Truth in Advertising

A Puppet's Ramblings - from Chip Martin, Mannequin American Marketer
I post every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday

Truth in Advertising?

Can’t get a date with any pretty singles after seven years of flashing your best and brightest smile? Maybe it’s not your personality or your antique doll collection hanging out on your bed. One man blames his string of dating strikeouts on Close-Up toothpaste’s failure to attract women and is suing the product’s manufacturer as a result.

Yes, this is a real thing that is actually happening, according to various reports, including one from AZCentral.com. The 26-year-old man filed the lawsuit against Unilever Nigeria Limited, saying its ads for the toothpaste — which show women getting all hot and bothered after a dude brushes his teeth — are deceptive and false. Because he’s still single, despite using Close-up for seven years.

In his suit he claims “no girl ever agreed to even go out for a tea or coffee with me, even though I’m sure they could smell my breath. I always brush my teeth with so much Close-Up gel to make sure the girls get turned on by my fresh breath as they usually show on TV.”

As evidence in the case, he’s submitting all of his tubes of toothpaste — the used, the half-used and those he has yet to use — as evidence.

The lonely life he’s living due to lack of help from the toothpaste has left him feeling “cheated” and in a state of “mental anguish.”

Nestlé’s Goes Beyond “Suggestive” in Super Bowl Teaser Ad

Click here to see Nestlé’s Super Bowl ad teaser showing peanut butter and chocolate going to couple's therapy in an effort to spice up their relationship. The teaser is pretty suggestive, particularly when another couple, cheese and crackers, emerge from the therapist's office excitedly fondling a giant, hard salami.

The actual Super Bowl ad will be a different version but with the same couple's therapy theme, the AP reports. For more, see the campaign site at http://www.butterfingercups.com.auto/

Auto Ad of the Year

This Honda ad won the top prize at the 2014 One Show Automobile Advertising of the Year awards at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The ad is quite clever and artistic. It grabs and keeps your attention. The only thing that could make it better would be the addition of a Mannequin American.

Fiat was the winner in the print category, below. The “Don’t Text and Drive” ads say, “You Either See the Letter or the Girl” and “You Either See the Letter or the Bus.” Good ads.

They Lived

Here’s my favorite car ad of the year. It focuses on safety, and it boldly shows something you rarely see in car commercials—the twisted wreckage of what's left of one of the automaker's vehicles after a horrendous accident. The wrecked Subaru Outback here is not a prop—it's a real car that really got totaled. But the driver survived, and that's the point of the ad

Pay Attention!

Here’s a reason to pay attention to sale prices. The Utilitech Water Leak Sensor was “$30” and now is an incredible “29.97.”

If You’re Really Bored

At last year’s Ventriloquist Convention, our buddy Tom Crowl interviewed Dale on behalf of Vent Haven Museum’s video archives. I wasn’t invited to the interview or, it would have been more interesting and entertaining. But if you want to waste 3 minutes of your life that you can never get back, here is Part 1 of the interview, and here is part two.