Advertising For The Sick Minded...

Can you see what I see? 

You’re sitting at a booth in Applebee’s, sifting through the various items on the menu, when something in the corner catches your eye. A scoop of ice cream delicately placed beside succulent apple chimi-cheesecake. Though the advertisement was meant to entice one to purchase, for me, it made me burst into laughter!

Have you ever looked at an advertisement and say to yourself, “what were they thinking?!” Welcome to my recent experience at Applebee’s. Was the photographer of this picture trying to imply the provocative image? Or was this an honest mistake? This isn’t the first time my sick twisted mind ruined a horribly good (or bad?) campaign either.

Ever since I saw the first commercial for the Shake Weight, I couldn’t look at the product with a straight face. Now, I don’t want to blame it all on the advertising, as the product itself is simply too ridiculous, but couldn’t they have shown the man shaking the weight in a less, suggestive manner?

The funny thing is, neither of these two products were meant to be sexual. Neither of these products was even trying to capitalize on a sexual appeal technique, like Axe has successfully done in the past. So why do they appear so sensual?

We are sick-minded people.

Society has driven us to see everything in a twisted way. It’s no secret that we are all exposed to sex at an earlier age than our parents. So it’s really no surprise that we find every detail, every innuendo, and every suggestion in advertisements – even if they were unintentional.

That being said, advertisers have to be very careful when developing a marketing campaign. They should learn from the Shake Weight and Applebee’s, unless they want their campaign to be a classic joke.