Bad Adverts

My life is now well and truly saturated with advertising. As soon as I leave the house there are billboards, bus stops, newspapers, posters, leaflet, clothing, radio, internet.There are so many horrendous advertisements endlessly circling my life but what really irritates me is bad TV adverts. Companies are willing to invest thousands of pounds per second (sometimes more) into creating television advertising so why not make it enjoyable? As a television viewer both online and offline there is no escaping the unpredictability of advertising. The least production companies could do is entertain me somewhat while I am forced to watch them flogging products. Make something that is truly memorable that I would enjoy watching at every ad break.

So how do you make a good appealing TV advert? How about employing some really famous clean cut and well respected celebrities? Lets take Gillette's attempt:



Horrendous. Here's how to do it properly:



Adidas have got it spot on by depicting David Beckham and Johnny Wilkinson as a couple of guys down the park having a kick about. They have broken down barriers between the viewer and the celebrity by depicting a casual, social situation on a grey day that the viewer can directly relate to.

The adverts that are most successful are the ones based on a fantastic idea, you don't need money or celebrities as this ad shows:



This ad exploded in popularity because it had a memorable catch phrase and it was fun to reenact with your own friends. It also proved to be extremely successful with teenagers although they were outwith the target market.

Sometimes you just need to do something that's totally fresh and exciting.





With these two adverts Sony got it spot by producing some mind blowing spectacles. They have an air of purity and freshness in this age dominated by CGI.

Sometimes you don't have to be original just add humour:



This parody is a great spectacle in itself but it plays on the viewer's relation to the Sony advert and works as a comedy parody. Tango, for me, is one of the brands that are associated with quality advertising along with Honda, Guiness, Adidas, Nike and a whole host of others. I just hope that more companies take note of the success of others and make my advert viewing a little more enjoyable.