Ads Gone Bad

My father spent much of his career in advertising, and as a result, I tend to scrutinize ads and commercials more critically than the average consumer. Here are a few that have recently caught my eye:


This is part of a subway ad for some legal/political thriller by David Baldacci, i.e. the poor man's John Grisham. Baldacci is your classic airport author, which is why I question the pull-quote selected for this ad, taken from a Booklist review of one of his recent books:

"When Baldacci is on fire, nobody can touch him."

I can't help but read that statement literally and think of this:


I'm not saying this is what Booklist was implying, but it amuses me nonetheless. And makes me think, "well, yeah, when I'm on fire, no one can touch me either." Big deal, Baldacci.

Next offender: CVS

This woman looks like she just saw Jesus and he bought her a new car. Personally, when I'm at CVS, I'm usually annoyed. Because something ran out (toilet paper, anti-depressants) and now I have to spend money to replace it. I also always think about the good old days when I was a kid and had parents to buy me shit like toothpaste and replace burned-out lightbulbs. The stuff I buy at CVS is stuff I need, not stuff I want or like to spend money on.

Now, this whole ad campaign bothered me from the get-go:

I get that Pom Wonderful is trying to market itself as a life-saving elixir, but making the product look like blood really grosses me out. Unless they are trying to corner the vampire demographic, I think they're off-base here. Pondering my mortality in the juice aisle of Stop 'n Shop is not a wonderful thing.

I discovered this one online:

No, these women are not striking whimsical poses in celebration of the Republican administration's failure to appeal Roe v. Wade. They are rejoicing about a woman's right to wear casual knits and sportswear. Monumental. Margaret Sanger would be so pleased to see how far we've come.

Finally, I saw this on my friend Ari's blog, and had to include it because it's just too funny. Check out this unfortunate ad placement:


Somebody might have lost their job over that one. Heh.