Is The Most Annoying Super Bowl Ad Ever Also The Most Effective?
By Roger Dooley
Is it possible that an ad that has made “most annoying of all time” lists and been dubbed the worst ad ever actually be one of the most engaging and effective?
We all have ads that make us cringe, or even reach for the remote. My personal least-favorites are “screamer” ads, usually run by local businesses like mattress or furniture stores. These channel switch-inducing ads have a spokesman (it’s always a male spokes-screamer) who yells at the camera to announce the store’s latest sale.
It’s not just local firms that create annoying commercials. The CareerBuilder “Hey, Dummy” 2009 Super Bowl ad first aired five years ago, but continues to irk viewers. In case you missed it, or are suppressing unpleasant memories, the video is here. (CareerBuilder is now a unit of Gannett Co.)
The ad recounts one woman’s workplace frustration in such an excruciating way that viewers experience their own pain.
Even though critics widely panned the ad, and few viewers were likely to find it more enjoyable than Dalmatian puppies and Clydesdales, neuromarketing firm Innerscope Research found something to like about the ad.
Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerdooley/2015/01/30/annoying-effective/