He’s not dead, he just said ‘woo!’

What is remarkable about this parody of Dove’s Evolution film is that it is a spot-on remake of the original. In fact it begs the question if maybe more work went into this versus the original, since there are either prosthetics, computer graphics, or a series of look-alike stand-ins being used during the ‘fattening up’ portion of this video.

This video apparently came from TuffSheet.com, who have also co-opted the URL ‘campaignagainstreallife.com’ as a counter point to Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty site.

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Officially considered NSFW by the AMA

This ‘commercial’ is actually a skit from Talk Show with Spike Feresten. First, a lemon crashes through the wall and starts a ‘lemon party’. Then, something horrible happens.

While this is funny stand-alone, some unfortunately hasty research reveals this refers to yet another Internet shock site I don’t recommend anyone visit. Here’s some reading on shock sites if you have been lucky enough to have avoided seeing them so far.

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Please go about your business like I’m not watching

Nothing is quite as horrifying as pulling your blinds open and finding someone staring back at you. When I do this I always try to have some kind of omelet sandwich to give the person to calm them down. They will usually let me watch them for a few minutes after that until things get weird.

These ads for Burger King’s “eggnourmous” omelet sandwich have been made somewhat famous on the Internets, and the King commercials seem to have an odd staying power.

Burger King should pay people to dress up like the king and sneak up to car windows during bumper-to-bumper traffic. It would be great brand identification because when the driver had the hell scared out of them they would remember the commercial. This will equal profit.

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No still frame of this spot was remotely safe for work or even an Amsterdam street corner window

This spot is a parody of the Paris Hilton Carl’s Jr. ad in which Paris bends over and shows us her burger. In this video a fat nasty man dressed like Paris Hilton reenacts her cavorts and capers. The hook? Getting the right person for the job is important, that’s why you need Accolo to do your recruiting, or else you might end up with a hairy pervert in your garage doing a seductive dance under soap suds.

It’s a pretty good attention-getter and should be an instant meme for at least a day or so.

My problem is one I’ve brought up before: just because something is so nasty it gets passed around the Internet doesn’t mean it will magically result in good advertising. It could even open the door up for bad branding. Crusty old company presidents may not find this kind of advertising as appealing as a hip young web-savy intern in the HR department. If the intent was to create an Internet meme for marketing purposes, it seems unlikely they will hit the kind of people to whom they need to get their message.

As far as parodies go, when you get over the fact that this is a fat man in women’s underwear acting sexy, it’s not very good. It’s pretty much the entire Carl’s Jr. ad shot-for-shot, which isn’t that original. It does make a pretty good statement about the absence of any actual content in the Paris Hilton ad; take away Paris Hilton and there is no content at all in the commercial.

Taking a more critical look at this parody, I don’t see any irony or wit about their approach. The original spot could provide a wealth of mockery and this nasty parody barely shows any effort.

The best litmus test is: do you want to watch it again? After ten or twenty viewings, my answer is no, probably not.

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Click for the :45 Base London spot @1 MB, Quicktime

The theme for this weekend is filthy filthy underwear spots. Most of the spots I’m presenting aren’t that awful, and have become rather effective memes. Where the ads succeed in being catchy, however, they fail in the ever critical “Hey I wonder what company that was for?” department. If you win acclaim but you don’t push the good or brand, you aren’t doing your job. Also I call into question the notion that popularity on the Internet is a sign of an effective advertisement.

This first ad I completely ruin the end of with the still frame. A smoking hot woman ties a sexed up kid to the bed and begins to take off her underwear.

The she straps on a WMD and turns around. He detaches his arms and is cared for by some nice men in a bar or something.

The ad is funny, and chances are you’ve probably seen it already. But what are they selling? What is the name of the company? When the shock value wears off, is this the lingering image you want to leave viewers when they think of your lingerie company?

Click for the 1:30 Provocateur spot @3.5 MB, Quicktime

The next spot is the critically acclaimed ad for Agent Provocateur. Why is it critically acclaimed? Well, instead of having a woman just dance around in lingerie, she dances around in lingerie while a scary old woman laughs at men in the viewing audience getting a boner.

The ad succeeded in being a critical success. But why is the scary old woman in the ad laughing at my boner? I’m not sure if the idea is supposed to be “See, men get aroused by our lingerie even if they see a scary old woman along with it” or the idea is “Hey here’s some sexy lingerie..and now for no reason an old scary woman laughs at your manhood!”

Looking back at this ad through the fog of time, the only thing effective about it is having a hot woman riding a mechanical bull. And again, does the viewer remember who this ad is promoting? This ad did a good job promoting the advertising agency who put it together. The advertiser seems like an after-thought.

Click for the 1:00 MTV Asia spot @2.5 MB, Quicktime

This last spot isn’t really an ad for women’s underwear, but does feature ladies’ undergarment. It’s a bumper for MTV Asia. It has made its rounds through the Internet for being so darn funny and gross.

Aside from being funny, it’s a good illustrative tool when compared to the other two lingerie ads. It, like the two ads, became popular enough for its shock value to be passed around the Internet. Also like the other two spots, it’s pretty much a mini-movie. It’s not going to convince anyone to buy anything. And the MTV Asia spot doesn’t need to. If you saw it on TV it would be because you were already tuned into MTV Asia.

Likewise the appeal of the two lingerie commercials is mainly limited to the watching of the spots, at least for anyone stumbling across them on the Internet.

Just because an ad becomes popular doesn’t mean it is doing its job. The dancing naked Asian man proves this. It was 100% necessary to put him there to prove this point. Otherwise I would have jumped at the chance to not put him in.

I swear.

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