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.
