I just saw an ad where Oprah Winfrey claims to have created mashed potato and cauliflower. I guess the first rule of being a celebrity is to have no shame!
Category Archives: Advertising – the other 50%
John Wanamaker is credited with coining the phrase "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half". I know most advertising is not aimed at me, but that doesn't stop me from poking fun at some of the more silly aspects.
I'm currently living in the USA so that will be the source of most of my material, but I will find things on my travels.
DirectTV – really?
For non-US readers, DirectTV is one of two satellite providers in the USA. Their long-running advertising blurb is that they are “#1 in customer satisfaction over cable“. I guess they have a really low opinion of the intelligence of their potential customers.
Michael Faraday in an ad
I would never have thought I would see Michael Faraday’s name used in an advertisement. Kudos to hotwire.com, but I wonder how many of their viewers know who he was?
When Australian means local
I was driving between Sydney and Canberra and saw a van belonging to ‘Australian Hot Water’ with the slogan ‘Your local hot water experts’. Local to what? Compared to getting someone from Indonesia?
Do not take this drug if you are allergic to it
I know the US is a litigious society, but having to include a warning not to take a drug you are allergic to is pretty sad! Perhaps we need a standard safety warning, something along the lines of “intense pain, profuse sweating, difficulty in breathing, loss of consciousness, violent convulsions and, finally.. death”. [Vincent Price monologue from Alice Cooper’s Welcome to my Nightmare.]