Advertising Humor: In Dubious Taste

The Lemming thought this was funny. Your experience may vary.

"Have a cold one, we've got you covered!"
Oddly Enough, Reuters blog (August 22, 2010)

" 'Team, we're here to brainstorm a brand-new Coca-Cola ad campaign, built around this new photo we found on that ODD Blog.

" 'The photo wasn't supposed to be available for commercial use, but we paid that stupid Blog Guy a fortune for the rights.


(REUTERS/Francisco Gonzalez Bolon/Expreso NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS, via Oddly Enough, used w/o permission)


" 'We need to roll the campaign out quickly. We don't have time to register a new slogan, so we'll go with one we've used before, from this list going way back to the early 1900s. Understand?...'..."

Human nature being what it is, I'd better point out that, although the photo is of a real situation, the story is fiction. It's made up. That advertising meeting never happened.

The (fictional) ad meeting ended with the demented marketing folks settling on "Good to the last drop." Which really was a Coca Cola slogan in 1908.

The Oddly Enough post includes a link to a list of real Coca Cola slogans: www.angelfire.com/oh/cocacolaantiques/slogans.html.

Finally, about that photo. Here's the Reuters caption, quoted in the Oddly Enough post:

"Patrons eat at a taco stand, as the body of a man lies on the pavement in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, August 10, 2010. According to local media, the man died after suffering a fatal heart attack. REUTERS/Francisco Gonzalez Bolon/Expreso NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS"