Worst of the Week: Office Depot

January 29, 2010 in Advertising, Marketing, Worst of the Week
Tags: Advertising, advertising campaign, bad advertising, Big Box Retailer, Buy Into the Circle, Davis vs. Goliath, koch brothers, office depot, storey kenworthy, triplett office, tripletts, Worst of the Week

This week’s nominee comes from a friend of Ad Mavericks with a keen eye for detail – and a strong “Buy Into the Circle” determination to support local businesses! Have you seen the latest tv spot from Office Depot?: Creative?  Yep.  Clever?  Check.  Well produced?  You got it!  Off the mark?  Absolutely! Just for kicks, [...]

Worst of the Week: DDB and World Wildlife Federation

September 4, 2009 in Advertising, Marketing, Public Relations, Worst of the Week
Tags: AdFreak, bad advertising, bad publicity, Brazil, Cannes International Advertising Awards, ddb, Peta, poor taste, probono, World Wildlife Federation, Worst of the Week

We had several nominees for worst of the week this week, but it’s been awhile since we’ve had such a hands-down “winner”.  Joint congratulations goes out to DDB (one of the world’s largest ad agencies) and World Wildlife Federation. The Brazilian offices of both thought using the tragedy of 9/11 would be a good idea [...]

Worst of the Week: You Pick ‘Em

August 28, 2009 in Advertising, Creative and Design, Online Marketing, Worst of the Week
Tags: admavericks, bad advertising, Central Iowa Business Magazine, Des Moines Radio Group, iowa health, KCCI, KCCI.com, vantus bank

The kids are back in school, the Fair is over, summer is winding down and it’s been a busy week.  With several nominees for worst of the week, we thought we’d keep it light, airy and local this week by commenting on a few of the best nominees: First, a friend of AdMavericks sent this [...]

Worst of the Week: Converse

July 10, 2009 in Advertising, Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media, Worst of the Week
Tags: Advertising, advertising campaign, bad advertising, brand marketing, burger king, chuck taylors, chucks, converse, crowdsourcing, facebook, iowa state university, isu, pizza hut, Social Media

Several suggestions for Worst of the Week rolled in this past week.  I had one suggestion about Pizza Hut’s brand confusion – with “The Hut” – which caused them to actually put out a news release stating that they were not changing their name.  Then, there was a suggestion of the latest ad from Burger King [...]

Worst of the Week: Knoxville Hospital and Clinics

June 26, 2009 in Advertising, Marketing, Social Media, Worst of the Week
Tags: Advertising, advertising campaign, bad advertising, healthcare advertising, healthcare marketing, hospital advertising, iowa hospital advertising, Knoxville Hospital, Social Media, twitter, youtube

Let me start by saying whoever is doing the marketing for Knoxville Hospitals and Clinics is doing a lot of things right.  They have a Facebook fan page with 60 fans as of this writing.  They have a Twitter account with 234 followers that is updated regularly.  They have a website that is much better [...]

Who doesn’t love Earth, Wind, and Fire?

June 16, 2009 in Social Media, The Lessing-Flynn Intern
Tags: bad advertising, earth wind fire, facebook, facebook fan page, facebook pages, fan page, milwaukee brewers, not being on fire, Social Media

Oh, for cryin’ out loud! Another one of my Facebook friends has become a fan of “Not Being on Fire“.  Really? Were they on the fence before announcing to the world and putting everyone at ease that they weren’t some closet pyro? By the way, 939,118 people are fans of “Not Being on Fire”.  That [...]

Wikipedia is Wicked

June 9, 2009 in Advertising, Marketing, Social Media, The Lessing-Flynn Intern
Tags: ad agency web site, Al Gore invented the internet, B2B marketing, bad advertising, Flight of The Navigator, new web site, using wikipedia, Wikipedia, Wikipedia is Wicked

We’ve all used Wikipedia at some point. Just this morning I was trying to think of  a specific 80′s Disney movie about a young boy from Florida and a spaceship. People swore it was ‘Explorers‘ but I wasn’t satisfied until I found ‘Flight of the Navigator‘ on Wikipedia. Thank you Al Gore and the Internet.   [...]

Worst of the Week: PETA

June 5, 2009 in Advertising, Marketing, Worst of the Week
Tags: Advertising, bad advertising, bad PR, Peta, Peta advertising

This might be a little too deep for a Friday, but file this one under “any PR is good PR” philosophy of the radical wing of marketing.  PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) recently tried to further their own cause by piggybacking on the story about the abortion doctor in Wichita who was [...]

Worst of the Week: Burger King SpongeBob Ad

May 8, 2009 in Advertising, Marketing, Worst of the Week
Tags: bad advertising, burger king, marketing to kids, marketing to parents, Sponge Bob, tv spot

Burger King seems to be trying to separate themselves from their competitors by becoming the “bad boy” of the fast food burger industry. The latest is this spot promoting their kids’ meal featuring a Sponge Bob Square Pants toy. Burger King claims they were only targeting these ads to adults, presumably adults with kids who [...]