"ad" news and stories

These days, advertising tends to be on a very obvious (superliminal) level. By this, I mean that most broadcasters make no effort to conceal the fact that they're being paid (or compensated in some way) to promote a product. The show Top Chef, for example, frequently refers to the "Kenmore kitchen" provided by its sponsors and repeatedly uses brand names from other companies. This type of advertising really gets a brand name out into the public arena, but some still believe that sneakier tactics are in order to get the public to try their products and would prefer to use subliminal advertising than superliminal, believing that the subconscious mind has a greater impact on human behavior.

This YouTube video clip reveals an example of subliminal advertising that a viewer found on the Food Network during a broadcast of Iron Chef America. The ad, which is for McDonald's, is only about one frame of film long, but is still noticeable to the conscious mind as a red flash on the screen.

Of course, it could have been a broadcasting glitch and not a purposefully placed advertisement. But that might just be what they want you to think....

[via something awful - thanks, Berkana!]

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Last year, Sun-Maid's iconic mascot, the Sun-Maid maid, got a makeover so the brand would have a new look. Her overall appearance remained very similar, but she was digitized. The newly three dimensional character talks, does yoga and promotes California raisins, but even though she was one of the first ad icons to undergo this overhaul, she isn't the only one. Orville Redenbacher has recently been digitized so that he can continue to convincingly promote his famous popcorn brand over ten years after his death. The first ad to use digital Orville will air during the Golden Gloves and will depict "Redenbacher [pitching] popcorn while jiving to his MP3 player." A preview clip can be seen here.

With the amount of technology that went into the ad, it is the company's most expensive ever, but as we have seen from the movie industry, an expensive venture doesn't always yield blockbuster results. Opinions vary on whether this was a good idea or a bad one. Some, including Redenbacher's grandson, see it as a way to remember the man and even feel that he would have loved the idea himself. Others think that there is "a certain creepiness" to the revival of a long-dead man.

Click past the jump for a vintage Orville Redenbacher commercial.

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It's hard to believe that Burger King ads could get too much worse than the ones that featured The King, but they have gone from weird to weirder. This Eat Like a Snake ad features a man drawn to a triple Whopper that a friend has carelessly abandoned on the lunchroom table. He slithers snakelike across the floor, unhinges his jaw and swallows the sandwich whole.

Usually, even fast food restaurants try to make it seem like diners are savoring the flavor of their foods, but all this one seems to be doing is encouraging binge eating, as snake-man doesn't seem to have tasted the burger at all. It might even be encouraging bulimia on top of compulsive eating, as more than a few people expressed the desire to void their last meal - fast food or not - after watching that burger go down in one mouthful.

[via supersizedmeals]

If you thought that eating sugary cereal could be hazardous to your health, just try starring in a commercial for it. The star of this recent Frosties cereal ad (the name for Frosted Flakes in the UK), a 15-year old gymnast from Johannesburg, South Africa, has actually gotten death threats as a direct result of appearing in the ad. Apparently, people just find the jingle to be so irritating, that they have said things like "He's a revolting despicable child - he deserves to die." Kellogg's put a stop to just about all the interviews with the star, just to be on the safe side, but spokespeople say that the ad is actually quite popular with viewers.

Having seen the commercial in the video clip above, I have to say that the viewers of this ad must be a very lucky bunch because this is by no means the most irritating or disturbing ad on TV - Skittles and Burger King already have a head start in those departments, and the recent Folger's ad is in its own category of weirdness. Death threats? It's just breakfast.

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Smirnoff is the latest company to join in the viral marketing trend, putting a video on YouTube to gain interest in their newest product. Since we all enjoyed the Folgers ad so much, it seemed only natural to put up new Smirnoff ad. The ad is a music video featuring the "New England gangsters" known as "Prep Unit" - in other words, three white guys rapping about Cape Cod, the Hamptons and Harvard while playing croquet and tennis. The ad promotes Smirnoff's new malt iced tea beverage, Smirnoff Raw Tea, which is in limited release on the East Coast at the moment (but can also be found online). It's a funny ad, but as far as raps about food go, nothing can beat the SNL Lazy Sunday cupcake rap.

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