Stupid Adverts

[d+dwidow]

Is it just me, or does anyone else get really annoyed with stupid women's adverts that are full of long pseudo-scientific words that mean absolutely nothing. For example, hair dye with PURE COLOUR....what is that exactly?!!! and those ridiculous face creams containing aquaspheres, which rehydrate. ARGHHHH! Do they really think we're that thick?! d+dwidow (am female!!)

[Squirrel]

Yeah, I also wish someone would be brave enough to show an actually different style of advert. The words they use, as you say, are meaningless and the advertisers only use them because, 1) they sound appealing to the buyer or, 2) because everyone else seems to be using the words.

On a related topic, all cosmetics adverts seem to feature out-of-sync voices, all car adverts tell you nothing about what you want to know about the car, and all loan companies are cheaper than all other loan companies by one insignificant statistic that no one understands! No, it is definitely not just you!

If I had my way, I'd make an advert that just had a photograph of the product, its cost and a little bit about what it does, all written in white text on a black background in plain English. And it all just stays there on the screen for twenty seconds without moving. It would get my attention, at least, although it would undoubtedly not last long on the TV due to the apparently massive demand for repetitive adverts.

[d+dwidow]

I totally agree with you squirrel. Why doesn't anyone just say what they mean anymore. It all has to be wrapped up in some poncy visual way - this is probably to detract attention away to the fact that the product is actually a big pile of rubbish and you don't need it!! Just plain and simple please we're not idiots!

[comloulou]

then theres 'new and improved' so is it new or is it old but improved, cant be both! And 'revolutionary new...' im not planning to storm the bastille because of my new washing powder are you? The one that really pi$$e$ me off is the one for the room fragrance where the beautiful asian girl floats through her beautiful white, modern house to see her beautiful blond(yeah blond?) children. Talk about selling a lifestyle, its a spray that goes in the bathroom to cover up poo smells people!!!!

[answerbok]

'exotic botanicals' = foreign plants.
Spafe? Modtro? yes they DO think we are all idiots and i bet everyone hates repetitive ads.. so why do they do it? For weeks i've been seeing 'ovenpride - the one with the bag' , the one what?? I guess they want the product name to stick, through irritation; but me, i would go out of my way to avoid buying anything that was forced upon me through irritation. And fear.. if that's not the pits, to try and scare people into buying a product, usually medicine; thanx i'd rather keep smoking, and spreading fat on my bread if you think i'm frit. And car insurance! - if it wasn't compulsory, I'd manage without because what do all insurance companies do after you've kept your end of the deal but want something back, kick and scream and wriggle, what sort of deal is that - 'calm down, - i'm really a very gullible driver'. :-)

[treaclefight]

particularly when it comes to make up and skincare products, adverts are selling lies. if you consult the experts, you find that the products that actually benefit your skin arent advertised on tv at all, its all done by reputation, the products really do sell themselves because they're so good. if you need tv adverts to sell it, then its not good enough to stand on its own. i have learnt this the hard way, years of wasting my money on the latest stuff :-)

[Headtime]

Totally agree with you. Also hair products like Pantene that show women with the most propesterously glossy hair.

Fact. I have never, apart from in those ads, seen anyone with hair like that. So clearly their products do not achieve the results they promise!

Also, peruse the ingredients on any Shampoo/Conditioner/Bubble Bath. Greatest ingredient? 'Aqua'. I think they mean water. Why don't they just say it? Do they think terming it 'Aqua' will fool us into believing it's an exotic ingredient?

[d+dwidow]

Thank you all for your answers. It's good to know i'm not the only one shouting and swearing at my TV whenever the adverts appear!!! comloulou...that new and improved is fantastic - so they're saying that actually the stuff they sold you before was total rubbish but now they've improved it it'll work even better. Do they realise it's a form of negative endorsement?! probably not. All these adverts just persuade me NOT to buy their product. I wonder if they'll ever wake up to the fact that we're not stupid, we can think for ourselves and they don't have to bombard us with science for us to think it's any good.

[DavidUK]

You've really hit a nerve here, d+dwidow. I agree completely. Whenever an actress says "Because I'm worth it" I can't help shouting back at the TV "No you're not"!

[Phantaxus]

There was a book relesed a few years back called technospeak(i think) would love to get a copy, one of my favourite definitions was: geomorphological modification implement = spade :)

[Janetex]

Most of those ads are for dumbies, anyway, but what about the ads for "sanitary" products showing blue blood instead of red?!?!?!?!?

[rja211077]

I like things like '70% shinier hair'. How exactly is this measured?! has someone come up with a hair-shininess scale or index? is there an instrument which measures the shininess of hair?

[answerbok]

Yea, blue blood, imagine the shocked teenager, when it comes out red! like they don't have enough problems..

[nona suomy]

This is fab - soapbox here I comm. What is with the latest haircare product that say speople took a hair 'test'? I think it's pantene and you see someone runing an implement down a strand of hair. what the F is that - AS IF!

[d+dwidow]

DavidUK - I totally agree with you ...they're just getting paid ridiculous amounts of money to endorse a product they've no idea about and probably will never use. David Beckham's a great one for that, he was in the paper wearing a totally different brand the other week! and that Andie McDowell (?) don't even get me started on her.....!!!

[louisecheese]

i like micro-fruit acids. and things with extracts of peach or cherry essence. And there's a hair colour ad which says it has 'developing milk'. It's PEROXIDE!! Does my head in!

[tracymort]

doesn't andie mcdowell look freaky in that advert? like she's been covered in some mask and told not to move a muscle. weird. i hate most adverts anyway. quite insulted by the new sunnyd max wild one. my son does happen to eat properly and i'd never dream of giving a child (or anyone) that glowing liquid stuff! "no added sugar" they say, what they have added instead is far worse than sugar. your brain is much harder to fix than teeth!

[frop]

This may make me a***ly retentive, but what I hate even more than all the techno-babble and overinflated product descriptions is the Homefries advert, where the slogan is "great ovened, great fried". OVEN IS NOT A VERB. You cannot oven anything! It drives me mad every time it comes on.