In Defense of Terrible TV Ads

Monica Hamburg sent us these two gems of commercial production to add to a growing collection of the worst TV ads of all time.

Dirty Cheap Liquor: “Enjoy the journey!”

Bralief: “Even doctors have recommended it.”

Be sure to watch right through to the end for the closing jingle.

As Grant McCracken says: “We were once a monolithic society, relatively speaking. Now we are badly-herded cats.”

Our culture has spread. Our shared meanings have disappeared.

What speaks to some in an effective way about a real problem, speaks to others from another planet. What looks to some as a simple ad looks to others as a surreal satire of a form of advertising.

In a spread culture, the meanings live with the receivers and their orientation to culture.

Seth Godin posted the following graph this week to illustrate what he calls the tacky techie conundrum.

Click for larger version.

It’s a great frame of reference to place cultural artifacts and people’s understandings of culture.

And it’s important to advertising because we’re operating within the culture. Telling stories about the culture, to the people in the culture.

Though the ads above may not speak to me, they may well speak to the folks who they’re intended to speak to. And that’s their purpose.

So before we look down our noses from on creative high, let’s remember that maybe we’re the ones not getting it.

Tags:
Bralief, Cultureby, defense, Dirt Cheap Liquor, Grant McCracken, high culture, low culture, Monica Hamburg, Seth Godin, Storytelling, terrible ads, TV ads

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Fair enough. I laugh at these ads, but you’re right: I’m not likely to purchase a Bralief, or whatever it was the first video was selling.

But that won’t make me stop making fun of the ads. Because if I did, I’d have to accept how clued-out some people are. And I’m not ready to do that.

Hey Monica, thanks for the comment.

I laughed at them too. They’re hilarious in at once a wonderful and terrible way. Like Cheez whiz.

So don’t accept it! Stay clued in and keeping laughing.

Worst TV commercial of all time…. Seriously!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1fmM8oTIPk