I've hated that whole line of commercials from the onset. They just don't make sense, as they play out more like "Want to waste $5? Why not give it to us instead?!" (Man it feels creepy replying to a Mak post now )

And @ NEOWatcher's much more recent post: People can't actually think that was a real guy, can they? I mean.... no. Can't be. I refuse to believe that.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

I don't get this trend in most advertising that portrays "typical" customers as not-so-bright at best to complete morons at worst.

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Brett
Peters Creek, Alaska

I've been noticing that for several years, especially on the radio. The theme seems to be "Our customers are morons! And they're so dumb, they won't even realize we're making fun of them!"

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Cum catapultae proscribeantur tum soli proscripti catapultas habeant.

Ah; another one of those insult your intelligence ads.

It's simply a banner on a page that alternates two phrase.
"Over 75% of you have failed the dumb test"
"Think you can pass? Click here and try"

75% of me? Well, let me see, my brain is about....
How about 75% of others?
And if it's a dumb test, then maybe it's a good thing to fail.
And if 75% failed, then are you calling 75% of the population dumb?

Now that's good ad.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

Here's a spoof to one of the "FreeCreditReport.com" commercials; the one where the 'gang' is driving in a beat-up used sub-compact car.

"Well I was shopping for a new house, which one's me,
A cool ranch or a flat-roofed abobe?
They knew my credit's whack but they still wrote the loan.
Then I couldn't make the payments, are they repo-ing my home? NO!
F-R-E-E that spells free, bailouts from the Feds for me!"

.

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http://boinc.mundayweb.com/one/stats...033/prj:6/.png

Well, so far I've passed 100% of all 75% tests, so I should be perfectly capable of diving in a barrel.

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And the "driving on the freeway on a scooter" analogy still holds true because the pilots are sitting in 7 to 30 ton aircraft o' doom and you are running around them in your very own Meatbody, Mark I. Beep, beep.
Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

Now that we're all inured to the Burger King's plastic visage, the folks behind Axe body spray have decided to top it with their latest monstrosity, the Chocolate Man.



The ad depicts their (doubtlessly foul-smelling) product turning a young man into chocolate--a chocolate golem with a creepy, unchanging grin.



Women throw themselves at him, even taking a bite from his buttocks while he rides the bus. Even more disturbing, he removes body parts to serve to them, such as crushing his nose to sprinkle on ice cream, or melting his hand to make hot chocolate. This ends with a woman in a passing convertible tearing off his arm. All the while, he never stops smiling. WHY WON'T HE STOP SMILING?



As Mike said to the bots, "Ah, good old-fashioned nightmare fuel."



It's also an example of Good Music Wasted in Bad Commercials, as this plays over Allen Toussaint's "Sweet Touch of Love," a song that is made of awesome. That song is simply too mighty to be ruined by this commercial.

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"How many times have you gone rooting through your junk drawer, muttering to yourself, 'where'd I put that gun?'"

It gets even weirder. Sorry; old post but I just got back so nyeah, nyeah!

I used to be a printer at a major folding-carton plant in Ontario; so I got a lot of first-hand observation of food boxes - I made most of 'em after all.

Anyway - what you said is largely true in Canada as well; but is limited to third-party advertising - i.e. commercials; magazine ads, etc. First-person advertising - in other words; the food cartons themselves - is exempt. The box is not considered a specific form of advertising; instead it's considered a 'cover design'; and therefore not subject to the law.
One of the more egregious examples of this is a popular Canadian brand of ice-cream who I'll not name - let's just say the name rhymes with..er...'Schlapman's'*...and has to be just about the worst ice-cream - barring Ben and Jerry's - I've ever eaten.

Look at the images down the left-hand side. That's all my work there, folks; I did all the initial printwork on those jobs. Thankfully, I did not do the artwork; otherwise I'd have no choice but to commit sepukku by impaling myself on an ice-cream scoop. Each image is of exactly the same scoops of shortening - not mashed potatoes; though they're used as well - digitally coloured. Hah - for a real treat; look at the 'chocolate and vanilla checkerboard'. It's not there anymore; but they also had orange and strawberry sherbets with vanilla as well. Same block of shortening; but the colouration was...well...whoever did it didn't even try to make it look right. What you got was a blinding, radioactive, glowing orange holographic grid of 1cm. squares hovering over the block like an alien death-square ray. (sigh) - and the customer always screamed because we never got the boxes to 'look right'.


*note: that link is ENTIRELY ACCIDENTAL! Really! Just don't look at the name. Don't. Don't do it, I'm warning you...don't look at the name!!

Ugh. If it smells anything like their other products, it is.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Tirebiter, obviously written by someone with that weird "vore" fetish...

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Gimme a minute to read through Jay's latest observations...

As far as milk goes Boo, (Staiduk, my youngest daughter posts here as well, under the name Big Bad Boo, since you've been away and all) who's trying hard to get into commercials and TV acting told me about the joys of "prop milk" that looks white on camera but isn't organic so it doesn't need to be refridgerated nor will it spoil.

Maybe one of you major google-fu masters can find out what it's made of for us.

Real milk does look distinctly bluish on camera for some reason. I did notice that on some family sitcoms the younger actors do have real milk in their glasses from the color.

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Gimme a minute to read through Jay's latest observations...

A series of bad airlines promotions seem to be ready to emerge.

Crazy new airline stunts
Chopping an arm off would be a dramatic transformation too. It's not exactly something I would like to do.

We cater to the un-educated...

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)