My worst ad - The Pepto Bismol Dance

I have not seen very many ads in the US that have really shocked or upset me, even though I am sure that there are plenty of them out there. I could instantly think of a lot of really bad German ads, especially on the radio, which are annoying because of the kind of background music, the speaker or the slogans they feature. German TV commercials that I have found particularily annoying were often ones that featured loud music and silly people or that tried to be overly funny and creative. However,if I had to pick my worst US ad, there is one really bad commercial that I saw a few times on TV in the US which I can still remember because it made me think: "How would anybody ever want to buy this product after seeing such a stupid ad?" The ad was for the upset stomach relief medication Pepto Bismol. In this specific TV ad, there were a few people and a Godzilla (what is the sense in that already??) dancing around to the 'Pepto-Bismol-Song' which has lyrics along the lines of 'heartburn, nausea, diarrhea'. The people in the commercial are not only dancing around in a really silly way, they also hold the parts of their bodies that can be affected by the previously mentioned sicknesses. In my opinion, this ad is really one of the worst that I have ever seen, because it shows an uncreative and weak attempt to 'loosen up' the serious topic of an upset stomach and it is trying to make the whole issue seem funny in order to show that ads for medications do not always have to be deadly serious. However, I do not think that this really will attract more customers, especially because it makes people who suffer from illnesses like this look really silly and ridiculous, because in a way they are represented by the silly dancing characters in the commercial. I think that Pepto Bismol tried to be different but by doing that a company should not forget that it still has to stick to its target market (which is who exactly concerning this spot? Godzilla and some crazy looking people?)as well as it has to underline its value proposition. I do not think that this worked out for Pepto Bismol in this particular TV commercial.

Outdoor Advertising

I have already seen a lot of outdoor ads, but there are only very few ones that I can remember. This seems to be one of the disadvantages of outdoor advertising when using 'usual' things like for example signs: people look at them when they drive by and sometimes this time period is really too short to remember anything. This is why outdoor advertising has to really be special and outstanding in order to attract people's attention and stick to their minds especially in a country like the US where there is lots of signs advertising certain products everywhere. There are a few outdoor ads, though, that I can still remember, because they attracted my attention and caught my interest. One of them was an underwater ad for Coke in a pool. One could only see it when one would stand on the diving board, but it looked fun and zappy, just like the product the ad was for. I also once saw a really nice outdoor advertising on the front doors of a store. It said "look inside" and then the sliding doors would open to both directions and one could walk into the store to 'find out'. Of course, I will also always remember the huge billboards on Times Square in New York City, but I do think that for effective advertising something like this is even a little too much, because one does not concentrate on single ads anymore and the whole scenery is just one big impression. Therefore I think it would be more effective if there was only one, maybe two huge billboards on Times Square instead of lots of them. Needless to say that this is impossible, since everybody wants to put their advertising on this exact spot, because millions of people are exposed to it every day. I still do think, though, that it is not as effective as it could be.