As a content creator, it’s tough making a name for yourself and proving your chops in the real world.
It doesn’t make it any easier when companies hire terrible writers and creative team members to create their ads and write cheesy, awkward lines that you could have written in your sleep. Cheers to not selling out to the man and coming up with this hogwash.
1. Ad for Bunheads, an ABC television series
Shitty factor: The ads alternate between two taglines: “Sometimes life raises the barre” and “Dance your buns off.” Also, I can’t picture saying to a friend, “Hey Joey, did you catch Bunheads last night?”
Why it’s shitty: I can picture a bunch of marketing executives sitting around a table flipping through a glossary of Ballet 101 and trying to find jargon to satisfy these dull puns.
Puns no longer work in the media for humour, whether in newspaper headlines, advertising, novel titles, etc. because every generation has its own humour, and wordplay is not ours. Puns are perfect for certain situations, but these two are strained and dull.
Shitty factor: The ads alternate between two taglines: “Sometimes life raises the barre” and “Dance your buns off.” Also, I can’t picture saying to a friend, “Hey Joey, did you catch Bunheads last night?”
Why it’s shitty: I can picture a bunch of marketing executives sitting around a table flipping through a glossary of Ballet 101 and trying to find jargon to satisfy these dull puns.
Puns no longer work in the media for humour, whether in newspaper headlines, advertising, novel titles, etc. because every generation has its own humour, and wordplay is not ours. Puns are perfect for certain situations, but these two are strained and dull.
2. “Social smoking is smoking” by the BBDO Advertising Agency
Shitty factor: It’s a potentially powerful campaign ruined by the faulty comparison between smoking and farting.
Why it’s shitty: This PSA has a good message—that social smoking isn’t different from habitual smoking—but the comparison of smoking to farting and nibbling is not sound.
Shitty factor: It’s a potentially powerful campaign ruined by the faulty comparison between smoking and farting.
Why it’s shitty: This PSA has a good message—that social smoking isn’t different from habitual smoking—but the comparison of smoking to farting and nibbling is not sound.
The video ads may be funny, but the print ads show a comparison between social farting and social smoking. Example: “only does it to break the ice / only does it to break the ice.” HOW does farting in a social situation ever break the ice?
3. The Head & Shoulders with Old Spice ads
Shitty Factor: The ads scream all around amateur writing and awkward humour.
Why it’s shitty: They say there’s always room for talent in every field. Turns out there’s just as much room for the talentless.
A good ad is supposed to feel natural and charm you with to the point where the product is your only logical choice. Exhibit A: “Smell handsomely handsome.” Really? Is that the best you’ve got? Additionally, a good
ad doesn’t name-drop, leading to: Exhibit B: “With Head & Shoulders, you won’t strike out as often as [insert poor performing team player’s name here].” Is this a reference to a shitty baseball player that I’m not aware of?
4. Lifemates online dating service ads
Shitty factor: Two separate ads, close to each other on the bus, use the same model, inspiring laziness, and the idea that Bus Ad girl gets around, if you know what I mean.
3. The Head & Shoulders with Old Spice ads
Shitty Factor: The ads scream all around amateur writing and awkward humour.
Why it’s shitty: They say there’s always room for talent in every field. Turns out there’s just as much room for the talentless.
A good ad is supposed to feel natural and charm you with to the point where the product is your only logical choice. Exhibit A: “Smell handsomely handsome.” Really? Is that the best you’ve got? Additionally, a good
ad doesn’t name-drop, leading to: Exhibit B: “With Head & Shoulders, you won’t strike out as often as [insert poor performing team player’s name here].” Is this a reference to a shitty baseball player that I’m not aware of?
4. Lifemates online dating service ads
Shitty factor: Two separate ads, close to each other on the bus, use the same model, inspiring laziness, and the idea that Bus Ad girl gets around, if you know what I mean.
Why it’s shitty: Who would trust an online dating service that seems to promote cheating?
This creative cost-cutting technique is obvious, but karmic considering the greater problems in the ads: they’re a mix of white- centric and heteronormative, and they’re lazy and unconvincing.
It seems that the selling point for all online dating services ads is just a series of put-downs to other services, with lines like, “Tired of online dating? You’re not alone.” Why don’t you tell us why your service is good instead of telling us why other services are subpar? Or are you just trying to play to our inferiority complexes in the roundabout ways?
5. NEDIC eating disorder aid ad
Shitty factor: The girly, diary- entry style inscription of “Hunger is my BFF.”
Why it’s shitty: Apart from being an awkward illustration of a seri- ous issue and a pathetic attempt at capturing the motives of prime candidates for eating disorders, i.e. teenaged girls, the main problem with the ad is that it essentially makes fun of people with eating disorders.
The ad invites laughter, but the issue is not funny. It’s also a very narrow look at who eating disor- ders affect.
First, it’s clear that the ad is at- tempting to imitate a girl’s diary, but eating disorders also affect men. Second, not all eating dis- orders involve starvation — some involve binge eating.
This creative cost-cutting technique is obvious, but karmic considering the greater problems in the ads: they’re a mix of white- centric and heteronormative, and they’re lazy and unconvincing.
It seems that the selling point for all online dating services ads is just a series of put-downs to other services, with lines like, “Tired of online dating? You’re not alone.” Why don’t you tell us why your service is good instead of telling us why other services are subpar? Or are you just trying to play to our inferiority complexes in the roundabout ways?
5. NEDIC eating disorder aid ad
Shitty factor: The girly, diary- entry style inscription of “Hunger is my BFF.”
Why it’s shitty: Apart from being an awkward illustration of a seri- ous issue and a pathetic attempt at capturing the motives of prime candidates for eating disorders, i.e. teenaged girls, the main problem with the ad is that it essentially makes fun of people with eating disorders.
The ad invites laughter, but the issue is not funny. It’s also a very narrow look at who eating disor- ders affect.
First, it’s clear that the ad is at- tempting to imitate a girl’s diary, but eating disorders also affect men. Second, not all eating dis- orders involve starvation — some involve binge eating.
Leslie Armstrong
Senior Staff
