Advertising tactics

[littleoldme]

No, not tic-tacs, tactics. Whenever there's a thread about really bad adverts, someone always comes up with the classic argument "well, at least they've got you to remember the product". It's usually about the 8th post down on average. My view is yes, a terrible and irritating ad does make me remember the product. What it certainly doesn't make me do is buy or use the product, which I always thought was the point of advertising.

Is it an established technique in the advertising world that if you can't think up a really good ad, you should come up with a deliberately awful one to get the product noticed? If so, is there any evidence that this reverse psychology actually works?

[smorodina]

Doesn't always work - what the hell is the 118 thing advertising? I don't know and I don't care - and if I find out I'll make sure I never buy it!

[Hammond Egg]

A well-produced, well-constructed ad campaign doesn't always raise awareness of the product it is advertising. The best example of this is the Creature Comforts campaign; asked whether this was for electricity or gas, more people guessed wrong than right. The effects of advertising campaigns are researched thoroughly - my personal current least favourite one is for elephant.co.uk but as it's been running for a while I guess it is effective.