Commercial Broken

Ever watch a commercial and think “How the heck did *this* get approved?!?!?”

Below is a short collection of commercial snafus. Each of these went through the many layers of creative and corporate approval before being released in their obviously flawed form.

… I still don’t have a clue how that happens!

Swipe-Side-Down

In this entire series of commercials, Tina Fey repeatedly swipes her American Express card upside-down. Here’s just one example:
https://youtu.be/-9GVTx45wrU

(and, yes, other credit card ads have been guilty of the same error)

No Racing For You!
Selling a blood-thinning drug and want to make it look exciting?
Why not get race car driver Brian Vickers to sell it?!?!?

In this spot, Brian Vickers (along with Arnold Palmer and Kevin Neeland) are all extolling the virtues of Xarelto. There’s only one problem – when they show Brian Vickars, the race car driver, they also have the following disclaimer:
“As with any blood thinner, Brian had to stop racing while taking Xarelto.”

Kinda defeats the purpose, dontcha think?

Here’s the full spot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFvzRGm8F0Y

… and click here for an ESPN article about how he had to stop racing for 3 months …

Eminence Fail
GMC has three new commercials about accuracy and precision. That’s fine. Except the music behind the ads is The Who’s “Eminence Front”. A song about rich people using drugs, and hiding behind an eminence front.

All I hear when I watch this spot is the lyrics “It’s a put on…”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MxBCRqak-I

Crap-y Product
Sometime in 2010, McDonalds introduced a brand new wrap sandwich called (wait for it) McWrap!
So, I’m assuming that no one in any meeting actually *said* the product name out loud…
Say it with me: McWrap (slower) Mac Crap (yeah, that’s the ticket)

Sample here (sheesh):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm2sUG_q_Fo

Cannibal Breakfast
This one comes from our friends at Jimmy Dean. Wish I had the video, but the copy is priceless.
It features real Jimmy Dean employees at the factory touting the virtues of their new breakfast offering.

… Just watch out for that third employee:

Employee 1: “Jimmy Dean omelets are made from real eggs, ‘cause that’s how you make an omelet.”

Employee 2: “You can take a Jimmy Dean wrap anywhere, except places they don’t allow Jimmy Dean wraps, and that’s no-where you want to be.”

Employee 3: “The eggs come from real chickens, the cheese comes from real cows, and the sausage comes from Jimmy Dean.”

Yikes!!!

Dishonorable Mentions
Although there are far too many bad spots to mention, I have to bring up the special “Apology” category. That’s where a company rattles off a litany of excuses on why you should trust them – even though they’ve really screwed things up.

The losers are:

• BP (commercials about how great the gulf is doing now)
• SeaWorld (how much they care for their orca whales)
• Koch (how it’s such a wonderful company to work for)
• Clean Coal (seriously? have you ever handled a lump of coal?)
• Fracking Gas (sure, I’d love more chemicals in my tap water – and more earthquakes.)
• American Cars (hey! we’re back! and you might actually want one!)

All content written and voiced by Joe J Thomas online at: JoeActor.com