PayPerPost Pays Bloggers to Link to Paid PayPerPost Posts

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Is it just us or has this PayPerPost thing gone to far? PayPerPost is the company that pays bloggers to write positive posts about a brand. Now the company has launched an affiliate program that promises to pay other bloggers recruit other bloggers and pay them to link to the posts written by the original PayPerPost bloggers. Let's see if we can get this straight. PayPerPost is going to pay bloggers to link to other blogger's content, for which the sole reason of its existence was cash changing hands. Is anyone else having a WTF moment about this right now? Have these PayPerPost people lost all sense of reality? There are so many things wrong with this on so many levels.

by Steve Hall    Feb-22-07    
Topic: Opinion, Social, Weblogs, Worst



Audi Logo Found In Chevy Ad

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Adrants reader Marcos Rozen, editor of the Brazilian AutoData, sent us this scan of a Chevrolet ad that appeared on page two of the February 5 issue of Automotive News. In the upper right hand corner of the ad, interlocking metal rings are hanging from a fence. One has to wonder how an ad with imagery so similar to a competitor's logo can make it through the lengthy approval process without being caught. We're thinking someone caught some serious shit for this and furious calls were made to Automotive News asking the magazine to yank the ad. At least we hope so. It'd be sad to think any brand would allow this to happen.

by Steve Hall    Feb-15-07    
Topic: Brands, Magazine, Strange, Worst



Zippers Become Spiders. Huh?

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Copyranter gives a quick review of a recent YKK zipper ad which has a visual of zippers tricked out to look like spiders and the tagline, "Fashionable by Nature." His conclusion? "OK, I fucking HATE 'Fashionable by Nature.' Lazy fucking line. We'd have to agree and would also add associating spiders with zippers is just going to make people suffer through a fit of arachnophobia every time they touch their zipper. Zippers. Spiders. Who's "creative" brain did this come out of?

by Steve Hall    Feb-13-07    
Topic: Worst



Hypno Marketing Gives Us Key to Unlock Cynical Consumer

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For pseudo-scientists still toting the efficacy of subliminal advertising, we bring you Hypno Marketing, an Australia-born method for turning even the most cynical of purchasers into brand evangelists for life. All they need is a few hours with said consumer.

"Hypno-marketing is not dangerous nor is it evil," says general manager Gavin Hawke. "Hypnosis and marketing use similar techniques to motivate people into a particular behavioural pattern. We cannot remove the free will from people but through our re-programming we believe we can control the individuals' decision making process."

Well, if hypnosis can get people to stop smoking, why wouldn't it work for marketing? And we're sure consumer-wannabes will be breaking the doors down at marketing evangelist hypnosis seminars. Who wouldn't want to be further cannibalized by every ad they see?

by Angela Natividad    Feb- 6-07    
Topic: Events, Online, Worst



Snickers Pulls 'Kiss' Website, Sales May Drop

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Apparently, the backlash over the Snickers Super Bowl commercial in which two men end up kissing after eating a Snickers bar from opposite ends was too much for the company to take and, as a result, the candy maker has taken down the commercial's accompanying website, afterthekiss.com. Typing in the URL simply redirects to the Snickers site.

While we liked this spot purely for its shock value, there's a faintly high probability this will have a very real negative affect on sales. Can you imagine the looks one will now receive from the checkout clerk when they buy a Snickers bar? That's just way too much snickering for most people to take and there's plenty of other perfectly good candy choices with far less embarrassment attached to them.

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by Steve Hall    Feb- 6-07    
Topic: Brands, Commercials, Opinion, Strange, Super Bowl 2007, Worst



Army, Ad Council Push Merits of Education with Badly Written Manifesto

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The Army/Ad Council Boost Up effort skyrockets in our ratings of deserved abuse with this awkwardly-phrased, melodramatic, grammatically awful and typo-ridden explanation for Boost Up's mission.

We're sure they're sincere in suggesting that inside every one of us is a graduate. But clearly a high school graduate does not a good editor make. Well, guess that's what the military - er, college - is for.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-25-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Online, Worst



French Tree Huggers Make Light of 9/11

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If memory serves, after 9/11, wasn't it the French who sort of dragged their feet and made things difficult for the countries trying to tally together against Bin Laden? If so, that might explain this ad for French tree hugger site Defi Pour La Terre which thought it would be witty to transform the image of two trees into the twin towers burning on that fateful day. All to somehow equate the value of a tree to the value of a human life.

We not sure any amount of time passed makes this sort of thing OK. Then again, we're American. We knew people on Flight 93. The French? Well, perhaps they didn't know anyone who died that day or just feel Americans can't keep their hands out of other countries' issues. While the latter may be true, mocking a world event such as 9/11, at least for now, is still in very bad taste. And the French are supposed to know about taste, right?

by Steve Hall    Jan-23-07    
Topic: Creative Commentary, Magazine, Opinion, Worst



Mr. Peanut Sings Deceitful Tune, Stuffs Ballots

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We've never been huge fans but Mr. Peanut gets just due for being a longtime symbol of good clean fun in a mixed nuts can. That's why we're sad to be the ones to tell you how easily the 'Nut's integrity can be compromised.

Word on the street is Kraft had Draft FCB run an online vote to freshen up the Mr. Peanut look. Small changes: pocket watch, yea or nay? Cuff links, too Chippendale? But apparently Kraft had a panic attack and made everyone in the Company and at Draft stuff the ballot to ensure Mr. Peanut remains the same stodgy, phallic eyepiece-porting womper he's always been.

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by Angela Natividad    Jan-19-07    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Online, Worst



Idiotic Medium 3,762: Airport Security Bin Advertising

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And, we're back! Yes, my friends, the Disney vacation is now, sadly, in the rear view mirror but the rejuvenation that vacation provided was much needed. As we get back into gear here (not that we were ever out of gear with co-editor Angela providing you musings on a daily basis), how apropos it is we stumble across The Silly Girl's mention of airport security bin advertising. Just when you thought every available ad space has been taken (now there's a sentence that's been written here many, many times), ads will now appear on those gray bins you toss all your stuff in as you pass through airport security.

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by Steve Hall    Jan-18-07    
Topic: Worst



Crispin Plays at Necromancy for Popcorn King

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We don't know what to say about this creepy iPod-wielding Orville Redenbacher resurrection except that we're horrified, and popcorn won't console us. To add insult to injury, it's also badly taped and executed in a manner most shitty.

Turning a childhood icon into a twitchy zombie is the air fluffed foodstuff of nightmares.

Thank Crispin for this work when you're done being paralyzed by fear.

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by Angela Natividad    Jan-17-07    
Topic: Agencies, Strange, Television, Worst