First Annual Best and Worst
Advertising Awards (1996)
by John Eberhard

Since I'm in the business of marketing, promotion and advertising, I tend to scrutinize and study ads and ad campaigns. Did that ad work? Did it create any want for the product or service? I do this when listening to the radio, watching TV, reading my mail or looking at billboards on the freeway. So I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the best and worst ads or ad campaigns that have run in the last year or so.

Now here's my disclaimer: This list is based solely on my opinion. If I missed your favorite ads, I'm sorry. Feel free to send me a letter or e-mail and maybe I'll include it in a future column.

10. Ads by Jacoby and Meyers and any other damage claims attorney: If you have the misfortune to be home sick sometime and try to watch TV during the day, you'll see lots of these. "Attorney Joe Smith got me $2.6 million." Maybe it's just me, but somehow I don't think these ads are good for America.

8. Any ad by AT&T or MCI trashing the other: I think campaigns like this generally turn people off. I think these guys should get a life.

9. Any ad by BMW or Lexus trashing the other: " " " " " " "

7. Advanced Clinical Trials: "Are you sad? Lonely? Depressed? If so you may be eligible to take part in a medical research study and be compensated up to 450 dollars." Kind of makes you wonder, what do they DO to those people in those studies?!

6. Tombstone Pizza: "What would you like on your Tombstone?" I thought this campaign was really dumb. Does a tombstone inherently create any desire in anybody for anything? Plus it took a while for me to figure out that this pizza was sold frozen at the supermarket. Maybe I'm just slow.

5. Any commercial for the news: "Joe Blow killed! City Hall burned down! Aliens discovered in New Jersey! Cindy Crawford naked! Film at 11!" I guess gratuitous sensationalism just isn't for me. And does it seem like there are too many news shows?

4. Any perfume commercial, especially the Chanel one where the guy jumps into the pool and disappears as he is climbing out: Is it a woman thing? If I was a woman, would I understand then? Probably not.

3. Any jeans magazine ad that doesn't show jeans anywhere in the ad: Maybe this is some new advertising technology that I'm not aware of. Maybe it's because I'm not from Generation X. Maybe the ad guys just missed the boat.

2. Charter Hospital: "Are you sad? Lonely? Depressed?... You could be suffering from depression... If you don't get help at Charter, get help somewhere." Kind of makes you wonder, what do they DO to those people in those studies?!

1. Carl's Jr. "If it doesn't get all over the place, it doesn't belong in your face." This wins my pick for the worst campaign of the year. I still go to Carl's sometimes, despite the campaign. Who are these ads supposed to appeal to anyway, people who like getting messy? I have even asked some of my friends if this campaign appeals to them, and none of them have liked it. Of course maybe I'm biased by being associated mainly with neat people.

10. Glendale Federal Billboard Campaign: Glendale Federal is cashing in on some of the resentment that customers are feeling toward their big LA-area banks such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and First Interstate, with a very clever series of "anti-big bank" billboards. I like the campaign, but they also need to fill the vaccuum a little bit on themselves. Like, are they really NOT like those other banks? Would I be able to find an ATM? Etc.

9. Motel 6 - Tom Bodett: Hiring Tom Bodett, the low key Canadian as their spokesperson, and crafting a series of clever, tongue in cheek radio ads, was a stroke of genius for Motel 6. The ads are funny. The lowest prices of any national chain, and "we'll leave the light on for you." It works for me. On a recent trip to Santa Barbara, guess where I stayed?

8. GM Value Pricing "Perfect World": Car dealers hate value pricing because they don't make any money. Nonetheless GM has adopted this as their overall theme, and this campaign, showing how life would be, "in a perfect world", is very clever and makes the point about how you don't have to haggle at GM dealerships. Now personally I like the haggle, so I guess that's why I own a Nissan and not a GM car.

7. Energizer Bunny: This is an enduring icon for our age, the Energizer Bunny just rolling along, despite the best attempts of Darth Vader, Wily Coyote, etc. Who do you like better, the Energizer Bunny or the Duracell robot family?

6. IBM Multi-national: IBM has been running ads showing people in different countries (with subtitles) talking about their computers, and always showing people who you would not expect to even use computers. Like the nuns talking about the OS2 operating system and the head nun talking about how she's been dying to "surf the net." Then she says "Oh, my beeper!" Great stuff. Windows is still kicking their butt, but this campaign is a great effort.

5. Windows 95 Launch: How could you be anywhere on planet earth in the last year and not have heard about the launch of Windows 95? This one gets included just by shear volume of communication, which was impressive. I'm a Mac user otherwise I'd probably be impressed with the product too.

4. SPRINT Dime Lady: I'm not a big Candice Bergen fan but this is a great campaign. The "dime a minute rates" concept is very easy to understand and remember. Plus the campaign is funny.

3. Moneygram: This is series of ads where college kid Randy is constantly calling his Dad asking him to wire money using Moneygram. I don't have a college kid but if I did I'd probably use Moneygram. Or tell him to get a job.

2. Arrow 93.1 Billboard: There's a billboard on the 10 freeway West shortly before the 101, which has a display showing the name of the artist that's currently playing on 93.1. Beatles. Stones. Phil Collins. More than once I've switched stations while driving by.

1. Got Milk?: These ads are some of the most imaginative I've seen in years. Especially the Aaron Burr one, which won an award. In the ad industry if something wins an award, the joke is that the ad agency will probably get fired, because the ad was overly "creative" and so probably didn't communicate anything. But this campaign has succeeded in being very creative and kind of makes you thirsty too.

Well that's it. Hope you enjoyed looking at the best and worst of the past year or so. It was actually quite a bit easier to pick the good ones than the bad ones, much to my surprise. I guess the good ones stay in your mind more easily. If I missed your favorites ones again I'm sorry. Now we can both start keeping a list for next year.

© 1996-2002 by John Eberhard