Carl's Jr. has a Philly Cheesesteak Burger which combines thinly sliced steak and the usual Philly Cheesesteak toppings with one of their Thickburgers. In order to promote this artery clogger, Carl's Jr. called on a man despised in Philly - Terrell Owens. 

The result is a commercial with a few laughs and some major boobage. 

Well, at least they haven't abandoned their "Sex sells" policy. This commercial at least has some humor to go along with all of the blatant sexual advertising. 

Coors Light commercials weren't always about a speeding silver bullet train randomly bursting through city landscapes. Instead, commercials focused on relationships and encounters in the local tavern. The bartender was your friend and everyone bonded over Coors Light.

Talk about your slice of '80s nostalgia. It's also worth pointing out the completely different marketing strategy seen in this commercial. It seems like every current beer commercial tries to up the ante in terms of product features (smooth, light, etc.) and varying degrees of frostiness. Back in the day, it was all about mood, emotion and slice of life. Fascinating, really.

Kmart's ads are almost bipolar. We've praised the Ship My Pants, Big Gas Savings and Yo Mama commercials, but then we've been forced to ridicule the store's bizarre and completely humorless holiday GIF commercials. 

After their spectacular holiday flop, Kmart decided to call on and old, yet successful strategy: Shipping pants. This time they added a Christmas Carol twist. 

Not bad. Though Ship My Trousers isn't as fun as the original Ship My Pants, it's at least a decent sequel. 

Florida Orange Juice is trying to show all of us that a tall glass of orange juice is the perfect way to start a hectic day. Unfortunately, they decided to explain this to a poor flight attendant as she rushed to catch her flight. We know you need to make this flight, but wait right here as we explain the joys of orange juice. 

Thanks for making that woman late for her flight, orange juice. As bad as the point is that a beverage is out to sabotage your job, the rest of the commercial is pretty annoying as well - especially after repeated viewings. The concept is far from original and to make matters worse, it's poorly executed.  We're pretty sure huge cases of orange juice (as seen in the photo above) don't exist in the airport. If they did, who would be buying that much juice in the airport?

(H/T Commercials I Hate)

The United States Postal Service is turning some of their mailboxes yellow for a new promotion with Nickelodeon. In an effort to promote SpongeBob, the USPS will allow several of their mailboxes around the country to be transformed into versions of the beloved cartoon character. 

You can find a SpongeBob mailbox in these cities: Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Hollywood, Orlando, Kirkwood (near St. Louis), Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia and Washington.

Considering this is a rather fun idea and the fact the USPS is basically desperate for cash, you can chalk this up as a win-win. Kids should have some fun seeing a cartoon character "come to life" while the ad won't be as annoying or bothersome as some of the alternative options which might have infiltrated your dial. 

OK...and the hashtag #SBMailPaints is kind of awesome. 

[AdWeek]

SpaghettiOs tried a bit of real-time marketing on December 6th in honor of the anniversary of Pearl Harbor on December 7th. The brand Tweeted out a message of remembrance with a photo of a SpaghettiO holding an American flag. On paper, this probably sounded like a good idea. In practice, this was an epic failure. 

Real-time marketing is risky. The goal is to make your brand sound relevant, but it's dangerous due to the fact you never want to make it appear like you're trying to cash in on a serious moment or a tragedy. Nothing quite says Pearl Harbor like SpaghettiOs. 

How did people react when they saw this message from SpaghettiOs? Not well. 

. @SpaghettiOs spaghetti o the humanity

— Erin Gloria Ryan (@morninggloria) December 7, 2013

@crushingbort @rachelmillman @SpaghettiOs Frito-Lay invites you to remember the Siege of Vicksburg w/some honey BBQ Frito FlavorTwists!

— Scut Farkus (@ADumbFlowers) December 7, 2013

@SpaghettiOs … are you serious

— Chris Sardegna (@rxcs) December 7, 2013

Uh, brand. You're doing it wrong RT @SpaghettiOs: Take a moment to remember #PearlHarbor with us. pic.twitter.com/bsfQPgNKkJ

— Shawn Reynolds (@WCL_Shawn) December 7, 2013

@BCDreyer @AliciaHendley @ksheely Since spaghetti is Italian, wouldn't their mascot actually have been aligned with the Axis powers?

— Susan Schorn (@SusanSchorn) December 7, 2013

Finally, the Tweet which might summarize this whole thing the best:

@SpaghettiOs uh oh, spaghetti o's

— Mattheim Sussroller (@suss2hyphens) December 7, 2013

Thanks to Mike Miller for sending this our way!

Fox has officially sold all of their in-game advertising time for Super Bowl XLVIII. Commercials were expected to cost roughly $3.8 million for just 30 seconds of time. Since the price of ads during the game are always ridiculously expensive, it's always interesting seeing which companies pony up and make an appearance during the big game. 

Three major categories are represented this year: Automotive, electronics and package goods. Courtesy of Forbes, a list of the companies who have admitted to buying an ad can be found below.

Anheuser-Busch InBev; Butterfinger; Chevrolet; Doritos; GoDaddy.com; Hyundai; Intuit; Jaguar; Mars; Oikos; PepsiCo Beverages; and Wonderful Pistachios. 

Plenty of familiar names here. No major surprises here either. Here's hoping that Go Daddy continues their movement away from disgusting, stupid ads with their upcoming Super Bowl ad. 

The full list of companies with Super Bowl ads will come out once the game gets closer. 

Nobody plays soccer quite like Brazil. For better or worse, the country always produces an extremely entertaining style of soccer which often leaves spectators speechless. As the host country for the 2014 World Cup, Brazil is one of the big favorites and Nike wanted to show just how special the team can be. 

What follows is a fascinating display of creative brilliance. 

Shown from the perspective of several players and even coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, this ad captures the Brazilian team in a light we've never seen before. Now we all know how these players are able to make some of their moves look so easy.

Oh, and who doesn't love a good Ronaldo cameo?

We've given Kmart a lot of praise over the last several months. With commercials based around "yo mamma" jokes and pronunciation humor, we believed the retailer had raised the bar for traditionally boring, humorless commercials from big-box stores. 

That belief has been shattered. Kmart rolled out this...thing...which depicts a grandma acting crazy. In reality, it's just one action and sound file looped over and over. Why is this supposed to make me want to shop at your store?

Even if you're able to look past the fact this commercial isn't too kind to seniors with deteriorating senses of reality, there's the painful truth that this commercial is just extremely uncomfortable. If you're unfortunate enough to see this commercial more than once in an evening, chances are your mute button will become your best friend. 

Why is the video looped? Is it supposed to be funny? 

Awful stuff, Kmart. 

Tidy Cats created a new lightweight cat litter. It's actually a pretty brilliant idea considering how bulky and heavy a container of cat litter can be, but unfortunately the marketing around the new product isn't as intelligent. 

"Hey! Toss me that litter." The previous sentence is the heart and soul behind a commercial which is so atrocious that we want to chuck a container of litter at the group who created it. 

Dreadful stuff. Why are people so excited to have a container of cat litter thrown at them? Why is cat litter showing up at a skate park and a stadium? Why would football players celebrate scoring with it? So many stupid questions, so little time. 

This is an instance where the product and its new benefits are strong enough on their own where they don't need an over-the-top commercial. Show the new perks in a realistic way (loading the container into your vehicle) and you'll have a solid commercial. 

Instead...here's this.

Nissan is a proud sponsor of the Canadian Football League. How do they elect to show their pride, you ask? By creating a rather clever print ad which illustrates how things are a little bit ... different ... in the CFL. Let's just say the Gatorade showers are a bit more painful in the CFL. 

It's a fun print ad from Nissan, but it's kind of hard to tell what the ad is all about considering just how small the text is at the bottom of the page. It's also surprising seeing the tiny logos representing Nissan and the CFL considering the entire point of the ad is supposed to highlight the partnership. 

Still, make sure you avoid the Gatorade bath if you're a coach in the CFL. 

Foot Locker has come through with one of the best commercials you'll see in sports or anywhere.  In the spot, Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving looks ahead to Foot Locker's Week of Greatness by imagining what might happen when all is right in the world.  It includes Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield hugging it out, Dennis Rodman flying to North Korea and not coming back, Brett Favre poking fun at his flip-flopping, and even a hilarious cameo from Craig Sager.  It might be the best sports commercial this year...

Mike Tyson delivering a piece of Evander Holyfield's ear to him in a small jewlery box?  It doesn't get better than that.  Well, maybe it does.  Craig Sager burning all of his suits in a massive bonfire may have been even funnier.  It doesn't necessarily make me want to buy any shoes at Foot Locker, but it's a commercial masterpiece.

(H/T Darren Rovell)

I know, it's the middle of November and it's way too early to be talking about Christmas.  It's not even Thanksgiving yet!  But hey, I've already endured my first snowfall of the winter and the local oldies station has been playing Christmas music since Labor Day, so we better just accept it and move on.

In the sports world, the NBA owns Christmas Day with 5 games and the league has produced an ad featuring players from all of those games.  In this pretty creative spot, Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, James Harden, and Steve Nash shoot baskets at 5 hoops that play Jingle Bells for every swish.  Oh, and there's a guest appearance from LeBron James.

This ad also serves as an introduction to the NBA's new, intense, crazy push for uniforms with sleeves.  I'm no fashionista, but there's a good reason why you only see them from behind in this commercial.  Most of them are absolutely hideous and should be burned or covered with burlap sacks.  Have you seen some of these?  Forget watching the games, I just hope nobody has to suffer the misfortune of finding one of those things under their Christmas tree. 

Jean-Claude Van Damme's stunt to show off Volvo's dynamic steering is phenomenal. Van Damme performs the splits, his trademark move, between two moving Volvo trucks. The trucks slowly part and Van Damme is left doing the splits between them as they move backwards down the street while Enya's "Only Time" plays. 

Wow. 

Great stuff from Van Damme even at age 53. We recently saw him in a silly spot for Go Daddy where he does the splits and flirts with the camera, but this stunt is an entirely different level of awesome. As if the stunt wasn't impressive enough as is, it only took one take at a closed-off landing field in Spain at sunrise. 

Will this sell Volvos? Probably not, but it's one hell of a commercial which will undoubtedly go viral. It's also great seeing JCVD popping up in various forms of media after all these years. 

(H/T Mashable)

Kellogg's UK probably had some pretty genuine intentions when they created a social media campaign which would donate food to a needy child each time their post was Retweeted. Unfortunately, the idea which might have seemed positive on paper came off as greedy and insensitive. 

The company pledged to donate one meal for every Retweet they received on the post you see in the image above. These types of campaigns are risky as they tie a generous act / donation to self-promotion. Kellogg's looks as if they're being withholding by tying their donation to Retweets. 

Considering we've seen similar campaigns in the past, what makes this one different? The "Retweet for an action" strategy works well when it comes to a company donating a specific amount of money for each Retweet. When it comes to items, specifically food for starving kids, the whole thing feels...funny. 

Kellogg's UK apologized for their Tweet and clarified the promotion. 

We want to apologise for the recent tweet, wrong use of words. It's deleted. We give funding to school breakfast clubs in vulnerable areas.

— Kellogg's UK (@KelloggsUK) November 10, 2013

(H/T Adweek)

Pretend you're the North Carolina Education Lottery. How would you promote yourself around the holidays? There's a slim chance you said a mythical creature which helps you decide which gifts you should buy for your family, but odds are good that you have a functioning brain and you came up with a strategy which actually makes sense. 

Meet the Gift Horse - an idea that's so out there that we had to remind ourselves a room full of people actually signed off on this thing. 

The Gift Horse makes the Ticket Oak seem reasonable. Surely this horrible commercial and concept has to be some form of animal cruelty, right? No animal deserves to be in a commercial this bad. 

Snack Pack pudding was directly linked to your popularity growing up. If you had Snack Pack at lunch, people wanted to be your friend. If someone forgot to pack it in your lunch, anger ensued. Has that changed? Do kids still love Snack Pack? 

That was the question asked in this Snack Pack commercial where the company sent out a truck to sell pudding. Using the same style and music as an ice cream truck, Snack Pack stopped by various locations in Ontario much to the delight of the local children. 

Great concept, horrible ad. If you're going to say how much kids love your pudding, spend more time on showing kids actually enjoying your pudding and less time on the cartoon graphics. The truck is a pretty awesome idea and I'd personally love one to stop by my neighborhood, but they really should have shown more about what the truck had to offer and the reaction it received when people figured out it wasn't your typical ice cream truck. 

When the zombie apocalypse arrives, you better hope your car has a battery you can count on when things get messy. That's the message from this DieHard battery commercial which cashes in on the current zombie phenomenon. 

Here we see two survivors, one man and one woman, desperately trying to escape swarming zombies. The man more or less ditches the woman and makes his way to a car. One problem: the battery is dead (pretty appropriate, given the undead theme). 

DieHard certainly knows how to make an ad which plays off of relevant themes in pop culture. The action here looks like it could be straight out of an episode of The Walking Dead. When you catch this ad on TV, it can be pretty difficult to remember you're just watching a commercial. Oh, and how about that display of instant Karma? Yikes. 

As a marketing tool, this ad is pretty effective. It shows off that DieHard batteries are supposed to last a long time and they're reliable when you need them to work. Best of all, DieHard took a fairly boring topic (car batteries) and made a fun and exciting commercial surrounding their benefits. 

Maybe because it's Halloween Red Bull thought they could get away with this nonsense, but not since the Herbal Essences orgasm in the airplane bathroom have I seen a commercial so pointless. And that's saying something. Exactly how is this promoting Red Bull? "Red Bull gives you wings but I didn't drink it, so it's irrelevant, please allow me to suck blood our of your neck." Yep, makes sense to me!

Toys"R"Us tricked a large group of children into thinking they were going on a field trip to learn about trees. Almost as soon as the kids were loaded on the bus, the yawns started rolling in. But wait! These kids weren't really going to learn about trees. Instead, they were going to Toys"R"Us to spend time playing with toys. 

Pure excitement follows. 

Cute overjoyed children. It's tough to be critical of that. Try and not smile when you see these kids pick out a favorite toy and explain to you how happy they are or how cool the toy is. The boy with the Nerf gun sums it all up with one big sigh of contentment. 

Great ad by Toys"R"Us. It's difficult to capture, but the store can be a place of pure joy and excitement for young people. The message here is also pretty effective on adults. Don't you want to make your kids as happy as the ones above this Christmas?

Rudy Gay, DeAndre Jordan and Amar'e Stoudemire abandoned the court and became delivery men for an ad promoting the NBA's new online source for game tickets. Wearing their full NBA uniform, the players faced adversity as they attempted to deliver tickets to basketball fans. Broken elevators, bad weather and some bad driving couldn't prevent tickets from being delivered "straight from the source."

Fun ad. This spot reminds us of the successful This is SportsCenter ads we talk about pretty regularly. Place an athlete in uniform in an unexpected situation or environment and you have a formula for instant comedy. 

Chevrolet wisely canceled a "Silverado Strong" promotion they had planned for Busch Stadium during Game 5 of the World Series. Chevy planned for Ozzie Smith to make a few comments about Chevy before the third inning and fans would hold up placards spelling out "Silverado Strong." 

However, negative feedback through social media led to Chevy scrapping the promotion before it took place. 

Good decision, Chevy. Though the company has run with the term "Strong" to describe the Silverado for the bulk of this year, in a sports context this promotion looks a bit too similar to the "Boston Strong" saying used by those in Boston after the marathon bombing. 

Though the intention here appeared to be genuine, the end result would have felt like a brand trying to capitalize on a horrible event. Remember the huge backlash one Toronto Maple Leafs fan received when he created a "Toronto Stronger" sign? Chevy's promotion may have been met with similar anger. 

Chevy commented on the canceled promotion, saying:

"Chevrolet had planned to continue the campaign tonight through an interactive in-stadium promotion. However, following today’s rehearsal we realized there was the possibility that we may offend some of the very fans we were trying to honor, for that reason Chevrolet and MLB decided to cancel the promotion.”

(H/T USA Today)

Booking.com has a pretty interesting ad just in time for Halloween. In an effort to promote the fact you can stay in over 350,000 different locations, including some which may or may not be haunted, the site shows what it might be like to stay in a spooky location.

It's kind of disturbing, kind of weird and it's a completely new take on a travel website commercial. 

I caught this ad before a movie I was seeing. Shown directly in front of the usual coming attractions, this spot looked like just another trailer for some sort of upcoming horror film. Borrowing some of the angles and sounds from most horror trailers, you'd never suspect this was an ad for Booking.com. 

As I've said in the past, the most effective ads are the ones people see without knowing they are being marketed to. Here I and the theater audience was duped into thinking we were seeing a preview for the latest creepy thriller. They had our full attention. The end result was plenty of buzz and a memorable commercial.  

The launch of the PS4 is just weeks away and with it we close the door on another generation of Sony technology. As a way of looking back at the PlayStation, PS2 and PS3, Sony created a brilliant British ad which details the life of a boy and his friends from when they have a PlayStation all the way to present day. We witness changes in fashion and technology in a non-stop sequence of brilliant creative execution. 

Want to feel nostalgic? Check out Sony's UK ad titled "For the Players Since 1995."

Incredible. The attention to detail here is pretty phenomenal. From pizza boxes reflective of the era to clothing we haven't seen since the '90s, this ad truly felt like a journey through time. Did you catch the somewhat subtle transition from standard definition to high-definition? Clever. 

It's also pretty neat to see that though so much has changed over the years, the boy and his friend remain close. Perhaps their bond remains intact because of their mutual love for video games. Now that's a message the gaming community can rally behind.  

Want to see how it was made? Here's a great look behind the scenes:

What is Bryan Cranston up to now that his days as Heisenberg are over? He's narrating commercials for Apple and their new iPad Air, of course. In the company's first spot for the iPad Air, Cranston speaks over a commercial which depicts a pencil in a variety of locations. We're led to believe Cranston is discussing the pencil, but in reality he's talking about the extremely thin iPad Air which was concealed by the pencil. 

Pretty cool ad. We kind of wish Cranston would give us some sort of subtle comment which we could relate to Breaking Bad, but maybe it's time for all of us to move on. As for the actual subject of the commercial, it's a pretty ingenious way to demonstrate just how thin the iPad Air really is. Does this feature make it worth the price of a new device? Probably not, but we all know the sales will be enormous. 

(H/T Mashable)

Coca-Cola rolled out a park in a dismal, gray landscape in their most recent advertisement. They brought in grass, trees and a vending machine which only dispensed their product once you removed your shoes. The idea was that everyone needs to take a break, feel the grass between their toes and enjoy a Coke. 

Cool concept and fun commercial, but the whole thing feels just a little too perfect. 

We're forced to look at advertisements with a cynical eye. If something seems too good to be true, it usually is. This Coca-Cola spot is pretty awesome and heartwarming on the surface, but underneath it just screams phony. It may very well be genuine, but the combination of individuals, clothing and actions of those involved just feels ... predictable. It'd be amazing if this was a random event inspired by Coca-Cola, but we're left feeling these are actors brought in by an agency. 

We'd love for this commercial to be the genuine article, but we're skeptical and thus unmoved by what is a pretty outstanding concept. 

"It's time to pitch a tent!" 

Run and hide children, grandpa is about to pitch a tent. This extremely creepy commercial from RV Outlet Mall in Georgetown, Texas is sending an awfully bizarre message. Two girls are camping with their father / grandpa. Innocent enough, right? The fun ends when grandpa and the narrator discuss pitching tents with the two younger girls in frame.

Innocent mistake? We're not so sure. We're also not sure why the younger girl is sitting on grandpa's lap at the end of the spot. Isn't she a little old for that? What if he pitches another tent? The previous sentence is a new low for Awful Ads. Our apologies.

(H/T Commercials I Hate)

Move over planking, Tebowing and Dufnering. Mamming is the new craze sweeping the world. At least, it is according to this really clever spot to promote women having regular mammograms. The spot urges you to spread mammogram awareness by having women (men too!) lay their boobs on stuff in the traditional mammogram pose and send in pictures on Instagram.

#Mamming

Clever stuff and a pretty funny ad. It's always extremely impressive when you see a creative ad for a really complicated topic. Oh and yes, that is Jillian from Workaholics and Erin Daniels from The L Word resting their boobs on common objects. 

It's that time of the year again. The latest Call of Duty title is set to drop in November on both current and next generation consoles and the video game world is buzzing. As always, the newest edition in the enormously successful series comes with plenty of hype and huge expectations. One expectation is that an entertaining, creative ad campaign will proceed the game's launch. 

In their latest, Call of Duty: Ghosts tries to warn you that Call of Duty season is coming. They do this by showing average individuals explaining their in-game conquests with the joy you might expect from a child. No explosions. No big surprises. No celebrities. Does it work?

While this ad isn't anywhere near as cool as their "There's a soldier in all of us" campaign or their "Vet and Noob" ad with Sam Worthington, Jonah Hill and Dwight Howard, it's still pretty fun. The big questions is whether this will be enough? 

It's safe to say Call of Duty and Activision have more up their sleeve, but early forecasts predict Call of Duty: Ghosts will continue the recent trend of sales slipping from one title to the next. Though the numbers are still going to be huge, it appears that Call of Duty's reign as the world's top game are coming to a close. 

OMG Tax is a real company that you're supposed to trust with your tax problems and general finances. Would you let a company with Internet / teen girl lingo in its title handle some of your biggest financial issues? Probably not, which is why they've created this ridiculous baseball commercial loaded with clichés. 

Well, we definitely said OMG. Unfortunately it was because of the commercial being shown and not some form of brand recognition. Cheap green screen effects. Awkward uniform on the guy named Juice (OK, Juceam. Close enough). A painful closing cliché. Makes you want to hand over your tax forms, doesn't it?

Let's not forget their slogan: "A different type of tax company." 

No argument here, but that's not exactly a redeeming quality.