The most offensive, most tasteless and downright dumbest ads of the last decade
In a world full of forgettably bad ads, how do a few manage to be memorably bad? Forgettably bad ads have small ideas, if any. A memorably bad ad takes a big idea gone wrong. It also takes a blind spot that prevents the people who were clever enough to have the big idea from perceiving that it has indeed gone wrong.
You know the ads. They are the ones clearly intended to produce uproarious laughter but instead elicit a groundswell of groans. The ones meant to be poignant that are actually perturbing. The ones that make such audacious attempts at grasping for attention, they cross the line of decency and taste and, at times, truth in advertising. The ads that leave consumers screeching, "Make it stop!" and members of the agency community shaking their heads and asking, "What were they thinking?" The ones that, in hindsight, should never have been made.
We reviewed the most controversial creative work of the last decade and chose the 10 that made the most indelible impression. Topping the list is Calvin Klein's notorious 1995 campaign that showed prepubescent teens in their underwear. Fashion companies often stumble toward the cutting edge - and when that's packaged with thinly veiled attempts at social consciousness, as seen in ads from Benetton and Kenneth Cole, everyone loses, including the causes the work is trying to "help." But even the most mainstream and well-respected marketers have made some deluded decisions. Some might argue that any talk value generated by a brand's advertising is beneficial, but it can come at a hefty price.
2:04:00 PM 
|
|
