Weird commercials

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Xatrei
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Weird commercials

Post by Xatrei »

This weekend, Nneena and I were bewildered by the utter strangeness that is Quiznos' new commercial. This morning, I saw a discussion about it on The Consumerist, where I also found this nugget from Schick urging the ladies to trim their bush.

I don't really have anything to say about these oddball commercials other than "oh god," but I thought I'd share anyway.
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by cadalano »

you dutifully remembered the brand- s'all that matters!
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Funkmasterr »

Yeah my girlfriend and I have had a conversation about how odd the Quizno's commercial is too. I guess you won't forget Quizno's anytime soon though.
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Boogahz »

I saw two versions of that quizno's commercial over the weekend. One was a little more "tame" compared to the other, and I was guessing that was for a different channel/timeslot than the "sexy" one.
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Aslanna »

cadalano wrote:you dutifully remembered the brand- s'all that matters!
Is that really all that matters? I hear people say that all the time but I'd think people actually purchasing a product after seeing an ad for it is what really matters. So I remember Quiznos big deal. How does that help them? I've never once eaten there and I've known about them for years.
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Funkmasterr »

Aslanna wrote:
cadalano wrote:you dutifully remembered the brand- s'all that matters!
Is that really all that matters? I hear people say that all the time but I'd think people actually purchasing a product after seeing an ad for it is what really matters. So I remember Quiznos big deal. How does that help them? I've never once eaten there and I've known about them for years.
You may be an exception.. But think about it this way, Xatrei saw the commercial, and while he might not go out and get a Toasty Torpedo, he did come here and post a topic about it that many people will read. They are bound to at least get some added customer traffic this way.
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Aslanna »

I may be an exception because I don't go out and buy every product I see advertised? Well I'm not swimming in debt so perhaps you are right.
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Spang »

I eat at Quiznos at least once a month.
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Funkmasterr »

Aslanna wrote:I may be an exception because I don't go out and buy every product I see advertised? Well I'm not swimming in debt so perhaps you are right.
I wasn't implying that.. But just because you don't see the value in people remembering the product/company because of one of their ads doesn't mean it's not important.
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Xatrei »

I may look at things like this differently than the average person. Personally, I do not respond well to advertising. I'm not a brand loyalist, although I stick with products that I like (a function of quality, price and performance), and when I'm not pleased with them I don't buy them. I'm not a label whore or a trend follower, nor am I easily lured. I tend to look at all advertising rather critically and try not to let it factor into my buying decisions. Yeah, I may be indirectly feeding the buzz that these advertisers hoped to generate by stating my amusement and / or puzzlement at their ads, and this is obviously part of the ad agencies goals, but I generally assume that you guys are smart enough not to make your decisions based solely upon a goofy ad. You guys and my wife are the only people that I've discussed these ads with, so I'm not exactly out evangelizing for these companies. I guess in the case of the Quiznos commercial, I'm just perplexed by the idea that ads like this work. In fact, I think I'm less inclined to eat there (not that the odds were good to begin with). I don't understand the draw, and I guess that's why I posted about it.

With regards to these specific companies, I can count on one hand with a couple fingers left over the number of times I've eaten at Quiznos, and I can't think of a single Schick product that I've bought in many years.
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Funkmasterr »

Xatrei wrote:I may look at things like this differently than the average person. Personally, I do not respond well to advertising. I'm not a brand loyalist, although I stick with products that I like (a function of quality, price and performance), and when I'm not pleased with them I don't buy them. I'm not a label whore or a trend follower, nor am I easily lured. I tend to look at all advertising rather critically and try not to let it factor into my buying decisions. Yeah, I may be indirectly feeding the buzz that these advertisers hoped to generate by stating my amusement and / or puzzlement at their ads, and this is obviously part of the ad agencies goals, but I generally assume that you guys are smart enough not to make your decisions based solely upon a goofy ad. You guys and my wife are the only people that I've discussed these ads with, so I'm not exactly out evangelizing for these companies. I guess in the case of the Quiznos commercial, I'm just perplexed by the idea that ads like this work. In fact, I think I'm less inclined to eat there (not that the odds were good to begin with). I don't understand the draw, and I guess that's why I posted about it.

With regards to these specific companies, I can count on one hand with a couple fingers left over the number of times I've eaten at Quiznos, and I can't think of a single Schick product that I've bought in many years.

I am pretty much the same way, I buy what works for me and commercials aren't going to sway that at all. However, like I stated and you reiterated, when I see a funny or really strange commercial I usually talk to people about it and somewhere along the chain, I'm sure they get business this way.
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by cadalano »

i wouldn't expect most people here to be that gullible, but we're a bunch of intellectual elitists, after all. we gaze down scornfully upon the festering world atop our solid gold parapet. these ads aren't FOR us. they clearly work to some target market out there, or else they wouldn't keep making them- remember the singing rat commercial series Quizno's did a few years back? same buzz from that. any exposure is good exposure
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Aslanna »

Funkmasterr wrote:
Aslanna wrote:I may be an exception because I don't go out and buy every product I see advertised? Well I'm not swimming in debt so perhaps you are right.
I wasn't implying that.. But just because you don't see the value in people remembering the product/company because of one of their ads doesn't mean it's not important.
You're getting sidetracked though as to what the original quote was I responded to: "you dutifully remembered the brand- s'all that matters!"

I contend that "remembering the brand" isn't all that matters to those who are advertising the product but rather getting you to purchase the product is.
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Funkmasterr »

Aslanna wrote:
Funkmasterr wrote:
Aslanna wrote:I may be an exception because I don't go out and buy every product I see advertised? Well I'm not swimming in debt so perhaps you are right.
I wasn't implying that.. But just because you don't see the value in people remembering the product/company because of one of their ads doesn't mean it's not important.
You're getting sidetracked though as to what the original quote was I responded to: "you dutifully remembered the brand- s'all that matters!"

I contend that "remembering the brand" isn't all that matters to those who are advertising the product but rather getting you to purchase the product is.
Right, and my logic was to back up why I think getting you to remember the brand may be just as important. You have scenario 1 where I see a commercial and decide to buy the sandwich because of it, or scenario 2 where I don't buy the sandwich, but the commercial was funny so I talk to (let's say) 50 people about it at some point, all of whom may go and buy the sandwich.

Edit: So really that would make us both right kind of, I'm just arguing that one leads to the other and ends up having a greater effect in the long run.
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by cadalano »

getting someone who is decidedly anti-advertising, such as yourself or Xatrei, to remember the brand is definitely a goal. not the only goal, but in your personal cases- what else are they going to accomplish? you're not gonna fucking buy the product anyway. they know that- you know that. instead, you're here talking about it.. just as the people in Xatrei's link are talking about it... spreading the word around. exposing their ad to more people at zero cost to them. how could quizno's, an established and successful company, produce such bizarre commercials? lets talk about it!
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Boogahz »

Aslanna wrote:
Funkmasterr wrote:
Aslanna wrote:I may be an exception because I don't go out and buy every product I see advertised? Well I'm not swimming in debt so perhaps you are right.
I wasn't implying that.. But just because you don't see the value in people remembering the product/company because of one of their ads doesn't mean it's not important.
You're getting sidetracked though as to what the original quote was I responded to: "you dutifully remembered the brand- s'all that matters!"

I contend that "remembering the brand" isn't all that matters to those who are advertising the product but rather getting you to purchase the product is.
You might be shocked at how much "brand recognition" can be valued over the actual sales a commercial pulls in.
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Truant »

Also to consider, Quizno's main competitor (or rather who they are trying to take market share from) is Subway. Subway currently has the advertising market so completely saturated that Quizno's simply cannot compete. So they have to find another way to get your attention and make it stick...without simply hitting you with a commercial on every channel every 10 minutes like Subway.

It may be weird, but it's effective with regards to their goal.
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Kaldaur »

I don't think the VV resident is an average consumer, anyway. We are intellectual, video game playing, custom computer building nerds. Do you think that Quizno's ad is targeted to us or to Jilly Bean the 16 year old girl who only shops the Gap and buys matching Crocs to match her pants?

I used Gap because it's the only name that came to mind. I haven't bought new clothes in three years.
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Noysyrump »

beleive they call the gap anchore blue now.

Yeh i gave that quiznos comercial a double take when i saw it, and dont remeber subway beein anything other than some starving fat man, so yeh, shock value works.
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Keverian FireCry »

This definitely isn't the first weird Quizno's commercial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG042nkReBA
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Sajko »

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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Bojangels »

Keverian FireCry wrote:This definitely isn't the first weird Quizno's commercial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG042nkReBA

I thought it was weird that Xatrei actually started a thread about weird Quizno's commercials years ago when that commercial came out. Can't remember if it was here or another board. Those things must really get to you. :P

I'm pretty sure it was Xatrei anyway.
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Xatrei »

I don't think I started a thread about it, but I may have commented about it. I remember that I was irritated at the time because I had a spongmonkey avatar on here, and decided to change it rather than share it with a lame quiznos commercial haha.


Edit: Et voila! The thread in question
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Niffoni »

When you posted about the razor ad, I just assumed you were linking to This one. So wrong.
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Xatrei »

Hah - I hadn't seen that one. They're both for the same product, and it's probably the same agency behind both ads. Schick is a brand that Wilkinson Sword uses to market their products here in the US.
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Re: Weird commercials

Post by Asheran Mojomaster »

I love Quiznos. I highly suggest that everyone goes out and gets at least a regular sized sub, a drink, and chips from them right now.
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