Six Great Commercials for Stupid Products

A few weeks ago I talked about memorable commercials, and one of them was for the Colgate Pump. I noted that it was a really good commercial…for a really stupid product. It doesn’t even exist anymore. For the record I had the Crest Pump and it was..Ok I guess.


Don’t remember it? Here is the ad:

But this product wasn’t the first time, or the last time, a great ad was made for a product that turned out to be a dud. Of course a new product needs heavy advertising but sometimes the great commercial is about the only good thing about the product, which vanishes never to be heard from again.


Here are five examples of what I mean:




New Coke

The bottom line, this was HUGE. This was supposed to be the best thing ever! Until people tried it. Man was it bad, I am not so proud to say I tried this crap and hated. It was so bad Coca Cola had to apologize, and return the original formula as Coke Classic. But we still have the ads. The most memorable features Bill Cosby but since that isn’t a wise idea to share these days, let’s watch this McDonald’s ad touting how wonderful New Coke is.



Since we’re on the subject of McDonald’s….



McDlt

The McDLT was the lamest idea ever, but this commercial has everything! It’s just full of 80’s cheese with singing, dancing, a young Jason Alexander with hair…awesome ad! To bad the McDlt was basically a flop. It did what the ad says, it kept the hot side hot and the cold side cold. So you had to put your sandwich together…yeah, no.. I mean is that a big complaint from people? Guess not because it didn’t last long. Of course I could do a whole list of just McDonald’s ads as examples here. The Arch Deluxe anyone? Or spaghetti? Yes that was a real thing.

Crystal Pepsi

So to be fair, Pepsi was hardly innocent with the bad ad campaign department. Pepsi came out with Crystal Pepsi in 1993 and the ads for were just fantastic. Even getting a clever parody on Saturday Night Live. To bad the product sucked. Clear Pepsi? Woopee. And did it have to taste like crap?  This wouldn’t be Pepsi’s only flub, including poorly considered ads featuring Michael Jackson and Madonna, but it’s the one I most remember. Seriously, watch this ad it’s freaking awesome!

Taco Bell
Movie tie-in’s are huge. Seems like every movie that comes out has to have a Happy Meal tie in or some other toy. Sometimes these tie-in’s get so carried away the movie’s logo is on everything! But what happens when a company spends millions on ads for a movie which is a flop? You get what happened with Taco Bell back in the 90’s. The ads were for the Godzilla movie coming out..which was awful! But the ad campaign was very clever including this really good Taco Bell ad featuring the little chihuahua. To bad the ad is for an awful movie, such bad a movie that the ad is probably more remembered than the movie is!

Kodak Photo CD System

Ah yes, what a stupid stupid idea. This was when Kodak was fighting the computer craze (little did they know that in 1993 it was just starting, digital was still far off). People were putting pictures on computers, so to compete they came out with a machine which could play your photo cd’s. Yawwwnn. Yeah how many time are we supposed to just sit there watching slide shows? It’s OK on computers because we can play with the pictures, adjust them, and of course share them. But just sitting and staring at the TV? Ooh. My favorite part of the ad is when the announcer says the player also plays audio CD’s. Yeah because that makes it worth buying

Stove Top Microwave Stuffing

I love this ad, it’s a great little melody and real memorable. To bad the product their selling is really stupid. Stove Top stuffing is one of my favorites, and it isn’t exactly hard to make. So what would be the point of making a version specifically designed for microwaves? Here’s a little lesson in marketing kids. Why did Microwave Stuffing fail when Easy Mac succeeded? Because kids may like to make mac & cheese on their own. What kid wants to make stuffing? (The one product that failed that I don’t get is the Betty Crocker Microwave Cupcakes. Those were yummy!) It makes no sense, it’ll take three minutes instead of the three and half it usually takes? So what? And if it did taste different then we have the New Coke syndrome again. Today you can find directions on the regular box to cook the stuffing in the microwave if you really want to. People weren’t stupid enough  to think this was anything different. But I still like the ad.

Yes there are plenty more and maybe I will be back sometime with another bunch of great ads for stupid products. But for now, all this talk about stuffing is making me hungry! Happy Thanksgiving my friends!