History Main / DadaAd

Compare GainaxEnding, WhatWereTheySellingAgain. Contrast ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, or at least the [[TropeNamer trope-naming]] Ronseal adverts, and {{Straightforward}}, ads that tell you what the product does; no more, no less. PerfumeCommercial is a subtrope. Not to be confused with a commercial featuring Indian cricketer Sourav Ganguly, who is affectionately called "dada" meaning grandfather or boss.

Compare GainaxEnding, WhatWereTheySellingAgain. Contrast ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, or at least the [[TropeNamer trope-naming]] Ronseal adverts. PerfumeCommercial is a subtrope. Not to be confused with a commercial featuring Indian cricketer Sourav Ganguly, who is affectionately called "dada" meaning grandfather or boss.

** U.S. and European ads for the Platform/PlayStation3 were notorious for this, even though they didn't create the furor that some UnfortunateImplications ads for Sony's previous systems did.

* Just for Feet, a sneaker company, hired an ad firm to design a commercial for the Super Bowl. The ad in question featured a Kenyan runner getting hunted down and "tagged" by white scientists with a pair of sneakers. Setting aside the weird-ass nature and UnfortunateImplications, Just for Feet was so pissed off by the ad that they ''brought suit'' against the ad firm.

** The American launch campaign, ''Advertising/ItsThinking'' fared better in that they actually showed the console and its games. The first extended ad, however, was seemingly more of a trailer for an action movie and only really referenced the DC at the end.

** The American launch campaign, ''Advertising/ItsThinking'' fared better in that they actually showed the console and its' games. The first extended ad, however, was seemingly more of a trailer for an action movie and only really referenced the DC at the end.

A Dada Ad, named after the UsefulNotes/{{Dada}} art movement, is when some people forget they were hired to sell a product and instead create ads that just confuse potential customers. Not only do they not know what's going on, but when (or if) the product is finally revealed, they may be confused even more.

* The pre-release European [[UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast Dreamcast]] adverts are fairly notorious for having nothing to do with anything - all they feature is people with spiral hair, you don't even get to see the console itself. Somewhat of a bitter 'if only' with Dreamcast fans.

* The [[UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn Saturn]] didn't fare much better, with the ads being very prone to not making much sense nor actually advertising the Saturn. While Sega eventually managed to stop making such commercials by the time of the "Hard Stuff" campaign, ''the'' prime example of this can be seen in the promotional video Sega produced to market the Saturn at launch in North America. While the video admittedly talks about the Saturn's features for most of the 9 minutes (yes, it's that long), that's to say nothing of what actually ''happens during the dialogue.'' Absolutely nothing makes sense, nor does it have anything remotely to do with the Sega Saturn, and it's one of the few of these ads that has to be seen to be believed. [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cyv6ZehQyTQ Words simply can't do it justice.]]

* Given the similarities between the aforementioned Dreamcast and the original UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}}, Microsoft took a page from Sega and created launch ads that made little to no sense. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP9XNzvmPIw Like the green sphere ones]] or [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF9K_GcgMo0 this strange thing]]. Thankfully they eventually began making ads that made sense.

* A European ad for the first UsefulNotes/PlayStation depicts a family at a dinner table, having a conversation. Except, they're speaking with video game sound effects. One of them only makes sounds from ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'', another only makes war sounds, etc. It then [[GrossUpCloseUp zooms into their mouths]] [[NauseaFuel to reveal that their uvulas are in the shapes of the [=PlayStation=] buttons]].

** Early UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 adverts were aiming to drive home the idea that the console will offer you ''all kinds'' of experiences. But perhaps the makers of those ads [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjySDiV6HbE overdid it...]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t10rdc_NIz4 slightly.]]

** U.S. and European ads for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 were notorious for this, even though they didn't create the furor that some UnfortunateImplications ads for Sony's previous systems did.

*** The [[UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable PSP]] got a similar treatment with these [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqHd4UysK9k squirrels]].
** Not even the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 was immune to this. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE_1BZZekIY "Play Fearlessly"]] has fantastical imagery of people escaping their everyday mundane lives accompanied a message about how player can overcome their fears in the world of [=PlayStation=]... but [=PlayStation=] itself isn't mentioned until the very end of the ad. [[https://www.thedrum.com/creative-works/project/bbh-ny-playstation-play-fearlessly The lack of PlayStation imagery was intentional]], but without the context it comes off as confusing.

** Almost, if not every one of his UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 commercials.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UUoZQFrAG4 This old ad]] for the [[UsefulNotes/GameBoy Game Boy Pocket]] has little to do with the actual product. Instead, for a good 30 seconds, we are treated to miniature people doing weird stunts and stuff in or on ordinary household items, including a bunch of {{hipster}}s [[MindScrew swimming in a jar of alcohol swabs]]. Not until the end do we actually hear the name of the product as "NEW GAME BOY POCKET". The mixed song in the background also includes samples from [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment the very ad itself]].

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA2-bxNTI08 This Singaporean ad]] for the UsefulNotes/{{Xbox 360}}, in which a Japanese woman describes her near-death experience after an asthma attack. She mentions how she suddenly got pulled back, and the commercial ends with the slogan "LIVE FOR IT". There's no mention or explanation of what the commercial is selling at any point.

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Note ValuesDissonance can come into play here. What's [[WidgetSeries confusing in some countries and regions is normal elsewhere]], so examples of ads should make sure they're confusing in the region in which they are placed. Alternatively, they may have been trying to make a splash for their ad company and forgot about the client. A third possibility is that a bizarre ad may be less likely to be fast-forwarded through by DVR viewers, and well done ads of this type can be quite memorable if they somehow successfully manage to link the product to the ad.

Compare GainaxEnding, WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs, WhatWereTheySellingAgain. Contrast ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, or at least the [[TropeNamer trope-naming]] Ronseal adverts. PerfumeCommercial is a subtrope. Not to be confused with a commercial featuring Indian cricketer Sourav Ganguly, who is affectionately called “dada” meaning grandfather or boss.

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E12SundayCruddySunday Sunday Cruddy Sunday]]" has the controversial Super Bowl commercial where a man visits a gas station and a group of scantily-clad female mechanics service his car seductively. The ad ends with the camera zooming in on one of the women's breasts with a crucifix necklace hanging over them. An announcer says "The Catholic Church: We made a few... [[HotterAndSexier changes!]]"

** And that Rube Goldberg machine was [[DoingItForTheArt real]].

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROBanxb91h8 This]] ad for tires features ''Anime/AstroBoy'' and is really MindScrew.

* ''Webcomic/ExistentialComics'': When brainstorming for advertisement ideas, Soren Kirkegaard decides the one thing people are missing in their lives is the awareness of their existential angst, and that they need to make an ad appealing to it. [[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/204 The result is a black and white short film about the intrinsic despair of human life and the regret inevitable whenever one makes a choice.]] [[spoiler:It's a commercial for Taco Bell.]]

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* The Marshie ads from ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'', where the {{anthropomorphic| food}} marshmallow trills in a creepy voice and regular marshmallows suddenly appear with nails in them, for starters.
* ''Webcomic/ExistentialComics'': When brainstorming for advertisement ideas, Soren Kirkegaard decides the one thing people are missing in their lives is the awareness of their existential angst, and that they need to make an ad appealing to it. [[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/204 The result is a black and white short film about the intrinsic despair of human life and the regret inevitable whenever one makes a choice.]] [[spoiler:It's a commercial for Taco Bell.]]
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* A certain Australian Toyota ad does this. Though we are told what the ad was for (a new sports car), that does not justify the anthropomorphic [[https://youtu.be/y0xFzTYz8Zc ninja cats]] kung-fu fighting against each other. [[RuleOfCool Then again, maybe it doesn't need to be justified.]]
** [[https://youtu.be/sukN0ajVUIc This ad]], however, needs some justification for why Toyota believes an expedition to the deepest point in the UncannyValley will help them sell a car. And before that, they had an ad proclaiming that their new car [[CaptainObvious is a car]], and a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E15PE7iGT0U Corolla campaign]] inexplicably partnered with [[Music/{{Vocaloid}} Hatsune Miku]]. Maybe they just want people to forget about the "help the accelerator pedal has fallen and it can't get up" fiasco?

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* The infamous K-Fee ads - peaceful setting followed by a sudden JumpScare of a zombie or gargoyle. And nobody knew what it had to do with a brand of coffee that nowadays is so obscure that finding it for sale online is less common than [=YouTube=] uploads of the ads themselves [[note]]the idea seemed to be that the caffeine in the coffee would give you a jolt of energy comparable to viewing a jump scare[[/note]]. It didn't help that some of the most popular uploads of the ads on [=YouTube=] have the tagline and K-Fee name removed, leading many to not even realize the videos were selling something in the first place.

* One Levi's commercial consisted of a guy and a girl standing in the middle of a city, while a herd of bison stampeded around them.
** Presumably saying that no matter where you are, once you put on a pair of Levis you'll be back in TheWildWest?

* Those Sprite commercials where the flowers have mouths, green sumo wrestlers hit each other, and other strange things occur. It doesn't really make you want to drink Sprite.
** Sprite had a series of ads called [[https://youtu.be/ydVbrRhxnF8 "sublymonal messages"]] which was just bizarre, randomly skipping images focusing on odd uses of lemons and limes (or at least green and yellow things).
*** Which is much better than the newer commercial, where people drink Sprite, run into each other, and explode.
*** The initial commercial using the exploding water concept was even worse: It had a guy doing a backflip on an asphalt basketball court and preparing to ''land on his back'', exploding into liquid only upon contact with the ground.
*** Most recently in line with the people exploding into Sprite, rapper Drake was featured drinking Sprite to get re-energized. All well and good, until his skin pops open like panels on a robot as the soda travels through his system. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh6vHoyBs58 Watch here]].

* When the Japanese automobile company Infiniti made their American debut, their commercials became notorious for '''''not showing or talking about the car at all.'''''
** One late-night TV host (it might have been Carson or Leno) commenting that sales of the car were still flat, but sales of rocks and trees were way up after that commercial.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLWWtgqDG2M This Dunlop ad]]-- 'cause nothing says 'tires' like the Velvet Underground and fat bald guys with pierced nipples

* There was a commercial for Mini cooper cars where the car drives into a parking lot and was attacked by living shopping trolleys.

* Vodafone has a new add touting its new smartphone, it features people with fuzzy masks at a wedding for no clear reason. Whenever it comes up, people who see it wonder what it's trying to sell.

* British chocolate company Cadbury has lately [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_YNzCMyr1M released]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkwFmgLhCkY some]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy52yueBX_s very]] [[https://youtu.be/5aDCrYUKIMo?t=9s trippy]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGYMMsPg_ME ads]].

** And now we have [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9yd2W348Bw another advertisement]] that also fits the bill, although it makes slightly more sense considering they're running a dancing contest for 2012 Olympics tickets.

* Music/MichaelJackson's 1995 double album ''[=HIStory=]'', which featured one disc of greatest hits and another of new material, had a nearly four-minute long trailer made that ran in movie theaters. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c93o05SrWzE trailer]] turned out to be a short film in which masses of people welcome Jackson into a city as, apparently, a benevolent ruler and unveil a colossal statue of him, which causes said masses to erupt in an even bigger frenzy complete with a little boy crying out "Michael, I love you!" At no point is the actual product shown, described, or heard from, as its makers chose to use music from ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober'' instead. As Sean Weitner commented in a Flak Magazine [[http://www.flakmag.com/music/mj/videos2.html article]], "[I]t's a video ''without original Jackson music''" (emphasis his). It didn't so much sell the album as the idea that Jackson had a ridiculously inflated ego.

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