Hand on heart, I would not mind watching ads if they were genuinely entertaining. But right now it is a toss up between some abstract art horseshit where you have no idea what is being advertised until the very last seconds. Or obnoxious crap where the product or service is borderline crammed down your throat.
Which is a little funny because in a survey of consumers, Mayhem was the insurance mascot people were least likely to be able to connect to the brand (Flo, Gecko, Jake, and Emu I think were all more "connectable").
I just saw that commercial for the first time last night. I told my partner that I wanted to to my hands in that things mouth and pull it apart. I've never felt such immediate fight or flight.
...or a ten second blurb about the name of a medication that may or may not identify what it's supposed to treat, followed by a minute and a half reading of possible side effects overlaid on footage of a generic person living their generic "best life."
To be fair, it's Federal regulations that make pharma commercials the way they are. You're required to state the side effects, and you also can't show people doing anything extraordinary, like a rheumatoid arthritis patient water-skiing, because that would represent a "take this medication and you'll be able to waterski too" promise. So you have to portray the patient doing the most mundane stuff possible so as not to overpromise.
They don't regulate enough. Prescription medicine should not be marketed directly to patients who lack the knowledge and education to understand what the product is - hard stop.
Just once I want one of those ads to slip in a few random, ridiculous side effects like "spontaneous combustion", "Belief you are a chicken from the year 15,206" or "Fleeting sense of safety, but the evil clown still hides in your closet."
I deeply wish they would outlaw those. Hell I’d even approve of politicians trotting out their “think of the children!” excuse to do so. We all know that’s not gonna happen though. Too much money being extracted from the poor to glut the wealthy is involved.
Same. I almost wish the data spying and profiling worked a little better because they are barking up the wrong tree and I hate those ads so much. They'll spend a million dollars over my lifetime advertising just to me, I swear.
Ikr!? How can they spend so much time and money hoovering up my data despite my own wishes, and still can't figure out how to advertise something I'd ever actually buy?
Fair point, but that works the first time you see it, maybe the first dozen times. But no matter how entertaining an advert is on first viewing they get repeated so often that I end up loathing it. Repetition breeds hate.
But how else will you know that one politician wants you to know his opponent hires convinced pedophiles! You must know this every second of every day! Think of the children and vote! Man I’m ready for election season to be over…
Abstract art horseshit is just about the only way they can sell something that's not visual like perfume. You can fool someone into thinking something tastes good by making it look good, but it's much harder to come up with a visual for selling a smell.
Prescription drug ads are the other wonky ones. Don't show the condition being treated, instead show all the things you could be out doing if only you had the right drugs.
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u/Dakro_6577 1d ago
Hand on heart, I would not mind watching ads if they were genuinely entertaining. But right now it is a toss up between some abstract art horseshit where you have no idea what is being advertised until the very last seconds. Or obnoxious crap where the product or service is borderline crammed down your throat.