Strange Ads

Graven ImageGraven Image Shipmate
I saw an ad today for "Dresses That Don't Itch." What strange ads have others seen or heard?

Comments

  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    The opposite of hair shirts?

    Not an ad as such, but an example of sales-speak: Budget Dresses for the Maturer Lady with the Fuller Figure ie cheap frocks for fat old women.
  • North East QuineNorth East Quine Purgatory Host
    Confession - I love the genre of ads which solve problems for inept people. They give me a warm glow - I may be inept at many things but at least I'm not so inept that I need to buy this product!

    One I saw recently showed someone who had, for no obvious reason, bought an industrial sized bottle of fabric conditioner. The ad showed them struggling to remove it from a cupboard and weaving their way towards their washing machine struggling under the weight of it. They then tried to tip some into the washing machine drawer, but it was too heavy to control and spilled onto the floor, and then the person was on their hands and knees laboriously cleaning up the spill. They were clearly traumatised by their abnormally large bottle of fabric conditioner.

    The product being advertised was for fabric conditioner sheets. It showed the delighted person holding a lightweight box of these sheets, their abnormally large bottle woes over!

    The other alternative - next time buy a manageable standard 1 litre bottle - was not a solution which had occurred to the inept person.

    I may be inept at many things, but at least I'm not so inept that I buy bottles of fabric conditioner larger and heavier than a small child!
  • HeavenlyannieHeavenlyannie Shipmate
    edited June 1
    Mr Heavenly owns a pet tech company and as a consequence our browsers are filled with ads for pet products. I would be very concerned about my cat’s alopecia if it left a comfy chair several inches deep in dense cat hair that needs its own hoover to remove. Likewise the grooming comb which appears to remove my cat’s body weight in fur in one session.
  • DoublethinkDoublethink Admin, 8th Day Host
    [Tangent]

    @Heavenlyannie what does Mr Heavenly reckon to the equigroomer comb for cats ?

    [/Tangent]
  • [Tangent]

    @Heavenlyannie what does Mr Heavenly reckon to the equigroomer comb for cats ?

    [/Tangent]
    That is a very expensive comb! I’ll get him to ask at work if anyone has used one.
    Our, admittedly short-haired, cat makes do with a £5 brush with push up function for disposal of fur. Mochi is groomed about 3 times a week - she loves being brushed - and she is in beautiful condition with a glossy coat. I’m happy with a £5 brush.
  • chrisstileschrisstiles Hell Host
    There's an ad in the cinemas at the moment from Facebook/Meta which assures the viewer that they aren't reading your WhatsApps ... which seems bafflingly counterproductive.
  • RoseofsharonRoseofsharon Shipmate
    This may be my problem only as my current eye condition means that my brain doesn't always correctly interpret what my eyes see.

    There is an advert on the TV which has me totally bamboozled.
    It has what I see as someone carrying horizontally under his/her arm either a plank with a head, or human being as stiff as a plank. This 'plank' is then dunked, headfirst, into a lake or similar body of water, and brought up dripping with weed or some other gross substance, and looking much larger and not at all plank-like

    I believe it is a KFC ad, and it is possible, having a chicken reference to add to the visuals, to imagine the 'plank' has become a giant piece of chicken covered in a lumpy coating of some sort.
    No idea why it should do, and it is far from appetising, but that is the only explanation I can come up with, as my brain is making no sense of what my eyes are telling it.

    Please can anyone interpret this somewhat unpleasant vision for me.
  • DoublethinkDoublethink Admin, 8th Day Host
    edited June 1
    The Daily Mail claims hundreds have complained the ad mocks Christianity. Basically a man is dunked in a lake of gravy and transforms into a massive piece of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
  • SparrowSparrow Shipmate
    The Daily Mail claims hundreds have complained the ad mocks Christianity. Basically a man is dunked in a lake of gravy and transforms into a massive piece of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

    Can't have been any worse than the Greggs Christmas advert a couple of years ago that had a Greggs sausage roll in a manger being worshipped by the Wise Men.
  • That's awful - the manger had been returned to the cattle long before the Wise Men arrived.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    The Daily Mail claims hundreds have complained the ad mocks Christianity. Basically a man is dunked in a lake of gravy and transforms into a massive piece of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

    KFC crossed with Soylent Green?

  • RoseofsharonRoseofsharon Shipmate
    The allusion to baptism passed me by completely.
    I just thought that it was weird & gross. Wouldn't even have associated it with chicken if it hadn't pasted the word across the screen. Looked like some alien monster from the deep - and those slimy tentacles were supposed to be gravy?
    Have never had KFC, and this is certainly not tempting me, repulsing me rather.
  • ChastMastrChastMastr Shipmate
    Confession - I love the genre of ads which solve problems for inept people. They give me a warm glow - I may be inept at many things but at least I'm not so inept that I need to buy this product!

    One I saw recently showed someone who had, for no obvious reason, bought an industrial sized bottle of fabric conditioner. The ad showed them struggling to remove it from a cupboard and weaving their way towards their washing machine struggling under the weight of it. They then tried to tip some into the washing machine drawer, but it was too heavy to control and spilled onto the floor, and then the person was on their hands and knees laboriously cleaning up the spill. They were clearly traumatised by their abnormally large bottle of fabric conditioner.

    The product being advertised was for fabric conditioner sheets. It showed the delighted person holding a lightweight box of these sheets, their abnormally large bottle woes over!

    The other alternative - next time buy a manageable standard 1 litre bottle - was not a solution which had occurred to the inept person.

    I may be inept at many things, but at least I'm not so inept that I buy bottles of fabric conditioner larger and heavier than a small child!

    I’m reminded of an array of ads from some decades back that all turned on the trope of people being just unable to manage really basic tasks, usually in the kitchen, until now, with the Ronco Miracle Widget, etc. I’m not sure any of those things would be helpful for someone with genuine physical difficulties (and thank God for those devices, absolutely), but it sounds like the same tone you’re describing here.
  • North East QuineNorth East Quine Purgatory Host
    Out of idle curiosity I googled to find out what the largest size of fabric conditioner is, and it seems to be 5 litre bottles. Where the inept person had sourced their huge, heavy and unwieldy bottle, I don't know. Perhaps they worked in a hotel or hospital laundry and had nicked it from work.
  • HarryCHHarryCH Shipmate
    I suspect such a bottle is used to refill smaller containers.
  • TurquoiseTasticTurquoiseTastic Kerygmania Host
    I was reading an online article advocating a minimum unit price for alcohol and the banner gave me an advertisement for an industrial-sized brewing kit...
  • My favourite ad of all time was probably the one for New Shreddies, quite a few years ago. There were billboards announcing that the boring old square ones and been abandoned to be replaced by this stylish new diamond shaped version. It was the exact same product, of course, but certain persons of a certain age thought it was hilarious. My wife and daughters thought that my friends and I were complete idiots for our admiration of it, but we carried on buying Shreddies (and still do).
  • Shreddies have had some stonking adverts.

    If you want really bad adverts - I play silly games on my phone. With Ads.

    Every ad for another game includes at least some of:
    • Acting so bad, they wouldn't even get an audition for Eldorado.
    • Someone claiming they have tried this level 653 times (no they haven't. And they haven't
      kept count either).
    • Someone trying to do a simple level and making a complete mess of it (this is to convince you that you can do better).
    • A measure of "IQ" based on how well you do.

    OK, I should just stop playing stupid games, but these are so unbelievably bad.
  • HarryCH wrote: »
    I suspect such a bottle is used to refill smaller containers.

    Thank you.

    It's why I buy 5L everything household cleanser related. Cheaper and less garbage.

    AFF
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    edited June 3
    Acting so bad, they wouldn't even get an audition for Eldorado.
    Ahem - although I agree with the sentiment, I think that reference rather dates you!

  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Acting so bad, they wouldn't even get an audition for Eldorado.
    Ahem - although I agree with the sentiment, I think that reference rather dates you!
    I suspect I’m not the only one on whom the reference is totally lost.

  • It was a disastrous BBC soap, over 30 years ago, which was set in Spain.

    See: https://tinyurl.com/334shaz9
  • RoseofsharonRoseofsharon Shipmate
    It has recently been resurrected on one of the smaller free-to-air channels. I had meant to watch it, but kept forgetting when & where it was. I don't remember it being too bad but then I'm old enough to have watched Crossroads.
    One of the actors from Eldorado was in the SpecSavers home eye-testing adverts. I recognised her voice straight away.
  • Acting so bad, they wouldn't even get an audition for Eldorado.
    Ahem - although I agree with the sentiment, I think that reference rather dates you!

    The problem is, there are not many recent series that are quite as famous for wooden acting, or I would have used one.

    Maybe I should have said "So bad, they make William Shatner look fluid" But that would have got me into a whole different heap of trouble.
  • SpikeSpike Ecclesiantics & MW Host, Admin Emeritus
    It was a disastrous BBC soap, over 30 years ago, which was set in Spain.

    See: https://tinyurl.com/334shaz9

    I see your Eldorado and I raise you Albion Market
  • RockyRogerRockyRoger Shipmate
    I bid The Grove Family, The Appleyards and The Silver Sword.
    My rubber, I think.

    Perhaps this should have been posted on, 'You know you're old when' ..... Sorry
  • RoseofsharonRoseofsharon Shipmate
    RockyRoger wrote: »
    I bid The Grove Family,
    I had quite forgotten about them, but now I'm rather worried about Jim...

  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    I don't pay attention to ads - that's what the mute button + knitting are for. But I've been following Roland Garros and I see the advertisers reckon tennis fans are interested in cars, holidays in Turkey (or possibly Korea), male fragrances and financial products - one for the last of these comes into the Eh? Category. It has people walking about under giant buckets.
  • SparrowSparrow Shipmate
    edited June 4
    Spike wrote: »
    It was a disastrous BBC soap, over 30 years ago, which was set in Spain.

    See: https://tinyurl.com/334shaz9

    I see your Eldorado and I raise you Albion Market

    Triangle?
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