History Main / PublicRelationsAd

See also WeDontSuckAnymore and WeCare.

* BASF's recent talks of their "green" innovations, and how that's made possible by chemicals. (Which, considering how frequently "All-Natural" is used as a buzzword, means that chemicals (and by extension chemical companies like BASF, Dow, and DuPont) have a bad image that they want to smooth over.

** During the extended period when GE ''owned'' the network, it seemed like they used to just throw these on Creator/{{NBC}} when they couldn't sell the airtime to someone else so they don't get suspiciously heavy on [=PSAs=] and program announcements (since even the business wonks and ''[[Series/ThirtyRock 30 Rock]]'' fans don't generally make an ''immediate'' association between NBC and GE, and the rest of the population had no clue). These ads have been seriously reduced in number ever since Comcast completed its buyout of the Peacock Network in 2013, so it's likely this is what was going on.

* Parodied on ''TheSimpsons'', with a SuperBowl [[SuperBowlSpecial ad]] for [[ChristianityIsCatholic the Catholic Church.]] A guy drives down a lonely stretch of rural desert road, and goes to a gas station, where 3 sexy, scantily-clad women come up and wash his car, with a close-up of the bustiest woman's...cross necklace. A voiceover comes on and says, "The Catholic Church: we've made a few...changes."

* The ''[[AmericanNewspapers Washington Post]]'' and the UsefulNotes/WashingtonMetro get a number of ads from the defense industries. There's good reason for this: anyone who has any kind of say in the approval of defense contracts in DC reads the ''Post'', and many of them--including some ''Congressmen''!--ride the Metro to work every day.

Alternatively, such commercials may be intended to show off the success of the company, to induce people -- including perfectly ordinary people -- to invest in the company, buy stock, or submit their resumes. So, no, you can't buy your own, personal jumbo jet, but you ''can'' buy a little piece of Boeing.

Alternatively, such commercials may be intended to show off the success of the company, to induce people -- including perfectly ordinary people -- to invest in the company and buy stock. So, no, you can't buy your own, personal jumbo jet, but you ''can'' buy a little piece of Boeing.

* In the Washington, DC area you get weird radio commercials for very specific defense industry proposals to the government which make little sense to 99.9% of the population ("General Defense's BARGLE-X system meets all 613 Air Force mission requirements!"). Since government contractors have strict rules on how they can communicate to the government with proposals, this is a legally-acceptable extra way to talk to the dozen or so people on the selection committee: broadcast it to 4 million people in the DC area. In fact, WFED, a Washington radio station consisting of nothing but dull news about government activities which only government employees might find interesting, exists solely for this very reason. Additionally, ads of this general kind are pretty common on the UsefulNotes/WashingtonMetro--particularly ads bought by foreign countries to drum up support in the nation's capital, probably hoping that the commuting bureaucrat(s) handling some deal or other benefiting them will see it and have them in the back of their minds.

* In the Washington, DC area you get weird radio commercials for very specific defense industry proposals to the government which make little sense to 99.9% of the population ("General Defense's BARGLE-X system meets all 613 Air Force mission requirements!"). Since government contractors have strict rules on how they can communicate to the government with proposals, this is a legally-acceptable extra way to talk to the dozen or so people on the selection committee: broadcast it to 4 million people in the DC area. In fact, WFED, a Washington radio station consisting of nothing but dull news about government activities which only government employees might find interesting, exists solely for this very reason. Additionally, ads of this general kind are pretty common on the UsefulNotes/WashingtonMetro--particularly ads bought by foreign countries to drum up support in the nation's capital.

* In the Washington, DC area you get weird radio commercials for very specific defense industry proposals to the government which make little sense to 99.9% of the population ("General Defense's BARGLE-X system meets all 613 Air Force mission requirements!"). Since government contractors have strict rules on how they can communicate to the government with proposals, this is a legally-acceptable extra way to talk to the dozen or so people on the selection committee: broadcast it to 4 million people in the DC area. In fact, WFED, a Washington radio station consisting of nothing but dull news about government activities which only government employees might find interesting, exists solely for this very reason.

* IBM used to run adverts for servers and other such expensive technological arcana that the vast majority of the population would never want, understand or need.

** It seems like they used to just throw these on Creator/{{NBC}} when they can't sell the airtime to someone else (since GE used to ''own'' NBC--they sold the rest to Comcast--it can't cost them very much), so they don't get suspiciously heavy on [=PSAs=] and program announcements (since even the business wonks and ''[[Series/ThirtyRock 30 Rock]]'' fans don't generally make an ''immediate'' association between NBC and GE, and the rest of the population has no clue). These ads have been seriously reduced in number ever since Comcast completed its buyout in 2013, so it's likely this is what was going on.

* Toyota's been running a lot of these since their accelerator issues. A major feature is that they're heavy on footage of older Toyotas (with all-mechanical throttle linkages...) One wonders why: GM's been featuring footage of their decades-old greatest hits since TheEighties, and look at where its' gotten them...

** Not ''now'', anyway. But, when they start selling natural gas or hydrogen - Shell has a service station in Washington, D.C. that sells hydrogen - they're going to want you to know that they're not just oil. Sort of like how cigarette companies advertised to kids so they'd be aware when they hit 12 or 13, what brand of cigarette to beg someone to buy for them.

An oddity in the world commercials -- an ad for something that neither consumers nor even most businesses would have any reason to buy (if they could afford it in the first place), or for a company that primarily makes such products. Frequently seen on cable news channels.

** "Cotton, the fabric of our lives." Thank goodness that some fabric conglomerate put together this ad campaign; from now on, [[SarcasmMode I'll check the material of every piece of cloth I purchase to make sure that there's SOME cotton in there,]] at least. Seriously, though, is there a marketing executive out there that seriously thinks some fifteen second song about [[UnfortunateImplications touching and feeling somebody's clothing]] is going to change anyone's behavior?

** They were also running ads saying "Don't complain that gas prices are too high. If you own stock in a mutual fund you probably own stock in an oil company, so it's good for your investment portfolio for us to make gobs of money." Until the price of gas plummeted.

* Parodied on ''TheSimpsons'', with a SuperBowl ad for [[ChristianityIsCatholic the Catholic Church.]] A guy drives down a lonely stretch of rural desert road, and goes to a gas station, where 3 sexy, scantily-clad women come up and wash his car, with a close-up of the bustiest woman's...cross necklace. A voiceover comes on and says, "The Catholic Church: we've made a few...changes."

*** "Got Milk?" is especially strange, because that was a U.S.-wide ad campaign that was funded by the dairy processors of only one state (California). Though, to be fair, California produces more milk than any other state.

* The ''[[AmericanNewspapers Washington Post]]'' and the UsefulNotes/WashingtonMetro get a number of ads from the defense industries.

** It seems like they just throw these on Creator/{{NBC}} when they can't sell the airtime to someone else (since GE owns NBC, it can't cost them very much), so they don't get suspiciously heavy on [=PSAs=] and program announcements (since even the business wonks and ''[[Series/ThirtyRock 30 Rock]]'' fans don't generally make an ''immediate'' association between NBC and GE, and the rest of the population has no clue).

See also WeDontSuckAnymore.

* In the Washington, DC area you get weird radio commercials for very specific defense industry proposals to the government which make little sense to 99.9% of the population ("General Defense's BARGLE-X system meets all 644 Air Force mission requirements!"). Since government contractors have strict rules on how they can communicate to the government with proposals, this is a legally-acceptable extra way to talk to the dozen or so people on the selection committee: broadcast it to 4 million people in the DC area. In fact, WFED, a Washington radio station consisting of nothing but dull news about government activities which only government employees might find interesting, exists solely for this very reason.

** In point of fact, the Metro often gets a large number of this sort of ad, since so many riders are in some way connected to the government. Advertisers range from pro-Israel lobby groups to the freight train industry association to medical organizations.

* The General Electric "We bring good things to life" campaign is somewhere between a stock pitch and an ad for the appliances that the company makes. Advertising GE washing machines is one thing, but who's going to buy a locomotive or jet engine?

* Several oil companies (BP, Chevron, [=ExxonMobil=]) have recently been running ads noting their innovation in alternative sources of energy. Of course, the vast majority of consumers don't buy anything besides oil from them.

* The Washington Post and the DC Metro get a number of ads from the defense industries.

* Presumably this is the reason Philips ran ads for high-end medical equipment all over British TV in the noughties.