Was inspired by the fact that Fair Go is doing the ad award thing again and thought I would make some nominations.

Seen as I spend more time in my car listening to the radio, then at home watching TV, all of my “bad ads” are from the stations that I listen to. The thing with radio ads is that you can’t fast forward them like you can if you are watching something taped on TV. Best you can do is turn the sound off, wait a bit and then turn it on again. A risky strategy but in some cases it is all that will keep you sane.

My worst ever radio add is the one for Rob Loader motors. It used to run twice within the space of a minute and featured a guy saying “ROB LOADER MOTORS” in the most annoying voice imaginable every two seconds or so. As in they would make a statement about their cars and then go “ROB LOADER MOTORS”. This ad was so bad, that I eventually contacted Rob, of “ROB LOADER MOTORS” fame (he is a really nice guy by the way) and he assured me that their advert had won awards. I could not believe it! Some people actually liked it. Guess this just goes to prove Dzeni’s Theory.

Another ad which really gets on my nerves is one for a “drop in” panel beating service. The ad in question features a woman (clearly insane) who is trying to get her dog to “drop it”. The dog in question is barking its head off. The woman is getting more and more frustrated. The idea here is that “you don’t get that kind of hassle when you use our drop in centre”. Only someone forgot to tell these people that if a dog is barking, then it can’t be holding onto a ball at the same time!!

And then there are the cliches / stupid phrases

There are plenty more such gems just begging for your attention. My question is, why do advertisers treat us as if we are idiots ??? Some days, the only thing for it is to pop in a music tape! (my car does not have a CD player – deep sigh)