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Making a good ad is hard work. You need to craft an attention-grabbing message that instantly transforms an uninterested person (who might even be unaware of your company) into a willing buyer, willing to spend their hard-earned money on your product. Plus, you have a budget, a timeline, and a results-hungry board of directors breathing down your neck with unrelentingly high expectations.

No wonder so many of them miss the mark. However, some are so exceptionally bad, that you can't help but wonder if the people behind them knew what they were doing or were clowning around on purpose. And you can find them on the Facebook group 'Useless, Unsuccessful, and/or Unpopular Real Ads' and the page 'Advertisements that look like sh*tposts.' While these two are separate online projects, their content complements each other so well, we decided to feature them both in the same publication. Continue scrolling and check everything out yourself.

According to Michelle Greenwald, the CEO of Catalyzing Innovation, a global, cross-sector innovation hub, for advertising to be "effective," it must be:

  • Memorable;
  • Resonate with consumers by ringing true and delivering a personally meaningful message, even if the brand has a huge target audience like Nike's;
  • Communicate how the product or service fits into consumers' lives or work to make them better, more productive, happier, and more fulfilled;
  • Stand for values above and beyond the product or service itself;
  • Be inextricably linked to the brand, so the ad won't be attributed to a competitor.

But most of the ads we see on 'Useless, Unsuccessful, and/or Unpopular Real Ads' and 'Advertisements that look like sh*tposts' fulfill just the first requirement.

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Greenwald thinks that great ad campaigns are often founded on deep psychological insights. The messages, delivered in novel and thought-provoking ways, increase the odds they'll be shared virally by brand fans, who further add credibility and awareness.

Furthermore, great campaigns help brands avoid being commoditized and compete only on price. They increase loyalty and good will, and can encourage purchases across more items within the brand umbrella too.

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Lately, 'Useless, Unsuccessful, and/or Unpopular Real Ads' and 'Advertisements that look like sh*tposts' have been featuring a lot of online campaigns. Which is understandable, considering that 2021 was great for digital marketing.

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As work, play and shopping shifted online during the covid-19 pandemic, internet advertising boomed. In America, for example, spending rose by 38%, to $211bn, compared with average annual growth of 21% in the preceding five years.

Social media firms such as Pinterest and Snap at times hit triple-digit year-on-year quarterly revenue growth.

Even giants such as Alphabet (Google’s parent company) and Meta (Facebook’s and Instagram’s), which receive a third and a fifth of the world’s digital-ad dollars, respectively, clocked rates of 50%.

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Corvus
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This would have been true decades ago, when Coke actually contained coke leaf extract.

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Rico Mendez
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

His right arm looks small and shorter, but the distance between him and the bowling ball is 'far' so I think his right arm is actually longer than his left. Very realistic game, 11/10 would play.

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But 2022 is a different story. On July 21st, Snap reported that its sales grew by 13%, year on year, in the second quarter, its most anemic ever. In a letter to investors, its execs confessed that so far this quarter revenue was "approximately flat." The market was spooked, and the company’s share price fell by almost 40%.

The next day, Twitter, which also depends on advertising, reported that its revenue had fallen slightly in the three months to June, compared with last year.

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Corvus
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There was a time when blank cassettes were something valuable indeed... and the fact cigs are openly advertised here is a pretty good hint how long ago it was.

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These numbers triggered concern about the health of online advertising, dragging down the share prices of the biggest industry names.

On July 26th, Alphabet duly disclosed Snap-like quarterly sales growth of 13%, down from 62% in the same period last year. That was less terrible than expected (its market value rose by 8% on the news) but still pretty bad (it remains a bit below what it had been before the Snap bombshell). A day later, Meta said that its revenue declined for the first time, by 1% year on year.

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Upstart challengers like Snap are the most exposed — when marketing budgets get trimmed, advertisers tend to stick to what they know, and they know Google search much better than they do Snap's experiments with augmented reality. The big firms also boast larger and more diverse audiences; Meta serves 10m advertisers globally, compared with Snap’s estimated 1m or less. That protects them somewhat from softening demand. Somewhat, but not entirely.

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K W
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ok seriously these posts make me feel like I'm high. Or the advertisers were high. Or we're all high.

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For years, big ad-sellers shrugged off blips in the broader economy, as many customers came to see online ads as a virtual shopfront that needed to be maintained even in tough times—often at the expense of other ad spending. That has left ever fewer non-digital ad dollars available to be diverted online. In a pinch, advertisers may now, therefore, need to take an axe to their digital billboards. However, I don't think that 'Useless, Unsuccessful, and/or Unpopular Real Ads' and 'Advertisements that look like sh*tposts' will run out of content any time soon.

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Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa)
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Why stop at syphilis? Planned Parenthood will do the full checkup in 15min. Everything from Herpes to HIV. Just get it done it's really easy and cheap.

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Anon Ymous
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's not an ad promoting this as an actual diet though, it's more of an infographic to show you why some kids (especially those with sensory disorders) are resistant to some fruits and vegetables.

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ThatOtherPanda
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I thought it was fine - and that’s when “Magic Organ Cat Scratch Board” hit me

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Ivo H
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That has to be AI generated, it's not possible something so cringy and stupid is created by human.

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The Happy Hijabi
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ok, this kinda makes sense if you're Australian and did Dollarmites when this was a give away. Not sure about the 2008 thing, but if you know the platy bank, it isn't so weird. I've still got mine under the bed.

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ThatOtherPanda
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No rules rules, not nice and no logo are my favourite methods of fixing trust trust issuees ☺️

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Alicia M
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not sure that sleeping your life away is the best advertisement for a car. 😂

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T5n
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some hypothesis about the matter say it was an increase in meat consumption or the use of fire to cook meat .

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Lesbian Sloth
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Honestly, it's aldi. They're ads are always weird- buuut it makes you remember them so it works

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Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa)
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE5RdFFgW0w Human matrass dominoes are a thing apparently.

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OmBoyGanesh
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How to make your AirPods look more like hear aids. Great way to show solidarity with hearing impaired loved ones!

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laura lee
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

the variety is outstanding "we have both kinds, country AND western"

#85

This Was An Actual Bp Ad Why

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Screen_Addict
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Eww... it's a boot with holes(which kinda defeats the point of a boot) and fuzz(which would get soggy because of the holes).

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