BADvertising

Americans continue to see advertising that is irritating, annoying and upsetting. It is as if marketers purposefully set out to annoy the American population. Why do we see this so often?  According to Henderson (2008), "all marketers want consumers to remember their ads and this is a proven way to do so. To be irritating is to be memorable and thus effective."

Advertisers set out to do something that will grab your attention. Even if it infuriates you, it still makes an impact. Luke Sullivan, in his 2008 book, “Hey Whipple, Squeeze This,” references an old Charmin ad featuring an old supermarket manager named Mr. Whipple. The ad is cited as one the most hated ads in history . There were groups of people that wanted to boycott Charmin and people even lobbied to remove the ad. But Charmin stuck with it. They had hit badvertising gold and weren’t going to let go. During Whipple’s run (60s-80s), Charmin was number one in sales. Mr. Whipple literally sold over a billion roles of toilet paper.

Oscar Wilde once said, “There is only one thing worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” Just ask Go Daddy if they mind those who are offended by their sexual advertising. It’s offensive to some but Go Daddy is by far the largest company in its category; four times the size of its closest competitor. Word-of-mouth pushes badvertising over some of the top award-winning ads in the super bowl. Which has more YouTube hits: The Montgomery Flea Market commercial or that last years top CLIO award winner? Badvertising will increase your brand recognition and image saliency (the ad’s ability to stick in your mind). It’s cheaper and if you truly advertise badly enough, the ad can spread through social media like wildfire.

--Matthew Ross