Badvertising

There's a radio commercial I hear quite a bit that annoys me everytime. It's for a local Lexus dealership and it talks about a deal where you can get free valet parking at a local mall if you buy a Lexus. I don't really see anyone being swayed by something like that, but that's not the part that annoys me, it's at the end of the commercial where they say, "there's never been a better reason to buy a Lexus." Really? Does Lexus corporate know about this? Because if the best reason EVER to buy a Lexus is that you get free valet parking at a mall, then their cars must really suck, and they should probably drop the price down some. Or maybe people could just buy a Hyundai and use the difference to pay for valet parking.

Every time I hear this stupid commercial, I'm convinced it will be the last, and someone will realize how bad that makes their cars sound, but no, I guess car dealers aren't terribly bright.

NBA Finals Commercials

So I'm sure you've all seen these split screen playoffs commercials that have been running all through the playoffs for what seems like the last six months or so. They have a new one in the Finals with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird which would be really neat except for some reason when seeing only half of these guys, they look really old and pathetic. Or maybe it's just seeing them in this unique way where I've so far only seen players in their prime. Anyway, as soon as someone saw the finished product, they should have scrapped it, because it's sad and not much else.

Badvertising

I couldn't find anything about these commercials on the internets, so hopefully they're just figments of my imagination. But lately, I've heard a few Corona beer radio commercials that are called something like Great Moments in Timeout History or some shit. They seem to be a lousy attempt to create something like Bud Light's Real Men of Genius commercials, which by the way I liked better when they were called Real American Heroes, but people may get confused and think that they were comparing the accomplishments of Mr. Giant Foam Finger Maker with those of police and firefighters on oh my god September 11th, or god forbid The Troops. Anyway, so if the concept of Great Moments in Timeout History isn't bad enough, the supposedly amusing little anecdotes are awful, not funny, not memorable, and the only reason I remember them at all is because I've thought to myself after each one how bad they were. I had hoped to be able to link to an example, but like I said, I couldn't find one on the internets, so maybe, hopefully, they are just in my imagination.

But that brings me to another thing that I noticed a while ago when looking for Doritos on that site. Who the fuck is designing these websites now? When I go to the Doritos website, or the Corona website, it's to find out information about their products, not to be entertained, play games, or join some sort of social network. I hope this isn't a trend that I'm just starting to notice, but both of these sites suck, and made it difficult for me to find out information about their actual products, which seems a little stupid.

So has anyone else heard these stupid Corona commercials? And what about this disturbing trend in website design? Anyone else noticed that?

Product Placement

I constantly hear people whining about product placement in movies and TV, but it's never bothered me. There was a perfect example of why on Heroes tonight. Nikki/Jessica gets a letter and goes to open it, and it's clearly in a FedEx envelope. Only, instead of saying FedEx, it says SendEx. How this is any better than just leaving it FedEx, which is both easier and more realistic, is beyond me.

Even the Nissan Versa in this show, which I've seen people complain about, and which is clearly superfluous to the plot doesn't bother me, because all the references to it fit nicely with (and actually helped develop) Hiro's character.