What Were They Selling Again - Television Tropes & Idioms

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alt title(s): Distracted By The Shiny

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There are many ways in which a commercial can fail to get its message across. Some ads are simply uninteresting, or so terrible that they actually turn viewers against the product. This seems reasonable enough, but surprisingly some commercials fail because they're too good.

A commercial that's too clever, or features too memorable a gimmick, runs the risk of being remembered only for the gimmick and not its association with the product. The commercial has performed the important task of holding the audience's attention, but it hasn't spread the word about the product it's trying to promote.

German media experts call this the "Vampire Effect".

May happen in a Design Student's Orgasm or Dada Ad.

Examples:

One infamous Super Bowl ad for Nuveen Investments (which The Other Wiki describes as, "a global provider of investment services to institutions and high-net-worth investors in the asset management industry," whatever that is) showed Christopher Reeve, aided by CGI, getting out of his wheelchair and walking. There were massive protests from those who felt lied to afterward.
Life Alert's famous "I've fallen and I can't get up!" became a pop-culture catchphrase, even though no one could ever remember the product.
Mountain Dew's live action versions of the Mad Magazine "Spy vs. Spy" comics were technically superb — and generally failed to make the connection to their product, other than having the victorious spy enjoy a Dew in the final seconds.
Urban legends surrounding the sudden stop of the Taco Bell chihuahua ads were eventually debunked on Snopes.com with a simple explanation: the massively popular ads were cut because they simply did not increase sales.
Similarly, the California Raisins were massively popular, even having their own merchandise and animated series, but didn't increase sales of raisins.
As early as the 1960s, a commercial with the catchphrase "Mamma mia, atsa one spicy meatball!" was discontinued, not because it was offensive to people of Italian heritage, but because viewers could not remember exactly which Italian-food brand it was advertising — probably because it was actually advertising Alka Seltzer, an indigestion remedy!
The Pets.Com commercial mascot, a talking sock puppet dog, managed to outlive the very company he was invented to advertise and now hawks, of all things, cheap car loans.
Sony brought in David Lynch to direct a series of advertisements for the launch of the PlayStation 2 in Europe. They were surrealist black and white affairs about The Third Place, which is apparently an enigmatic land of play alongside people's work life and home life. There were many jokes about the other meaning of the slogan, but only amoungst gamers - Sony had neglected to actually include the console, or any other gaming references, in the advertisement.
- They repeated the mistake with the PlayStation 3, using a series of adverts styled in the manner of a glossy new drama or soap opera set in a holiday resort, and ending with "This Is Living" and the URL "thisisliving.tv". Non-gamers (and gamers' spouses) thought it was an advertisement for Living TV, a UK satellite channel specialising in glossy dramas and soaps. They added a "PlayStation 3" flash at the tail end of the commercials' run, after the machine shuddered, uneventfully, into stores.
- Don't forget the exploding baby ads.
In Britain everyone remembers Nick (Wallace And Gromit) Park's Creature Comforts concept (Claymation animals with genuine Vox Pops voices) being used for a series of well regarded British Gas adverts in the 1990s. Except the adverts were for the Electricity Board, and emphasised how much better electric heating was than gas.
Then there's the commercials with the spectacular accidents, such as a guy's air conditioner falling out of his apartment window and wrecking his car. We're expecting a product, but are given a website that isn't even that groundbreaking.
The Simpsons poked fun at this phenomenon in an episode where Homer hires an ad agency to promote his plowing business (to replace his homefilmed advert). The commercial they create is a pastiche of pretentious European art films that fails to mention the product or indeed, make any semblance of sense at all.
Lisa: Was that our ad?
Homer: I'm not sure...
- Well, after the snow globe breaks, the words "Mr. Plow" does appear, albeit very briefly...
Infiniti's early advertising showed only the brand name and a flock of birds. Nothing to indicate that it was actually promoting a car.
This troper remembers a documentary about a newly launched airline. Because the airline's ad was so non-specific, there were people who came asking them what they actually do.
Whether they fit into this category or not is debatable, but the ITV Digital adverts staring Johnny Vegas and "Monkey" were very popular, despite the fact they didn't seem to make anyone want to subscribe. When the company went into bankruptcy, Monkey was apparently one of its most valuable remaining assets.
- And the pair are now used to flog PG Tips...
One Dutch insurance company is famous for its advertisement catch phrase "Even Apeldoorn bellen" ("Just call Apeldoorn", Apeldoorn being a city in the Netherlands); they've used the phrase for over a decade, but people tend to forget which company it is. Then again, there's only one insurance company in Apeldoorn so that's ok. A second, less successful company coined the catch phrase "Foutje, bedankt!" ("Mistake, thanks!") which reached meme levels for a few months, except that nobody has an inkling who or what it was supposed to be advertising. This campaign was quickly dropped once the ad agency clued in.
Joe Namath appeared in a very famous commercial for pantyhose, but which brand it was - Beautymist - has been long-since forgotten, although that's more likely a function of how long ago it was made (1974), and how long ago Hanes stopped selling the Beauty Mist brand (about 1980).
An early 90s commercial for a beer which had some beer-drinkers wanting to try something new, be it "Grandpa's Old Fuzzy Ale" or "Benedict Arnold Pittsburgh Lager". This troper suspects most people won't remember the beer which was actually being promoted.
- For that matter, nearly all American and Canadian beer commercials are arguably examples of this trope. Advertising regulations in both countries prohibit actual on-camera consumption of alcoholic beverages, and touting any (supposed) specific benefits of drinking their product (increased popularity, sex appeal, and such). As a result, commercials for major brands have long resorted to such cliché elements as bikini-clad women or wilderness vacations gone awry. This troper surely can't be the only one who, despite enjoying beer, can't tell one brand's TV ads from another's.
  - The exception is the Alexander Keith's ads, which were memorable for featuring a guy in a kilt and muttonchops yelling at people for "not givin' the brew the respect it deserves!" On the downside, everyone remembers it for being the beer drunk by loud annoying guys with really bad Scottish accents (someone Did Not Do The Research - Nova Scotian accents do not sound like that) and the ads don't air any more.
  - The Alexander Keith's ads were pulled because their star was arrested for possession of child pornography. The More You Know...
  - This may explain Australian beer ads, either a hilarious send-up of advertisements in general or filled with Australian in-jokes and parodies stereotypes, though these actually fit well with the Australian beer-drinking culture. One of my favourite examples: A melanoma-ridden alchoholic is involved in racially motivated attack.
  - What about the one featuring people throwing things into the water and them coming out better? Like a guy throws his very-plain looking girlfriend in the river, she walks out a supermodel. Followed by the logo for Boag's coming up. Or a butter knife comes out as a lightsaber.
Another British example. Back in the 1970s, there was a very popular series of adverts featuring Joan Collins and Leonard Rossiter, which always ended with the drink being advertised poured all over Joan. The catch- everyone thought that they were advertising Martini, when the ads were actually for a different, but similar drink.
The original Claritin commercials involved bright, beautiful scenery and happy music. They were very uplifting and memorable (at least at the time). Yet they actually were selling remained a mystery for some time, making this the most famous effect of Yes But What Does Zataproximetacine DO?
Honda had a very long and very strange (but compelling) ad a few years ago on British television. It had a very catchy, if bizarre song (hate something, change something...) sung by Garrison Keillor, who's not well-known in Britain, and was full of bright and surreal imagery. It also had a fun flash game. But it took three or four close viewings before this troper ceased to be distracted by the shiny enough to realize that it was a Honda commercial. And it took a trip to the website to realize what the commercial was about.
- Honda is still doing this with all its adverts, failing to mention a single car or why their cars are better than the rest, only that Honda likes complicated puzzles and skydiving. In the UK, anyway; their US ads tend to be of the "this is the car, this is the deal you can get" variety with the only touch of whimsy being "Mr. Opportunity", a cartoon car salesman surrounded by live-action cars in a live-action showroom.
  - In this troper's opinion these adverts are so spectacular they cross the line twice, being so memorable its hard to forget what they are advertising. Particularly the one which was only shown in full in cinemas (because it was two minutes long) where the guy drives a wide variety of Honda vehicles across land and sea whilst singing 'The Impossible Dream' and rides up out of a waterfall in a hot air balloon with the Honda logo at the end. Now THAT'S advertising.
- Honda also made an ad called Cog. Its about a two minute commercial of a chain events that you generally see in a Tom and Jerry deathtrap scene, only it was seemingly all filmed in one take and contains absolutely no CGI. It took about 700 tries to get it right. Granted, you will definitely remember it afterward, but nothing about the commercial itself really differentiates what car company made it.
  - If you look very closely, you can see where they fade between two takes. It's been years, so I forget where. And the point of the ads was that the whole Rube Goldberg machine was made entirely of parts of the car they were advertising.
A commercial that took the proverb about "herding cats" to a literal level, by featuring a group of cowboys herding cats across a class Western landscape, commenting on the hazards of the job, and noting how proud it made them when they did their job well. It was funny, well-acted and directed, with great effects to make you think you were looking at "ten thousand shorthairs". They even apparently got several cats to swim across a narrow river. The narrator says, at the end, "This is kind of like what we do..." I cannot, however, remember who "we" are or what it is they do.
- It's an ad for EDS, the computer / consulting company. here.
- They did it twice, actually. Here's Running of the Squirrels
- Make that three times.
Many, many car adverts. Driving around a European city looking for a bar to watch the football in. Strange babies dashing through a darkened hospital at speed. A car that turns into a Transformers-esque robot and skates hockey-style on a frozen lake. A car that pretends to be a dog. Small boys discussing a car, and their parents, in the style of little old men.
- Citroen are the Transformers ads, and the kids are for Vauxhall, you're on your own with the others.
  - The dog was a Renault, I think.
  - The baby dashing through the darkened hospital before crashing through the wall was for the VW Lupo - "Volkswagen's tough little baby" was the tag See Here.
So many Superbowl ads fall into this category that it's a wonder companies spend so much money on them. Then again, they probably get distracted by the fact they're making a Superbowl commercial and forget to actually relate to the product.
- E*Trade played a superbowl ad that was 30 seconds of two guys clapping their hands in time while a monkey danced on top of a bucket. They closed with the line, "Well, we just wasted two million bucks. What are you doing with your money?"
- Lewis Black had a great joke about Superbowl ads like that, something like "there were two rabbits sitting a log, then one went home and hung himself... buy a bike!"
An Australian radio ad featured a jingle: a chorus singing "So easy, Clive Peeters..." over and over again. Not once did it mention who or what Clive Peeters was. (An electronics store, in case you were wondering.)
Guinness ads tend to come in two flavours - Entertaining adverts that are clearly advertising beer, and very artistic adverts. Where the line is tends to be a matter of debatable, although the River of Life ones are probably the former and the current Domino Alley ones are probably the latter, but not as far into the latter as some of their ads have gotten in the past.
An example from Germany: hardware store chain Hornbach (or so I think) had commercials for wooden ceiling panels that showed a couple getting busy, with the man suddenly staring distractedly past the woman and up at the ceiling. Due to a hugely successful comedy act, the very word "Holzdeckenlamellen" has become incredibly funny in the right circles, but no one ever seems to remember what company the commercial was for in the first place.
Ozzy Osbourne's commercial. That's all anyone knows about it. They know it involves cellphones. And Ozzy Osbourne. But they don't know what it's about anymore.
- It's touting a phone with a full keyboard for texting. Still don't know which company, though.
  - AT&T, Samsung Jack. This troper learned it only after buying the phone. Since no one's heard of the phone, I usually mention it as "the one with the Ozzy commercial."
Billy Mays. Particuarly, all I remember from those is "IT TURNS WHITE TO SHOW IT'S READY!!!!!" and "NO MORE BLEACHED CLOTHES!" So much mockery, so little time.
- It doesn't help that he promotes so many damn products.
  - Or that his spoof commercial advertising ESPN 360.com looks and sounds so much like the normal infomercials that if you're not paying attention (and many people phase it out once he shrilly spits out his name), you'd have no idea it's a joke.
  - This troper referred to Billy Mays as "the Oxy-Clean Guy" until, well...
  - And now he's dead...
A recent Levi's ad showed two very young teens apparently about to "do the deed for the first time," slowly undressing and talking about being scared and trusting. Then they turn and jump off a pier into the water. Took this troper half a dozen viewings to realize it was for Levi's.
This troper recalls an honestly hilarious commercial where Snoop Dogg wander around asking various celebrities if they've seen his missing bling, ending with David Bowie. Who, when Snoop leaves, takes the bling out with an evil little smirk to the camera. So surreal this Troper, who loathes comercials, loved it. The product? Who knows...
- XM Satellite Radio.
Somebody did a series of wonderful adverts about a car that said you should ask before you borrow it. One had a couple going into a mad passionate clinch over the dinner table, her dragging him upstairs, handcuffing him and walking off leaving him looking at a note with the slogan on it. Another had a slow breakup song and a woman throwing the man's possessions out of the bedroom window as he came home, looked at the car keys in his hands. Anyone remember the car?
- The Nissan Micra.
Diesel had a series of print ads concerning Global Warming, which featured young, beautiful people in the foreground. While there were submerged landmarks in the background, that were supposed to be the focus, but lost on viewers.
Optimum's recent commercials: Apparently, all they're about are some girls singing the number to call. And some dude rapping so fast you can't tell a word he's saying half the time. But it's mostly the number song that gets stuck in the head. One good example being...
McDonald's also had a period where they had commercials that had literally NOTHING to do with what they sell, merely ending with showing a meal and their picture. One of them included using Line Rider for no freaking reason. Honestly, who was the idiot who thought that would be a good idea to sell their products? In fact, in those commercial they aren't even mentioning the NAME of the company.
- Except that the lines being ridden are full of the 'Golden Arches' that signify McDonald's. If you don't get who the advertisement is for... well, you've obviously never lived in a country with a McDonald's. Which, as far as I know, consists of the following countries, which can be seen at http://www.snopes.com/business/market/mcdonalds.asp But two for free: North Korea and Cuba (assuming you accept Gitmo as American soil, that is).
Anybody remember the one with all the super bouncy balls? Anybody remember the product?
- Sony Bravia, which later used claymation bunnies and whales.
The recent Snickers commercials count. Like the Sir Snacksalot. It features the Snickers candy bar with "Sir Snacksalot" in the same font printed on it. You wouldn't know it's for Snickers unless you look at the candy bar that the guy is eating.
This troper saw a car commercial and went to You Tube to try and find out what song was playing behind it...and couldn't remember which car was being advertised. Turned out to be the Lincoln MKZ and the song was "Major Tom (Coming Home)" by Shiny Toy Guns.
- That would be a cover, as the original song is by Peter Schilling. And his version is homage to the character in the song "Space Oddity" by David Bowie.
An ad about a Peugeot car used the usual format for car commercials (people talking, arrows pointing with descriptions) but replacing all language with pure gibberish, except for the line "try it and you'll understand". While some of the made-up words became Memetic Mutations ("bloblor", anyone?) very few people can remember WHICH car was publicized.
Gatorade had an ad campaign that (presumably) parodied this. The entire video was gray scaled and had various people scroll past doing random hand motions. It ended by saying "what is G?" never once coming close to mentioning the product.
An ad a few years ago had big beasts with headlights and brakes and stuff in a rodeo championship, with one cocky guy falling off and a more careful guy having a perfect ride. Included were herds of these beasts running on the roads and one drinking out of a trough in a gas station. Its point was supposed to be a lecture in SUV safety.
The Vonage commercial featuring the guy in the lobster suit that gets stuck in the revolving door. I have no idea what the woman said, but I remember the lobster suit.
Subversion: Go-Daddy.com. One of the most annoying/brilliant commerical ideas ever; get people's e.g. ''men'' attention with the false promise of girl-flesh, then blueball them by saying the only way to find out what was being hinted at is to go to their website. You always knew who the company was. The problem; what did the company do? I thought it was most/least subtle porno site ad EVER for the longest time. And I still don't know what it's for.
- They're a website host. Yes, they also host non-porn sites, despite what those ads might suggest.
Some...financial investment company, I believe, whose name I no longer remember came out with an ad about a man with an unusual medical condition: he had money coming out the wazoo. (The point of the ad being that unless you had the same "problem", you should consider this company's services.)
There was a British campaign which featured surreal little vignettes, ending with a picture of a soft drink can and words like "Hypno", "Appe", "Trauma", "Bap" and "Dogma". Turns out they were for a drink called... "Tizer". Get it?
One of the most surreal ads ever featured a hamster running furiously in his wheel until it breaks and he dies of boredom. It only ran for a short time and if anybody remembers it today it's for the artificial outrage certain tabloid papers tried to stir up about the portrayal of a dead pet. So what was the product? Levi's.
- They did several ads like that at this time, didn't they? This Troper remembers an ad with a toddler hammering a square peg into a round hole...
Not sure if this counts, but apparently the commercials for Viagra seem dead set on giving the following message: "Viagra. It'll make your day go wrong." I don't even know what Viagra is! ...Not that I could be bothered to look it up, as I prefer mocking the stupidity of commercials than being forced to do research to find out what they were too pretentious to include in the commercial, such as any of the necessary information!
- If this is true, it's hilarious.
- Not to mention that they totally butchered the "Viva Las Vegas" song.
And who can forget that Juicy Fruit gum commercial? You know the one, where some lady's dancing. Remember, it's a commercial for gum, not dance school.
Evony. Oh dear God, Evony.
- For those who don't know, Evony is a game about running a kingdom and protecting it from attacks and such, however, all of their banner ads are pictures of ladies in underwear.
An example from Italy, a 2002 commercial: a woman is in her flat, talking at the phone. She's arguing with her boyfriend, and in the end she shouts "I'll go out and date the first man I meet" and hangs. In another flat, a man is washing dishes and hears all that yelling. When the woman opens the door to go out, the man is there, on her landing, still wearing his apron and rubber gloves◊, ready to become that "first man". His catchphrase "Buonaseeera" ("Good eeevening") become extremely popular. The ad had also a sequel, with the same man and a different woman, and this time the woman says the catchphrase. These commercials were so popular that people started to quote the catchphrase every now and then, the actor was nicknamed "Mr Buonaseeera", the apron and gloves were auctioned for charity... but the actual advertised product was soon forgotten, and the actual ad motto was forgotten too (the phrase intended to be the motto was "Cogli l'attimo" i.e. "seize the opportunity"/"carpe diem"; it advertised a special price for a Fiat car, a car which never appears in the ads, which are always shot indoors!)
"Accrington Stanley? Who're dey?" A lower league English footie club whose obscurity was the reason they were chosen, is who. The advert featured three small boys saying they were going to be the managers of big football clubs in the future. Two of them chose the top clubs; the other one was going to make his team big. I think the ad might have been for milk, but few remember that.
- Actually, Accrington Stanley were chosen because they used to be a big club, before they went bankrupt (in the 1960s or 70s). IIRC, the advert had an older guy telling the boy (a footballer) that if he didn't drink milk he'd only be good enough to play for Accrington Stanley, to which he responded with the quoted line.
The AFLAC duck. I remember the commercials but have no freaking idea what AFLAC does.
- AFLAC is geting a little better. "If you are hurt and can't work, it won't hurt to miss work."
The GEICO commercials are no better. They have a gecko, a caveman, and a wad of bills with googly-eyes glued to it. Just pick a mascot and stick with it already!
- Ironically, the State Farm ads do a better job of connecting Geico to car insurance than Geico's do.
There was a commercial some time back with a little girl standing calmly in a field, while a rhino charges at her. As the camera flips from girl to rhino and back, the message "Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation" is displayed a word or two at a time. At the end, the rhino comes to a halt right in front of the girl, who reaches out to gently touch its horn. All I remember is it was for a telecommunications company; no idea which one.
I saw this Japanese add where two girls where getting saved from some mean guy by a Godzilla sized rubber ducky. I think it was for gay rights.
- The Duckzilla ad was for Coca Cola's Oasis beverage.
And finally, a case of literally being distracted by the shiny: There's a TV ad where animated pipe robots walk around in their city, and it's an ad for some medicine that cleans out your "pipes". After seeing a print ad for it in USA Weekend, this troper was reminded that the brand name is VesiCare.
CHOCO!!! PARTY!!! GOOD GOOD!!!
I saw this ad, probably a PSA or something, back in the late 90's-early 00's (I forgot when), where it shows this high school cafeteria. One girl starts chanting "Al-ge-bra!" and beating on the table. Soon everyone in the cafe was doing it. That's all I remember about it.
There was an ad a few years ago for Microsoft. Jerry Seinfeld sees Bill Gates trying on shoes at a mall shoe store and goes in to help Gates pick out the shoes. When Gates buys them, he produces an ID which features his infamous 1977 mugshot for a traffic violation. They walk out of the mall, with Seinfeld asking Gates if Microsoft is working on edible computers. Cut to the Microsoft logo, end of commercial. It's selling something for Microsoft, but what exactly? It was actually pulled from television precisely because no one could figure out exactly what the advertised product was.
Every year around Christmas time there is an ad that plays on a local tv station in Queensland, Australia. It has a picture of the product with all it's special features and music in the background. Not once does it mention the name of the product, where you can get it or even what it does. But apparently it lasts for 36 hours and comes in 3 different colours.

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