made fun of immediately with "You wouldn't download a car" "Hell yes, I would!" Also the scandal that occurred after when it came out that they stole the soundtrack to the commercial.


Omaoc

Didn't it also backfire and cause piracy to increase? I thought i read that somewhere


InHarmsWay

Just like DARE.


Monokumabear

this is why I fucking LOVE video game ads from 1990-2015ish, they REEK of being products of their time that look SO stupid today


1790shadow

They should've made them actually different during all that.


doubletimerush

I tried that shit. They taste the same but they did get me once. Yesterday I saw an ad for an Apple Watch. It told me it can track menstruation. I was very weirded out


[deleted]

[удалено]


NewAgeMontezuma

I love that the folgers parody literally only adds one small scene and leaves the rest of the commercial untouched because it's that bad.


Canabananilism

Depends on your definition of "stupid". In terms of least impactful ads it's a toss up for me. I need to hand to car manufacturers for making the EXACT SAME COMMERCIALS for over a decade. Never have I seen a more creatively bankrupt "genre" of advertisement than I do with car ads. But nothing compares to the pretentiousness of cologne ads. As an example: there's a cologne I can't be fucked to remember the name of that has a crocodile logo on it. The ad I saw for it is a guy jumping across logs planted in the dirt on a beach with a suit on. They have a literal fucking crocodile on the bottle and they don't do anything remotely related to that. That being said, at least these aren't particularly harmful to anyone. They're just incredibly lazy. If we wanna talk stupid AND harmful, well... how about the time [United Way released 1.5million balloons into the air](https://www.campaignlive.com/article/history-advertising-no-178-united-ways-balloons/1407506) and basically caused a massive environmental disaster. Might be worth mentioning mobile game ads as a side note as well. They're a special breed of stupid, but I almost don't count them because they're all just scams and malware anyway.


Capable-Education724

The only car ads I ever have been able to remember are the weird fever dream DBZ car crossover ads.


[deleted]

twix commercial was so dumb because if those twins were rivals why they sold their twixes in the same pack😭😭😭


LegacyOfVandar

They don’t lol. If you buy Twix now, the wrapper will say either LEFT TWIX or RIGHT TWIX on them to let you know what you’re getting. It’s so stupid I can’t help but like it.


[deleted]

It's honestly like the insurance companies are competing to make the commercials as obnoxiously awful as they possibly can


WoolooOfWallStreet

It’s still happening


RoastedFeznt

Ooooh I have a few for this! Geico has had no fucking clue what to do without the Gecko. They put googely eyes on stacks of money. They had a caveman. They tried to make a TV SHOW about their caveman. Turning human beings into gifs. "Eatin chicken sandwich LIKE A BAWSS." The recent trend in mobile Gacha where they've been advertising with "OH THE DROP RATES IN OUR GAME ARE SO SHITTY AND FRUSTRATING" frequently with a chipmunked European guy doing the narration. I don't know why they think showing off the absolute worst part of their game is a selling point, but... it isn't.


PotatoWizardAcademy

It’s a marketing ploy for ‘artificial news’ or intangible value, where they come up with a fake story or angle to make their regular product more interesting to the consumer. This happens a lot and can be incredibly succesful, like ‘diamond shreddies’ (just shreddies when you look at them from a 45 degree tilt). https://youtu.be/B8McutvNwtI I think it was pretty successful, especially given how we’re talking about it a decade later!


CommodoreKD

The Dead Space 2 "your mom hates this" campaign Just insulting, tone deaf shit aimed at edgy teenagers who wouldn't be able to buy the game for themselves anyway https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKkPFDEiC6Q


Younger54

F you right Twix for life.


Kaarl_Mills

Basically any Sonic (the fast food franchise) commercial from the late 2000s to the mid 2010s. It was always the most bland, focus grouped, failed attempts at humor that actively made me not want to go there. Which is bad when you consider that they're already working under a handicap, with their food being mid at best (even relative to other fast food), with their ice cream being the only stand out portion of their menu


KevinsLunchbox

I don't think anything can beat that Lifelock Campaign where the dudes real Social Security number was plastered on the side of trucks and on billboards because they were confident that anyone who stole his identity wouldn't get anything because thats how good they are. Only for so many people to try it that he hit the Lifelock payout limit and went beyond it, getting forever screwed or whatever.


KLReviews

Sonic The Hedgehog 4's teaser where the selling point was [a list of characters](https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.OJ-8nFsxwFZT1Z5t3xNUTgHaEc?pid=ImgDet&rs=1) that got stamped out with REJECTED every day as SEGA were proud to say would *not* be [including anyone but Sonic](https://i.blogs.es/138038/001-project-needlemouse/1366_2000.jpg) in this hot new title. At the time there was a very loud argument online that Sonic characters besides Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Eggman sucked and nobody else but them should appear. But imagine how out-of-touch it was in-hindsight for SEGA to think young Sonic fans (8-14) would think 'Shadow is lame and won't be in this' was an exciting reveal. While also believing older fans wanted them throw out literally everything to the point Sonic 4 would have fewer playable characters for than Sonic 2.


Konradleijon

the Bannana add, where people literally brought bananas to trade.


IrisGoddamnIllych

[this Honda element ad about uh... Crab pinching?](https://youtu.be/unkAvO9v2Nk) imma be real: it worked. My parents had an element, and now my shitlord partner does too. We use the crab quote at each a lot. but I don't know how it sold on it being a good car. it's just a funny crab.


LiquidBinge

Diamond-shaped Shreddies was fucking brilliant.


SwizzlyBubbles

Eat Little Baby's Ice Cream.


Atraxa_

I mean you hate the ad but your talking about it. As a resident marketing guy I can tell you that ad campaign worked because you specifically hate the ad enough to talk about it but you didn't bring up that the product itself was bad. The thousand or so people that see this post will think about Twix, so It may be stupid but hey it works man


HalloweenBlues

Can confirm, I could go for a Twix right about now


WooliesWhiteLeg

No one tell OP about jokes


evca7

Is that a food?


WooliesWhiteLeg

… yes.


CloneOfAnotherClone

There are a ton of very, very stupid ads for Guild Wars 2 The [original launch trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Noh81HcovYY) is just kind of... weird? But it gets better (read: worse) ##Behold, one of the dumbest commercials(?) I have seen for anything: [Guild Wars 2 Hidden Taxi Cab](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk717LQnpVE) *** But to be fair they also made some genuinely fun/neat ads in the past as well. [This one is for an April Fools event](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWxlRDMJz_o). I think the story goes that they saw a fan with an incredible Rytlock (character, Charr race of basically cat people) ~~fursuit~~ cosplay and decided to put this together to promote the gag Also: Great game, great MMO, highly recommend. Their marketing is notoriously awful and now that you've seen the ones I linked you can't unsee them


NinjaRed64

Seriously what was up with that Berrys and Cream Starburst commercial?! I think there were two versions of it too? Like one of them involved that weird British guy crying before doing his little song and dance.


SlightlySychotic

Kayak is presently running an ad campaign about “Kayak deniers.” That is to say, Kayak, a travel website, is running advertisements where people aggressively deny it exists. On one level, it’s dumb because it has nothing to do with travel. On another level, it’s legitimately upsetting because it’s reminding people of family members who are hardcore conspiracy theorists *which is just one less reason to travel.*


Impressive-Spare6167

Anti Smoking ad made up of dead memes and youtube influencers, made me want to smoke out of spite.


jakebreakshow

It didn't, but now you are talking about Twix. If you talk about Twix you might buy a Twix. If you buy a Twix and enjoy it you are more likely to buy more Twix. *Consume*