"advertisment" news and stories

I miss the Cadbury bunny. This isn't the first time I've mentioned him, but I will repeat that the persuasive and adorable clucking bunny is one of the factors that made me want to purchase Cadbury Creme Eggs. How can you resist a treat that comes from the Easter Bunny, after all? It is even more difficult when you are an impressionable child and the cute bunny is offering you chocolate. This is an example of good food advertising (in all its retro glory), with a likable icon and a simple, tasty presentation of the product - a stark contrast to some of the disturbingly creepy ads that companies are using to promote their products nowadays.

The full commercial is after the jump.

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We already know that creepy ads must sell more burgers, but can they sell candy, too? Skittles newest ad features a man with what appears to be a magical beard. The several foot long beard moves of its own accord, picking up Skittles and popping them into the mouth of the hirsute beard-owner. As disturbing as that image is, the worst it yet to come. The whole scene takes place during a job interview and when the man doesn't get the job, his beard feeds the woman interviewing him a Skittle and then strokes her face. The image of a mangy, hairy mass feeding Skittles to a woman is, quite unfortunately, now imprinted onto my brain. Good job, Skittles. This ad beats out the creepy king ad.

The entire video of the commercial is after the jump.

Dannon's new yogurt, Activa, contains a special bacterial culture known as Bifidus Regularis that helps to regulate the digestive tract. To help promote their new product, and perhaps to locate potential markets for this breakfast-food-come-Milk of Magnesia-competitor, Dannon commissioned a survey to determine the most irregular cities in America. The survey defined irregularity as not going to the bathroom for two or more days and found that the ten most irregular cities are:

1. Orlando, FL
2. Memphis, TN

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As far as I understand it, the purpose of advertising is to sell more products, not to frighten the customers. Unfortunately, Burger King's advertising department does not seem to have gotten this message. During the Super Bowl yesterday, Burger King unveiled a new, multi-million dollar ad featuring its skin-crawlingly creepy, plastic-headed mascot, the King. As though his mere presence was not enough, the commercial consisted of women dressed as the salad toppings on a hamburger - lettuce, onion, tomato, etc. - dancing around before being rather unceremoniously tossed into a pile which, coincidentally, managed to resemble a hamburger. The "tasty and eye popping" women/toppings are ogled by the king during and after the formation of the "burger."

Creepy, sexist and, no doubt, offensive to more than a few people, does Burger King really see an increase in sales after airing ads like this? I would prefer to see a commercial that showed the actual food product, not a strange Whopperette version of it.

You can view the whole ad, if you are so inclined, at Adjab.

[Image from Adjab]