Terrible Marketing Ploys.

Dman001 · 13-08-2011 4:19pm #1

I was listening to Internet Radio last night, and a US ad came on advertising mortgages "tailored for you" and spun the term "Yourgage". It reminded me of the other terrible Finance ads you see here with Go Compare, Admiral Car Insurance (with someone dressed as a Pirate) and Elephant.com (someone dressed as an elephant promoting car insurance). All terrible marketing ploys, and you have to wonder who comes up with these ideas.

But an interesting one is when Coca Cola released Coke New. Seen as one of the worst moves in the Corporate world, but many thought it was a very clever Marketing ploy that when Coke purposely introduced this terrible-tasting Coke so they could just re-introduce the Old Coke and see a huge spike in sales. When asked was this true, a Coke representative said "We're not that clever, but not that stupid".

So any other terrible and stupid Marketing ploys?

Mr Benevolent · 13-08-2011 4:21pm

"Bulmers - Blast 'Em With piss Cider."

Samich · 13-08-2011 4:21pm

A good one was this car company in america, They were selling their cars at half price. No one bought any.

They then changed it to buy on get one free. They sold them all straight away.

For Forks Sake · 13-08-2011 4:24pm

Yeeehaawww http://www.inquisitr.com/29539/ultimate-redneck-sales-pitch-buy-a-pickup-truck-get-a-free-machine-gun/

MrStuffins · 13-08-2011 4:25pm

Disagree about Go Compare! Advertising is a lot about brand awareness. I'd never know who the hell Go Compare was unless their ads didn't abuse my ears on a regular basis!

Dennis the Stone · 13-08-2011 4:29pm

In the overcrowded scene of insurance and other financial services, the companies just do whatever they can to grab some attention, like the elephant costumes and Richard Corrigan lookalike singing go compare, etc., etc. Of course it would be interesting to know how many people swear off ever using certain services because of the annoyance caused by their ads versus those that end up going with a service because they saw an ad for it on Dave.

Sadly, I didn't have much luck building a customer base through in-your-face ads, as my car insurance company, paedophile explosions ltd., has recently folded with the loss of 31 jobs, and I now owe £14,000 to Gary Glitter for unpaid voiceover work. I don't want to give it him, not because I don't have it handy, just that I saw the kind of stuff he was spending money on and it was not on I tell you.

Dman001 · 13-08-2011 4:29pm

MrStuffins wrote: »

Disagree about Go Compare! Advertising is a lot about brand awareness. I'd never know who the hell Go Compare was unless their ads didn't abuse my ears on a regular basis!

Very true, but I wouldn't go near Admiral or the likes solely for the fact how unprofessional they look. I believe Go Compare is only a website that allows you to compare Insurance deals. Whereas Admiral and Elephant actually provide Insurance. I don't know about ye, but I don't wanna deal with a Finance company who prides themselves on having a Pirate as their Mascot.

The King of Moo · 13-08-2011 4:29pm

Shreddies' "too tasty for geeks" campaign. I don't know if it affected their sales, but I thought it was just nasty, negative advertising, which I hate.
I wonder how many poor kids saw those ads and saw themselves in the "geeks" bracket.

Dman001 · 13-08-2011 4:32pm

The King of Moo wrote: »

Shreddies' "too tasty for geeks" campaign. I don't know if it affected their sales, but I thought it was just nasty, negative advertising, which I hate.
I wonder how many poor kids saw those ads and saw themselves in the "geeks" bracket.

Reminds me actually of the backlash from Yorkie's "It's not for Women" Ads.

The King of Moo · 13-08-2011 4:34pm

Dman001 wrote: »

Reminds me actually of the backlash from Yorkie's "It's not for Women" Ads.

Yeah, that was a silly one: "Surely women don't like chocolate, do they?" "No, I can't imagine they would."

mikemac · 13-08-2011 4:35pm

I hate these ads and all the shouting
But it took off, kids would go around shouting the tag line and years and years later I still remember the ad campaign

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6xPrF0hBhc

edit, wow, these are over a decade old.

dirtypanties · 13-08-2011 4:36pm

Tanora!!!!Very cynical marketing ploy if ever I saw one-'change' the taste and wait for the backlash-then change it back!Abuse of loyal customers!The lynx marketing really winds me up aswell-all these puny guys with models swarming all over them-sexist and very likely not to happen even if you are a puny guy who smells like Africa!

RichieC · 13-08-2011 4:36pm

Those two dickheads in the tracksuits advertising a completely redundant phone service...

I was at a fancy dress and two knobs walked in dressed up as them... jesus christ boys, you work for that company or something?

Dennis the Stone · 13-08-2011 4:38pm

I wonder how many people were driven to take their own lives by the Boots 'Here Come the Girls' ads.

MrStuffins · 13-08-2011 4:39pm

dirtypanties wrote: »

The lynx marketing really winds me up aswell-all these puny guys with models swarming all over them-sexist and very likely not to happen even if you are a puny guy who smells like Africa!

I think you might've under-sold yourself there a bit!

Samich · 13-08-2011 4:40pm

The same with one direct insurance, 1890 tue tue tue tue tue tue.

Wouldn't remember it only for that now annoying tune.

For Forks Sake · 13-08-2011 4:40pm

Dennis the Stone wrote: »

I wonder how many people were driven to take their own lives by the Boots 'Here Come the Girls' ads.

My television is in severe danger of getting broken if I see another one of those smug-as-**** "if you dont have an iphone, then you dont have an iphone" ads come on again

The King of Moo · 13-08-2011 4:41pm

Dennis the Stone wrote: »

I wonder how many people were driven to take their own lives by the Boots 'Here Come the Girls' ads.

I'd just thought of them.

The worst thing about those ads is that no-one comes out of them well: the women are flighty, silly, ditsy, shallow and passive-aggressive bitches, and the men are shambling human-form amoebas who are lucky enough not to kill themselves within five minutes of getting up in the morning due to their own stupidity.

Dennis the Stone · 13-08-2011 4:42pm

The King of Moo wrote: »

I'd just thought of them.

The worst thing about those ads is that no-one comes out of them well: the women are flighty, silly, ditsy, shallow and passive-aggressive bitches, and the men are shambling human-form amoebas who are lucky enough not to kill themselves within five minutes of getting up in the morning due to their own stupidity.

Yeah, they've managed to annoy the maximum number of people across both genders.

MrStuffins · 13-08-2011 4:42pm

For Forks Sake wrote: »

My television is in severe danger of getting broken if I see another one of those smug-as-**** "if you dont have an iphone, then you dont have an iphone" ads come on again

"Today you can watch a newspaper, listen to a magazine, curl up with a movie, see a phone call........................ because today there's iPad 2"

Yeah, well I could do all that yesterday with my laptop genius!

The King of Moo · 13-08-2011 4:48pm

One general strand of advertising I never understand is when they try to sell products based on the idea that customers want to emulate happy, good-looking, successful people.

That works in America, where there's a more aspirational society, but don't they realise what a self-conscious, bitter, jealous bunch us Europeans are, especially here and in the UK.

The most recent example is the new BMW M1 ad with the two brothers with the slightly different yet equally fabulous lives
"My brother works with architects." "My brother is an actor and model."

Smug bastards!

Ghost Buster · 13-08-2011 5:38pm

I alway subconsciously reinterpret Iarnroidd Eireanns campaign slogan
"We're not there yet but we're getting there" as "We're sh1te just not but we are getting better".

Eroticfishcake · 13-08-2011 5:49pm

The King of Moo wrote: »

Yeah, that was a silly one: "Surely women don't like chocolate, do they?" "No, I can't imagine they would."

I'm not so sure it was all that silly as telling us not to eat something as it should only be for men is bound to increase the number of women that want to

Saila · 13-08-2011 5:54pm

much easier to make a thread about good ones, but it wont be long so thread will end much sooner, this one could run forever!

mossyc123 · 13-08-2011 5:55pm

The King of Moo wrote: »

One general strand of advertising I never understand is when they try to sell products based on the idea that customers want to emulate happy, good-looking, successful people.

That works in America, where there's a more aspirational society, but don't they realise what a self-conscious, bitter, jealous bunch us Europeans are, especially here and in the UK.

The most recent example is the new BMW M1 ad with the two brothers with the slightly different yet equally fabulous lives
"My brother works with architects." "My brother is an actor and model."

Smug bastards!

Absolutely!

The use of the likes of David Beckham as someone to aspire to might work for the Asian/US market but he's essentially a joke of a character in the minds of most Irish men.

Gillette Ads really take the biscuit, particularely the "best a man can get" campaign from a few years ago.

There seemed to be no accounting for the difference between the UK/Ire and US markets.

I don't know about anyone else but a smug male model wearing only a towel with his similiarly perfect missus hanging out of him isn't something i'd readily associate with...

Aldebaran · 13-08-2011 5:56pm

Cracked had a great article on terrible marketing ideas recently:

The 5 Biggest Disasters in the History of Marketing Ideas

BBDBB · 13-08-2011 5:57pm

depends on how you choose to judge marketing ploys

some of the most annoying have turned out to be highly successful for the companies and even for the individual concerned

chin_grin · 13-08-2011 5:58pm

I love how Dettol are persisting with their touch-free-pump bollocks. I mean you wash your hands therefore your hands are clean AFTER you put the soap on it. So touching the pump doesn't effing matter. Eejits.

The Scientician · 13-08-2011 6:06pm

There's an ad for some women's product and it has these creepy automaton women in it. The imagery is just very negative an quite creepy in an uncanny valley way. The ad made an impact because I found it bizarre but I can't now recall what the ad is for. It's currently airing on heavy rotation.

Jagle · 13-08-2011 6:07pm

chin_grin wrote: »

I love how Dettol are persisting with their touch-free-pump bollocks. I mean you wash your hands therefore your hands are clean AFTER you put the soap on it. So touching the pump doesn't effing matter. Eejits.

NO NO NO you missed the point.

hands are dirty

turn on tap, tap is now covered in germs

get soap, wash hands

turn off tap: with your clean hands that now get the germs on them from the taps

IT DOESNT MAKE SENSE

Saila · 13-08-2011 6:12pm

mossyc123 wrote: »

Absolutely!

The use of the likes of David Beckham as someone to aspire to might work for the Asian/US market but he's essentially a joke of a character in the minds of most Irish men.

Gillette Ads really take the biscuit, particularely the "best a man can get" campaign from a few years ago.

There seemed to be no accounting for the difference between the UK/Ire and US markets.

I don't know about anyone else but a smug male model wearing only a towel with his similiarly perfect missus hanging out of him isn't something i'd readily associate with...

then buy gilette and you can

Terrible Marketing Ploys.

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