Adiocracy

Seriously. A bag of rice. The only link whatsoever to the visual: The word ‘arrived’.

This one’s a classic. We’ve been showing it to ad students since it first ran and no one’s ever guessed it (if you’re one of them, please keep this to yourself). Sorry, we can’t give you any copy clues. You’ll see why when we reveal the product next Tuesday. 

What product? Take your best guess (and use the opposite of your intuition):

What’s this an ad for? Go ahead, take your wildest guess…

Of course! A single serve packet of water flavoring! Crystal Light promises to help on-the-go-women turn the water they need into ‘something beautiful’ (their words). A powder that will help a woman feel confident, playful, free and happy! We know of other powders that claim this sort of transformative power. But water flavoring? C’mon. This ad’s so filled with inauthentic blather we had to check to make sure it wasn’t written by Govenor Blagojevich himself.

That’s what we think. How about you?

The copy for this ad reads, “When I’m happy being me, I’m confident, playful, free, good to go.” Take your best guess below. Hint: It’s not what you’d expect your first guess to be.

We’ve been showing this classic Hormel ad to clients and students for a while because we think it represents the kind of inbred marketing/ad thinking that too often leads to wild syllogistic leaps of logic. Granted, we haven’t seen any of the research on ‘college graduation and pork’. But if you show women frollicking in a lush park and offer up ‘It’s a day to look back, a day to look forward’ and end up on ham — even Cure 81 ham — it’s a big let down on a lofty premise. Even if you believe in the ham = celebration equation. 

An Adiocracy confession. Ralph DC guessed the product almost immediately, but was kind enough to allow us to hold off his post until other folks took a crack at it. Ralph was able to digitally sleuth the copyright line,  but he also swears he remembers seeing this ad. We’re confident that next week’s mystery product will stump even Ralph (no digital sleuthing allowed!)

Since you all failed so miserably at guessing Combos, see if you can do any better guessing what this ad is for. The copy proclaims ‘Graduation Day. A Day to look back. A day to look forward. A day for…’ what? Take your best guess!

Combos Pretzels. Of course!

You guessed deodorant, cologne, jeans, underwear, condoms, shades, t-shirts, talcum powder, spas, but no one came close to guessing this ad for Combos.

Combos is a decent product, and there are a lot of things it is well-engineered for, like playing finger football at the bar. We just wonder why agency and client were trying so hard to make combos cool rather than allowing the funky stuffed pretzel nub to be what it is: Fun.

Dudes and their bikes, bein’ real. You know, showers are for pussies and so is oral hygiene, that kinda thing. The ad says this product is ‘perfectly engineered’ for guys, especially for dudes like these doin’ a no-women-allowed-cept-the-ones-we-pick up-on-the-road-road trip somewhere thru the great myth of the American West. Guess this product and you’re either brilliantly counter-intuitive or you (or your agency) did it.  Go ahead, post your best shot.

Product revealed on Thursday or as soon as someone guesses right!