Negative Advertising Grosses Me Out. Discuss

Here's another post I had saved in my Blackberry.  You thought I was kidding about all of these!

So, the New York Department of Public Health is at it again, this time with an ad that's supposed to remind us that when we're counting calories, we should also include things like soda.  It's a fair enough concept and obviously one that needs to be driven home considering the obesity epidemic in our country, but I'm just on the fence as to whether ads like this really work, or if they send the viewer into a spiral of "oh my God, that's so gross, I have to get away and put that out of my mind….that reminds me, I'm thirsty, where can I get an icy-cold Coke?"  The NYC public health department is actually famous for these ads (amputees and people with no larynx, anyone?), and you can go right over to Gothamist if you want to see some more.  

Maybe it's just because I value cleverness more than shock value in advertising, and so the whole "gross out" factor is not that impressive to me.  Often when I see an ad like this, I kind of just fixate
on the thing they DON'T want me to have, because it's weird or intriguing in
some way, and then I forget about the product or underlying message in favor of the disgusting image.  I think this means the ad itself is "sticky," but that the overall message isn't converting, which is problematic.  Then again, I am not the target audience for this ad, so maybe it's wrong for me to even weigh in.

Here's another example:  this weird commercial here in Los Angeles for a local mattress
store, where this guy is talking about how your mattress DOUBLES in weight every
eight years or something like that, because of skin and dust and dust mites, and
whatever, and by the end of the commercial I'm like DAMN, THAT'S ALOT OF SKIN,
and I can't even remember the name of the guy who told me this weird fact or
what his company's name is for when I actually need a new mattress (which I
currently do not, as it is only two years old and only 13% heavier than it was
at origination. )

• Category: Advertising