Annual 2015: The worst ads of the year
While 2015 has seen some great campaigns, we’ve also seen some absolute turkeys. Here Mumbrella lists the 10 worst of the year.
Fresh in our memories: Woolworths.
When the 100th Anniversary of the ANZAC lands came by, a nation stopped to morn, but Woolworths stopped to market.
In a poorly timed and clumsily worded attempt to show its own appreciation the supermarket chain decided that appropriating its tagline was the key to the campaign. Fresh in Our Memories was a disaster on every front, from the social media outcry and offended veterans, all the way the dozens of memes utilising the Fresh in Our Memories profile picture generator featuring images of Bill Cosby and Hitler.
Stoner Sloth: NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet.
Like the sloth that stars in it, this campaign moved slowly, generating little interest when it was launched in late November, but a week before Christmas the NSW Government health awareness campaign by Saatchi & Saatchi suddenly came to life. If viral uptake was what the creators were expecting, they got it in spades. But driven by claims by a marijuana research group that they had not been involved in the concept, the uptake of the idea was a classic opportunity for parody and a bewildered tweet from the NSW premier Mike Baird guaranteed this late entrant a place in the worst ads of the year.
Cheap Cheap: Woolworths.
It just wasn’t Woolworths year. While Fresh in Our Memories was probably the standout misstep – let’s not forget this delightful ditty with pop princess Samantha Jade duetting with the Woolies green birds in a recording studio, singing a reworded version of Jackson 5 classic Rockin Robin with the words ‘Cheap Cheap’. Not only a copy of Coles’ ‘Down Down’ strategy but an insult to music to boot.
Little Black Rock: Minerals Council of Australia.
Faced with a collapse in the resources market and with coal’s dirty reputation growing, The Minerals Council and Banjo responded with a campaign extolling the virtues of coal as the amazing little black rock. Highlighting that coal is up to 40 per cent cleaner than it used to be and created light, jobs and economic prosperity, the campaign might have made coal miners feel good about themselves, but proved to be a magnet for the members and parody-makers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKp8W1jBuHw
Squirrel and Possum: Squirrel Super.
What could possibly be the best way to show the world what a trustworthy and sophisticated financial services company you are and that people should entrust you to help them manage their superannuation? It’s hard to go past Squirrel Super’s beer swilling Squirrels in trees discussing nuts. Hard to say more, really.
Gas bill: Nimble.
Blink and you will have missed the cruel exploitation of people who can’t afford to pay their utility bills by fast loan provider Nimble. Nimble by name, nimble by nature, The company swiftly pulled the ad after it was flooded with complaints about the man who could not pay his gas bill because he didn’t get paid for another week. The bearded and bespectacled hipster in the rabbit suit might have picked up a few creative awards for the brand and agency McCann in Melbourne, but the campaign probably deserved myxomatosis.
Multicultural round: AFL
Imitation is the highest form of flattery. Unless, that is, if you happen to be appropriating someone else’s work for an advertising campaign. Clearly the heart of the creative department at Cummins & Partners was in the right place, but its head was in the internet, hunting down filler for the void that was its creative idea for the AFL’s Multicultural round. What they happened upon was some stylistic artwork by Tyson Beck for LeBron James “We Are All Cleveland” Nike ad.
LeBron James – Face of Cleveland – Artwork by Tyson Beck
Blokes: Wallet Wizard.
Small loan companies might have joined the betting agencies as the new revenue stream for the TV networks, but they seem to have taken ownership of excruciating advertising as well.
Promising fast loans, Wallet Wizard has two blokes chatting in the form of the script notes: “Cheerful blokes chatting”, says one, as the other replies “Slightly wistful comment about needing a couple of grand for an overseas holiday”. The mood is then smashed by the loud entrance of an idiot in a superman-type suit promising fast loans for those in need. It’s as cheap as it looks and sounds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AkAGOj7CBg&feature=youtu.be
Vegemite Pizza: Pizza Hut.
When you are a multinational company well versed in the art of marketing, making sure you have all the bases covered on copyright front when using another brand is a given, right?
Well, perhaps not if your name is Pizza Hut. The culinary insult that was Mighty Stuffed Crust Pizza released to celebrate Australia Day was a short-lived dish after the folks at Kraft got shirty about a little something called copyright infringement.
Appropriating the “diamond” symbol from the Vegemite label which has been trademarked since 1923 left Pizza Hut with little choice but to pull the campaign and review all the imagery. Youtube suspended the account “due to multiple third party notifications of copyright infringement”. Not the finest start for the new relationship between Pizza Hut and its new agency, Host.
Proudly Australian: Actron Air.
Need a hook for your marketing, why not try xenophobia? Aussie air conditioning company Actron Air did and it went off like a cracker, but not the way the brand hoped. Trying to highlight it’s local credentials against imported air conditioners, the ad featured the host talking about how the brand didn’t try to be Australian, it was Australian, before cutting to shots of three men, one of them an Asian man dressed uncomfortably in the green and gold.
There’s noting like a little racism to give your brand that pure Aussie glow. Needless to say, the Ad Standards Bureau were far from impressed and duly banned the ad. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Ouch, Ouch, Ouch!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wx1WddlerY
Hahn – experience collector. Surely deserves a mention if only for the fact that one day we’ll look back on this as the moment the inmates took over the asylum and the planners started writing the ads.
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Surprised Woolworths missed out on the hattrick with the ‘soil eating freaks’ ad with Michelle Bridges. It’s been a terrible year for Woolworths.
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It wasn’t just the Woolworths Anzac ad which was a disaster, it was the whole Centenary of Anzac thing itself with its jingoistic hype, morbid imagery and cult-like, glassy-eyed devotion by its followers. It really was a huge w*nk, all that taxpayers’ money p*ssed up against the wall just so a whole lot of sheep could go on a huge nostalgia trip. The worst part about it is that it is only a quarter over, they intend keeping this up for four years, the entire length of World War I.
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Hear hear on Hahn Expeirence Collectors. Utter garbage. When did Aussie beer advertising get so bland and worthy? Tooheys Have a Go another turkey worth mentioning from the same Marketers at Lion
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Get a spell check mate. credibility zero with your acid comments.
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Speaking of spellchecker, #1 – “…a nation stopped to morn.” Don’t you mean “mourn”?
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Spelling errors or not, Ad critic is on the money.
The Hahn work is nothing more than marketing waffle. It makes sense to a bunch of marketing and ad folk who have spent way too much time watching focus groups and too little time in pubs understanding the real world. It is made worse by the fact that the category should be one of the most exciting.
As for me, I am off to climb a mountain, kayak down some rapids and then finish up with a flavourless generic lager to complete my day of ‘experiences’.
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May I nominate an ad for the worst ads of the year ? While playing Words With Friends on the phone, an ad pops up for a new game (Nov ’18), stating:
‘Successful People Play This Game At Least Half an Hour Every Day’. (!!!) This lie/claim surely deserves to be in Worst Ads Awards.
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