Television adverts with no logic.

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Having seen the usual plethora of perfume adverts in the run up to Christmas that have neither rhyme nor reason in their storylines, and a good few since then, do the advertising industry specialise in jobs for those who make such inept storylines?

Has anyone else adverts to note that seem short of logic?

 

[mikeg]

Perfume adverts are almost always pretentious and almost never have a story line. It's something I've learned that is the case and probably always will be the case. It's been like that for a long time, certainly since my '90s childhood and probably before that.

 

[me123]

The problem with perfume adverts is that their product is essentially a smell. Televisions cannot transmit smell. Food (primarily a taste sensation) can be made to look good, but there's nothing you can do with perfume. So I really do defy anyone to make a good and logical perfume TV advert (watching people sniffing each other might be somewhat entertaining, but I doubt that it would sell many high end products).

 

[507021]

I've never thought most of the adverts I've seen for aftershave and deodorant make much sense either, to be honest. As me123 said, smell is impossible to portray over TV, but it would be good if the adverts were a bit more realistic.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

There is one perfume advert in recent times that for unfathomable reason, showed a tall blonde female suddenly decide to rip open what looked like a very expensive necklace into pieces whilst striding along. It appeared in two separate annual advertisements. How that showed any relationship to a perfume is way over my understanding.

Another matter concerns the way that peer pressure can be made to bear on parents by constant nitpicking and bickering is the advert that shows a parent taking his daughter to school in his car and the daughter showing signs of extreme anxiety should she be seen in it. The daughter's pressure on her father would have you believe the father immediately purchased a new car to the satisfaction of the daughter, who then showed no sign of gratitude whatsoever, in the knowledge that she would not be subjected to any home stricture, when what should have occurred was the girl given bus fare. This advert ended with music with words such as "Brek, brek brek" and "Poli, poli, poli" whatever they are meant to convey.

 

[amateur]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zebXDyYuYK0

 

[Cowley]

There is one perfume advert in recent times that for unfathomable reason, showed a tall blonde female suddenly decide to rip open what looked like a very expensive necklace into pieces whilst striding along. It appeared in two separate annual advertisements. How that showed any relationship to a perfume is way over my understanding.

Another matter concerns the way that peer pressure can be made to bear on parents by constant nitpicking and bickering is the advert that shows a parent taking his daughter to school in his car and the daughter showing signs of extreme anxiety should she be seen in it. The daughter's pressure on her father would have you believe the father immediately purchased a new car to the satisfaction of the daughter, who then showed no sign of gratitude whatsoever, in the knowledge that she would not be subjected to any home stricture, when what should have occurred was the girl given bus fare. This advert ended with music with words such as "Brek, brek brek" and "Poli, poli, poli" whatever they are meant to convey.

There seems to be a general rule with advertising where parents are portrayed as stupid while the children are portrayed as intelligent higher beings that always have the upper hand. I don't think that's a good thing personally, many parents seem to be low on confidence at the best of times without needing it reinforced on the TV every five minutes.

As far as ridiculous adverts go there's two things that I find annoying at the moment, one is the need to use some stupid gimmicky cuddly animal type thing to sell things, for example Wilber the ridiculous penguin in the British Gas adverts. Two is when they've supposedly got someone who's experienced some product to tell you how good it is when clearly they're just some bit part actors and we're obviously that thick that we don't realise.

It's because of all this that we actually got rid of our TV nearly a decade ago, we just watch things on the computer now or DVDs etc, it's cut down the consumption of naff adverts considerably although sometimes you just can't escape them.
There is the odd advert I like, but usually the joke wears thin after the 46th viewing.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I've never thought most of the adverts I've seen for aftershave and deodorant make much sense either, to be honest. As me123 said, smell is impossible to portray over TV, but it would be good if the adverts were a bit more realistic.

My good lady wife tells everyone not to buy me any Lynx deodorant product as she has seen what the application of this can do in adverts and to protect me in my 70s from being mobbed by hordes of young nubile women as my heart could not stand the strain...

 

[DaleCooper]

but it would be good if the adverts were a bit more realistic.

I prefer the old-fashioned realistic adverts they used to make - chimpanzees moving furniture, alien robots eating instant mashed potato, raisins doing soul music, talking polar bear, a tiger eating breakfast cereal etc.

 

[507021]

My good lady wife tells everyone not to buy me any Lynx deodorant product as she has seen what the application of this can do in adverts and to protect me in my 70s from being mobbed by hordes of young nubile women as my heart could not stand the strain...

That's the exact reason I think it's a daft advert, Paul. I've worn it and it certainly didn't have the same effect as it showed the advert, lol.

Amazingly, I didn't get any Lynx bathroom sets last Christmas, for the first time in about ten years which I was (pleasantly) surprised by. I tend to buy Right Guard deodorant, it's cheap, good quality and the adverts for it aren't daft.

 

[najaB]

How that showed any relationship to a perfume is way over my understanding.

If perfume ads tried to sell the product in a logical way, based on the merits of the product they could all be replaced by:

Spray this stuff on you and you'll smell different than you did before and slightly different than you would if you sprayed stuff from a different bottle. Some people will like it, and they'll probably stand or sit a little bit closer to you as a result. Some other people might not like it. The only way to find out if the people who like it are the people you want to like it is to buy some and try it yourself.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I prefer the old-fashioned realistic adverts they used to make - chimpanzees moving furniture, alien robots eating instant mashed potato, raisins doing soul music, talking polar bear, a tiger eating breakfast cereal etc.

Is it still the case that a million housewives every day, pick up a tin of beans and say "Beanz meanz Heinz"?

Was it not the case that Farmfoods saw a drop in shop patronage when Farmfoods allowed polar bears to shop there?

Worst of all, years ago I found my wife's secret horde of Pink Camay and I would like to say that after using all twelve bars on a daily basis, I did not look a "little lovelier each day"

 

[DynamicSpirit]

That's the exact reason I think it's a daft advert, Paul. I've worn it and it certainly didn't have the same effect as it showed the advert, lol.

Did you take it back to the shop to complain after you failed to be mobbed by hundreds of women who looked like they worked as models the instant you set foot outside your front door?

 

[me123]

I did just that, and the woman in Boots told me they'd never make enough for me

 

[Peter Mugridge]

...pick up a tin of beans and say "Beanz meanz Heinz"?

Well... I buy Heinz beans but not because of the adverts; it's because they taste better than the supermarket own brand versions.

 

[SteveP29]

The one that gets on my nerves is the Quick Quid one where the son complains the shower is broken, just as the parents and daughter are leaving for work and school.
They don't look too shabbily dressed, the house is obviously not rented, so it looks like they're paying a mortgage, there is a decent car on the drive, not a banger, so they obviously aren't that much in need of cash.
She says they can't afford to get it repaired until payday, but, if their situation is as I've described above, they will have a credit card or two, so just pay it by credit card and pay it off on payday, simple.
Better still, tell the son not to be so precious and have a bath or (as my mother said yesterday, boil a kettle to get a strip wash)

 

[HH]

A long time ago, when I was just hh, I worked in an award-winning advertising agency. The creatives all wanted to write books or become film directors (which several managed). When you understand this, all is clear.

 

[Howardh]

I find it very quaint that people still watch them! We pay a licence for ad-block TV (BBC) and the other channels simply record and zap. Or if it's live TV, when the ad break starts, get your coat on, nip down the pub, have a swift couple and when you get back the ad break should just about be finishing.
And has anyone on Youtube gone past the 4-second mark when an ad comes on??!!
I'd pay a sub for Youtube to be ad-free and find it very annoying that prime-cost TV eg Sky Sports isn't ad-free. That's ridiculous at their prices.

 

[DaleCooper]

They don't look too shabbily dressed, the house is obviously not rented, so it looks like they're paying a mortgage, there is a decent car on the drive, not a banger, so they obviously aren't that much in need of cash.
She says they can't afford to get it repaired until payday, but, if their situation is as I've described above, they will have a credit card or two, so just pay it by credit card and pay it off on payday, simple.
Better still, tell the son not to be so precious and have a bath or (as my mother said yesterday, boil a kettle to get a strip wash)

They don't look too shabbily dressed (spend more than they can afford on clothes)
the house is obviously not rented (how can you tell?)
so it looks like they're paying a mortgage (takes most of their income)
there is a decent car on the drive, not a banger (company car or crippling HP payments)
She says they can't afford to get it repaired until payday, but, if their situation is as I've described above, they will have a credit card or two, so just pay it by credit card (credit cards maxed out, massive monthly interest payments)

This is reality for many families.

 

[miami]

I still remember "do the shake and vac and put the freshness back", and "for mash get smash", and "you know where to come"

But I don't use shake+vac, I don't use smash, and I don't shop at comet.

I assume modern television adverts are aimed at getting people to buy the products. I wouldn't know, as the only TV I watch is from netflix, amazon, or occasionally bbc. In the naughties I did consume legacy tv, some programs on sky, but that was easy to skip (all advert breaks seemed to be a multiple of 30 seconds, so 4 or 6 "rights" on my mythtv controller sorted that out.

I do seek out some adverts (on youtube) -- christmas ones for example.

And has anyone on Youtube gone past the 4-second mark when an ad comes on??!!

Yes actually. I was watching the Late Show monologue on the walk to the station last week and there was a film trailer on, which piqued my interest. Watched the whole thing.

I'd pay a sub for Youtube to be ad-free

https://www.youtube.com/ReD

Not available in the UK :roll: (I thought that silly nonsense had gone the way of the dinosaur)

and find it very annoying that prime-cost TV eg Sky Sports isn't ad-free. That's ridiculous at their prices.

A major reason I no longer subscribe to sky is the adverts. They raise £524m of £8,374m each year from it -- about 6% of sky's total UK revenue, and we all (including those who don't watch sky) have to pay for that -- to the tune of £20 a household. I suspect sainsburys advertise somewhere on sky, therefore when I bought a fresh loaf of bread yesterday, baked into that was the cost of that advertising.

 

[DarloRich]

"Volvo — they're boxy but they're good"

 

[SteveP29]

They don't look too shabbily dressed (spend more than they can afford on clothes)
the house is obviously not rented (how can you tell?)
so it looks like they're paying a mortgage (takes most of their income)
there is a decent car on the drive, not a banger (company car or crippling HP payments)
She says they can't afford to get it repaired until payday, but, if their situation is as I've described above, they will have a credit card or two, so just pay it by credit card (credit cards maxed out, massive monthly interest payments)

This is reality for many families.

If that is the case then, it suggests to me that she CAN'T actually afford the repair on payday.
If she does pay it, then a payment for something else the next month won't get paid and then something else slips the next month because they haven't paid that to pay the bill they defaulted on the previous month etc etc.

Fair enough if the car is a company car, but if its their car on HP and the costs are too high, they could always sell and get a smaller/ cheaper/ more economical vehicle.

 

[DaleCooper]

If that is the case then, it suggests to me that she CAN'T actually afford the repair on payday.
If she does pay it, then a payment for something else the next month won't get paid and then something else slips the next month because they haven't paid that to pay the bill they defaulted on the previous month etc etc.

Fair enough if the car is a company car, but if its their car on HP and the costs are too high, they could always sell and get a smaller/ cheaper/ more economical vehicle.

Precisely and these payday loans only make things worse for people who are bad at managing their finances.

 

[507021]

Did you take it back to the shop to complain after you failed to be mobbed by hundreds of women who looked like they worked as models the instant you set foot outside your front door?

Well my girlfriend likes it when I wear Lynx (although I don't have any now), so I let them off.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Well... I buy Heinz beans but not because of the adverts; it's because they taste better than the supermarket own brand versions.

My wife came across a tin of Branston baked beans recently in the village store that had two rather good sausages inside the tin. I know of the Branston trade name but was unaware that baked beans were part of their product portfolio, normally preferring Branston Pickle for what it is good for.

 

[Groningen]

Sometimes the best advert for the producer is the one that irritates you.

 

[Welly]

I remember many years ago during the Dotcom boom, there was a TV advert for a website called "Breathe.com" with images of things going in and out eg waves on the shore and these were being shown during peak time TV! No indication of what Breathe.com was about and I was still using the effing dial-up modem to go online so had no desire to visit that website just to find out what it was about.

By the time I got broadband Breathe.com had gone offline forever so I never found out what it was about.

 

[najaB]

By the time I got broadband Breathe.com had gone offline forever so I never found out what it was about.

Let's do some digging on that one:

• A quick WHOIS check shows that Breathe.com was registered by Breath Networks Ltd.
• Going to Companies House they were an Internet services company (ISP to you or me) who operated from 2006 to 2010.
• The Register reports that Breathe Networks sold their assets to Breathe Internet in 2009.
• And they still operate as such.

So now you know.

 

[Mvann]

My wife came across a tin of Branston baked beans recently in the village store that had two rather good sausages inside the tin. I know of the Branston trade name but was unaware that baked beans were part of their product portfolio, normally preferring Branston Pickle for what it is good for.

Branston is the rebranded cross and Blackwell beans that came in the green cans.

 

[Bevan Price]

I tend to switch off my brain when the adverts start. Many are so naff that they put me off using what they are trying to sell. I hate adverts where some wally shouts at me, especially if disgfuised as an animal.

And needless to say, they never tell you about the snags - for example the ads. for battery-powered equipment - they don't tell you that the battery will eventually need to be replaced, and that replacement batteries can cost a small fortune....

Though I am probably an advertiser's worst nightmare - sending me spam or junk mail is counterproductive - they also get added to my "avoid" list.