DailyDirt: Advertising Is Content, And It's Often Better When It's Amusing

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Mon, May 5th 2014 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Advertising is a difficult business. Companies want to make people aware of their products, but not everyone wants to be bombarded by various offers for products that they might not want or need. For consumer goods, it's sometimes possible to avoid being annoying by making ads that are amusing -- so the audience at least gets a laugh or some entertainment value out of the experience. Here are just a few examples of promotional campaigns that might be somewhat humorous.

Ten years ago, Burger King introduced its Subservient Chicken campaign which allowed internet users to control the actions of a guy dressed up in a chicken suit. It was brilliantly engaging for 2004. Kids today might not care about watching a guy in a chicken suit do push-ups on command, but sequels are always a good idea, right? [url]
Ever run out of reading material while on a long flight? SkyMall magazines can waste some time and introduce you to some products you'd ever encountered before. But what if the product descriptions were a bit more honest (and funny)? [url]
A Craigslist ad for a generously "fair condition" 1996 Nissan Maxima GLE got the attention of some folks at Nissan, so they bought the car, restored it, and placed it on display at Nissan headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee. The Craigslist ad was kinda funny, but what's the message from Nissan? We take pride in all of our cars? Our cars clean up nice, even after almost two decades? [url]

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Filed Under: ads, advertising, content, funny, maxima, promotions, subservient chicken, viral ads
Companies: burger king, craigslist, nissan, skymall

10 Comments

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Jeff Woods (profile), 5 May 2014 @ 6:15pm

Nissan URL
Would be nice to use the full website URL [ http://www.autoblog.com/2014/02/08/nissan-will-restore-craigslist-maxima-display-at-headquarters ] rather than the mobile one [ http://m.autoblog.com/2014/02/08/nissan-will-restore-craigslist-maxima-display-at-headquarters ] so that the video is accessible.
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Anonymous Coward, 5 May 2014 @ 8:26pm

I wonder whether BK's marketing people got the idea to try that one again from Twitch Plays Pok�mon.
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Bri (profile), 5 May 2014 @ 8:48pm

Aaah SkyMall. Without it, how could anyone channel their love for Easter Island by decorating their backyards with 6 foot Moai? I'd be back to carving my own out of basalt and hauling it into my backyard instead of having it delivered right to my door!
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Andypandy, 6 May 2014 @ 2:41am

Advertising
All well and good and I applaud advertisers for trying to not just send repetitive advertising but they are using up a lot of my data cap every month and i pay for that data so when are they going to start paying me for taking part of my data allowance from my cap.
I seriously do not mind advertising, but believe wholeheartedly that having a cap on my connection means i deserve compensation for the advertising i have not specifically requested.
How about $1 for each advert I download that I have not given explicit permission to use my data allowance.
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- Parker Mason, 6 May 2014 @ 4:53am
  
  Re: Advertising
  It's the advertising itself, in form or another, that pays for the content you're reading/enjoying on your connection.
  
  In a way, the Techdirt blog is a form of advertising content for Mike Masnick et al's paid projects.
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Parker Mason, 6 May 2014 @ 4:52am

Good job
Hey Techdirt - Thanks for these regular round-ups of related news. I've been enjoying them on the site for the past few months.
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art guerrilla (profile), 6 May 2014 @ 5:41am

ESPN does it right...
their commercials are consistently funny without being forced... a bunch of them you have to be *something* of a sports fan to get the joke, but, heh, its ESPN, not the hallmark channel...
if ALL commercials were along the lines of ESPN, i wouldn't have much of a problem with them... but when 99% of them are simply MADE TO BE ANNOYING (so their name 'sticks'), then all the mad men and wymen who make that crap can stuff it up their cloaca...
besides, i am pissed that -apparently- MOST of my car insurance premium is spent on blanketing the total mediascape with obnoxious idiocy that they show a million times in a row... that's entertainment ! ! !
grrrr...
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Madman, 6 May 2014 @ 9:48am

I really don't understand the desire of consumers to see entertaining ads. The more entertaining an ad is, the more effective it is at manipulating you.

On a related note, I don't understand the desire of consumers to see targeted ads. If I have to experience an ad, I'd rather experience ones for products that are of no use to me, like tampons or adult diapers, so that I won't be manipulated into buying.
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- John Fenderson (profile), 6 May 2014 @ 11:14am
  
  Re:
  "I don't understand the desire of consumers to see targeted ads."
  
  I don't think there is such a desire, generally speaking.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 6 May 2014 @ 12:16pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Agreed, it is a Pointy Haired Boss thing. Since every consumer knows that targeted ads are only good at trying to sell you what you just bought and no longer need more of at their most accurate.
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