Advertising corpses

My friend Philippe just left planning in order to become a French government bureaucrat. I'm not sure what that says about the allure of planning, but it is certainly a loss because he is an excellent planner.

The loss is magnified by the fact that he will no longer be keeping up his "Loser's Archive." For years, he has collected print ads that are, as he says, not the worst ads ever exactly, but just "off" somehow. Maybe it's an unwieldy metaphor. Hamfisted abuse of Photoshop. Childish wordplay. Inadvertent yet disturbing trespassing of cultural or social boundaries. But all of them have a certain rigid, clammy glee that I associate with infomercials. They're like little advertising corpses prepared by an unskilled but enthusiastic undertaker. Enjoy.

Comments

[haribo]

Those ads clearly cross the line where truly bad ads become simply hilarious. Guess that's kind of an self protecting mechanism for anybody in advertising (particularly creatives). Laughing beats crying, even in disbelief.

[Iain]

Lovely archive. Like you say, they are cadavers - all life began seeping out the minute the first reviewer said 'Could you just...' (especially in the case of the Nikn Coolpix example.

[Dana Tudoran]

I think it's an interesting way of seeing things, and now I refer to your friend Philippe. by trying to be the best he collects bad things and analyses them.... I am wondering how is he able then to do the things right... :)