Adverts That Do More Harm Than Good

by Alex J Allen

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There have been a couple of adverts on TV recently that seem to be trying to make the best of a pretty bad situation. Take the Weetabix Week, for example. There's a clear admission of a poor product if ever I saw one. So basically, what you're saying, is that if you add lots of nice things to mask the taste of your product which tastes, and might as well be cardboard, then it tastes good. Well there's a surprise! I'm sure I could could dip my newspaper in treacle and it would taste delicious, but that would be ridiculous. I love the 'camcorder style' adverts with some typical, everyday family who see fit to accompany their Weetabix with all manner of lavish items. 'Today I'm trying it with lobster and truffles!' My experience of Weetabix is a soggy, disintegrated pap sitting in a pond of semi skimmed milk. I refuse to be duped in to paying another £1.79 and buy in to this facade that actually, we're all missing out and it's really delicious! I'm sure when I'm 60, my cholesterol is through the roof and I'm forced to give up all foods with any taste, colour or texture (so just porridge, then), I'll be eating my two Weetabix every morning, but until that sad decline I'm staying well clear.

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Revels did(do?) an advert where two people eat them, Russian Roulette style, until one of them eats a coffee flavoured one and lost. Of course, quickly after that advert was released, they released that that was a fairly conclusive statement that their product didn't taste very good, so now there's a bit tacked on the end that says 'of course, everybody is different!' So, what? Revels have just become the politic center of the confectionery world? They can appeal to everyone, the coffee crowd, the orange crew! Nevermind the fact that if I like Malteasers but not the weird coffee ones, I'll just go and buy some Malteasers. It's not a compromise the market has ever forced me to make! I can have it all! A whole bag of Malteasers just for me! If the advert is anything to go by, half the Revels sales seem to be for use in oriental betting rings. Credit to all advertising executives involved, after all, you can only work with what you're given, right?