TV commercials that get a bit too personal
Posted: Friday, August 17, 2007 6:00 AM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
Filed Under:
TV commercials
Our summer TV commercial contest is winding down. I'll announce the winner -- and the big loser -- on Tuesday, Aug. 28. But before we get there, let's discuss one of the hot-button topics relating to TV commercials: Ads for personal products, from hygiene items to medications to birth control and more.
There'll always be someone who accuses anyone who dislikes certain of these ads of being a big ol' prude. Come on. Oh, OK, maybe some viewers are big ol' prudes, but most of us have no problem with these products in most aspects of life. They're out there, we see them in the stores, we buy them when we need to. We're also aware that the companies that make them want to sell a lot of them, and they use advertising for the same purposes that any other company does -- to ensure that their brand name sticks in our heads longer than competitive products.
But that said, it seems to me -- maybe unfairly -- that I have a different standard for these ads than I do for commercials for other products. I'll still snark on a bad fast-food ad, or a bad car ad, but I give them a little more latitude to try weird things. They can shoot for the funny, or the tasteless, and if they fail, it's just another unfunny, tacky ad. If a personal-product ad fails, it's not only unfunny and tacky, it's usually gross and kind of squirm-inducing.
Every year, some folks write in and claim that even bad ads are doing their job, that the mere fact that we are talking about them means the ad worked. I disagree with this premise -- not only can the product name be forgotten when an ad itself is remembered, but I do think some people vow never to buy a certain product just because of an offensive ad.
And when the product is already a sensitive one -- Viagra, or condoms, or diarrhea medication -- a questionable ad can cause quite the backlash. In 2005, a Tampax ad took our "worst commercial" honor. Readers found the ad, in which a woman uses a tampon to stop a leak in a rowboat, both bizarre and rather stupid. (She happens to have an entire box of tampons with her in a small boat?) That said, the ad's thesis may not be too far gone...great urban-legend site Snopes.com lists a story about a Marine using tampons to stop a bleeding wound. While Snopes can't verify the story, the editor admits it could be true.
This year, there are plenty of personal-product ads earning their way into our discussion -- some new, some old. Here are a few that keep coming up in your comments.
SMILING BOB
Few commercial characters come in for as much complaining from readers as Smiling Bob, who's hawking a male-specific medication. The commercials kind of feel like "Saturday Night Live" parodies to me, only they're not done as well and they don't make me laugh. And the product sounds a lot like something I see cropping up in the Spam folder in my email inbox. Just try watching this commercial and imagine explaining the product to your kids.
DIARRHEA DANCELINE
We dogged this Pepto Bismol commercial last summer, but they're still airing. Just imagine the choreographer who put this dance on his or her resume. Imagine how they came up with the hand motions: "And then when they say 'diarrhea,' I'll have them all put their hands on their rear ends! Awesome choreography, if I do say myself."
VIVA VIAGRA
Viagra ads are unpleasant on their best day, especially in a mixed-age crowd. This one comes in for most of your outrage, however. It seems that Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas" song is everywhere this year. It's prominently featured in a new show premiering this fall, "Viva Laughlin," and, of course, there's this commercial. Said reader Mike in an earlier comment, "if Elvis is really dead, he's rolling in his grave." (Note: My co-worker, Allison Linn, devoted an entire post in her Ads of the Weird Weblog to this commercial.)
THE RABBIT DIED
One of the new commercials this year that's garnered plenty of negative commentary is this one, for a home pregnancy test. Some versions of the ad bragged that it was "the most sophisticated piece of technology you'll ever pee on." I've continued to see that ad air here in Seattle, but many readers have written in to say they've seen another version, that replaces the end of the tagline with "well, you know." Unsure if that's just running in some markets or in certain timeslots, or if there have been two versions from the start, but it makes me wonder if this ad is the perfect example of viewer backlash against a too-blunt ad for a personal product.
I could go on and on, but I'd rather turn the discussion back to you, the readers. Tell us about the personal-product ads you're seeing, and whether they handle a sensitive subject tactfully or just gleefully go for the gross-out.
