Advertising standards

Post by **jimbo1** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 5:02 pm

It occurred to me at breakfast time this morning that a company can get away with anything if the concept is crazy enough! Are shreddies really knitted by Nannas? If the adverts and information on the box are to be believed then they clearly are!!! However I do seem to remember a tv advert for a car that merely whispered quietly as it went by (was it rover?) - the company got seriously slagged off and the ad had to be withdrawn.

Post by **Mogwai** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 6:42 pm

new cars can also fly and dance if the ads are to be believed

Post by **Sidney'61** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 11:33 pm

A nissan quasqui (however its spelled) can also be used as a skateboard, a citreon C4 is a transformer, and all toyotas are the same car just with a different sheet over the top.

oh, and dont forget, red bull gives you wings!

Post by **Mick_Anik** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 12:03 am

Along the same lines, although not to do with motoring......I saw an ad yesterday, one of these 'buy our pills' things. The producers had the 'expert' talking to a lady who looked just like a news presenter, behind her desk and laptop, and the whole thing was filmed in a setting that looked incredibly like the morning news studio on the same channel.
The idea presumably being to make the viewer think it is in fact a news item.
They have no shame, these people!

Post by **paulk** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:51 am

No, whats more incredible is when they think someone SHOUTING at you about either cleaning products or Double glazing is going to work!

Now I must go and wash my Safeguard windows with Cilit Bang ;)

Post by **Blaketon** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 11:58 am

Sidney'61 wrote:A nissan quasqui (however its spelled) can also be used as a skateboard, a citreon C4 is a transformer, and all toyotas are the same car just with a different sheet over the top.

oh, and dont forget, red bull gives you wings!

Car adverts are often total nonsense. Either that or I am missing something. None of them say anything that would make me want to buy the car. They rarely say anything tangible; often it seems to be a car being driven, in slow motion, past a load of people, who look as if they are stoned.

Back in the 1970s, BL did an advert where two convicts were reflecting on the fact that if they had been in a TR7 or a Dolomite Sprint, they might not have been caught. There are those who might have disagreed with them but at least the implication was that the two cars were fast, which as performance cars, you would expect. I seem to remember the Mini Metro was originally advertised as being very economical, which again is a genuine reason for someone to buy it.

One of the dumbest adverts was the one where everyone was shaking their behinds at the camera

. I can't believe they were trying to say it was a car for ****holes but I'm afraid that's all it meant to me. Unbelieveable.

Post by **simmitc** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:39 pm

Adverts have always been complete nonsense...

"Nothing acts faster than Anadin", so if you have a headache, take NOTHING, and you will be cured faster than if you took Anadin.

"Kit-e-Kat - nice cat-size pieces of meat". How the hell did they get something the size of a cat in such a small tin?.

With poor diction, Tesco now advertise a competitor: "Every Lidl Helps".

I'm sure that there are plenty of others...

Post by **dalebrignall** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:06 pm

i liked the bl add with the tr7

Post by **daveallgood** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 8:37 am

One of the many things which irritates me is Autotrader adverts. You type in a required milage of 40,000 and end up with a list of cars with milages of 80 or 120 miles, obviously missing a few noughts.

Post by dp » Tue Sep 01, 2009 5:07 pm

There's a whole load of psychology going on in some adverts - you don't have to like ads for them to be effective on you.

A Mars a Day helps you...... if the voice in your head just finished the sentence then the advert has long sice bypassed your reasoning. Think about it. The truth is something like ...'makes you overweight, rots your teeth and could cause diabetes' but it's not what you have been conditioned to respond.

Some adverts are using hypnotic language patterns to put someone into a suggestive frame of mind or to appeal directly to the subconscious. Eg.

"For the journey..."
"It speaks your language..."

This sentences don't really mean anything but they are not there by accident.

Less subtle is the authority figure - the 'newscaster' above or someone in a white coat.

And don't get me started on the meerkats!

:)

Post by **PSL184** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 5:33 pm

Meerkats ??????

Post by **d_harris** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 6:15 pm

The compare the meerkat series of ads IMHO is one of the cleverest ad ideas of recent years. I love it. Maybe even as much as PSL

Post by **bpr81a** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 7:41 pm

Dan_Harris wrote: Maybe even as much as PSL

Surely not?

Post by dp » Tue Sep 01, 2009 8:13 pm

PSL184 wrote:Meerkats ??????

Not you PSL184, you're great, just fed up with everyone saying "simples" at the end of a sentence.

Post by **PSL184** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 8:44 pm

Post by **simmitc** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 9:43 pm

And don't get me started on the meerkats

Just give them 40 minutes on gas mark 7 and they're lovely. Simples!

Post by **Kevin** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 12:11 am

Sidney'61 wrote: oh, and dont forget, red bull gives you wings!

Thanks for explaning that Andy I thought it was wind

Post by **ASL642** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 11:44 am

Perhaps we should feed the meerkats red bull and then they'd "fly away"!

We have to be quiet in our house if a meerkat ad comes on the box. Still I've now found a way to keep unrouly Webmasters quiet - dvd of continuous meetkats ads

Post by **d_harris** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:14 pm

Anyone seen the postman Pat Specsavers ad?

Post by **ian.mcdougall** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 8:29 pm

seen the postman pat ad very funny there are some very funny and rude ones flying around t'internet
has any one noticed that there are adverts on the box for mascara where they state in small print that the pics have been enhanced post production also hair care products that have added hair extensions so it appears that you can do anything to an ad as long as you tell people in small print what you have done