Consumer Thoughts » Advertising

Awful ads

Kathryn — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 03:54:06 +0000

Check out Ads We Hate at Slate.

Open note to Gawker Media

Kathryn — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 02:14:35 +0000

I just sent this in e-mail form to the Gawker blogs which I read:

“Can you please quit linking keywords in your posts to categories or tags? Especially ones that have only one post in their category, like Consumerist’s link today to Palatine. It really feels like that IntelliTxt advertising and is very annoying. It is irritating to have to mouse over a link to see if it’s a pointless link that goes to an internal category, or a real one to an external site. Trust me, if I want to see all your posts on the Space Station, I’ll either search the blog myself or click tags on the bottom of the posts.

While we’re at it, I’m not too thrilled with the metacategories – categories that appear in small text above each headline and make every RSS feed have a colon title, like Technology is Awesome: Baby Monitor Monitors Space Station instead of just what’s after the colon. I don’t like the search box searching all the Gawker sites instead of just the one I’m one, and I don’t care how many views a post has – CERTAINLY not enough to have it in large print right next to the headline.”

Starburst Berries & Cream commercial

Kathryn — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 02:08:19 +0000

I’m not sure I entirely understand this commercial. Is he supposed to be an actor? Why does he say the little rhyme once in a normal voice, then in his little boy voice?

Target makeup commercial

Kathryn — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 09:30:39 +0000

I hereby award this Target commercial “Most Annoying Music in a Commercial” for Q1 2007.

Old Navy Spring Dress commercial

Kathryn — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 07:23:53 +0000

I really like the song in this ad, and the ad itself as well (though I think they play it a bit too often). Well done, Old Navy.

Turn off multimedia spam on cell phones

Kathryn — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 20:15:38 +0000

I sent this to Consumerist, but since they haven’t published it, I’ll post it here.

I have a Sony Ericsson phone (z520a) with Cingular as my carrier, and I just found an interesting setting in my phone. Go to Messages -> Settings -> Multimedia Msg. and there’s an option that says Accept Messages. Clicking on that brings you to two checkboxes to unmark – Anonymous and Advertisements. Both were checked by default. There is not a similar option for text messages, and I’ve never received a spam multimedia message, so I’m not sure how much it will help, but at least
now those multimedia messages won’t be counted against my monthly allotment.

Dunkin’ Donuts Smoothie commercial

Kathryn — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 02:32:09 +0000

This Dunkin’ Donuts commercial for their Smoothies is very grating. A mother is dropping her kids off at all their extracurricular activities, and the last one is karate. They yell out “Kar-ah-TAY!” as though it’s being shouted during a karate move. And then they have to repeat it. This commercial has some weird power over me, like a train wreck… I can’t help but gawk. That said, I can find Smoothies a whole lot better than those from Dunkin’ Donuts, so it’s not going to make me buy them.

Burger King needs lessons in advertising

Kathryn — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 08:05:08 +0000

Attention Burger King:

Subservient Chicken: Cool.

Chicken doing stunts on a motorcycle while easy listening music plays in the background: not cool.

Doing a play on the whole royalty thing: Cool.

Using a guy in a bizarre plastic head: Not cool, and for that matter, scary as heck.

Yahoo Videos Ad

Kathryn — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 07:53:40 +0000

Exactly what is Yahoo thinking with this new ad for Yahoo Videos?

New ad for The Gap

Kathryn — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 07:41:02 +0000

The new ad I’ve been seeing for the Gap is awesome. It’s called Jeans Take Shape and features people dancing around with paper-looking blue swirls and stars flying around them. The effect is superb – it really does look like they’re interacting with the dancers!

Here’s the video as found on YouTube: