Very Funny Ads - TBS Creates Social Video Network

karl — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 01:00:18 +0000

I just came across a site created by TBS that is essentially a social video network, kind of like YouTube but is 100% focused on funny commercials from around the world. Now if any company had created a general video sharing network I would have suggested they were out of their mind, but picking a very specific niche and building a brand around it is a very good idea, and I think TBS have made a very smart move here. I personally love commercials and have been a fan of video sites that shared them for a while, I certainly shed a tear when adcritic went for a subscription model.

Right now TBS does not enable the embedding of their videos in other blogs which I think an absolutely criminal decision, and my guess is some executive with no experience in social media decided they want to keep their site “sticky” so they don’t want their videos embedded in myspace pages or blogs. Very shortsighted IMHO. Apart from that I like their execution, and the videos are very funny. I personally can’t think of a better use for 30 second spots than turning them into 30 second jokes, I’ve always found european commercial to be much funnier, and generally smarter than American commercials which often tend to rely on volume (loudness), repetition (head on), and slagging off the competition. Obviously there are some wonderful American commercials but they appear to be very much in the minority. Advertising is often so repulsive on my television i would rather gouge my eyes out than watch another minute of them, especially the predatory ones that show up on later in the evening whether get rich quick schemes, or credit score stuff, fucking Ditech etc. etc.

Anyway, with that rant out of the way you should go and check out these two commercials one for marmite, and one for chocolate flavored condoms, fucking hysterical as opposed to very funny, (I should probably explain that marmite is a malt extract spread that is somewhat an acquired taste, loved by many, and the most repulsive thing ever to pass others lips, Australians have a similar love/hate affair with vegimite which is obviously the Aussies inferior interpretation of the British classic

Link to chocolate flavored condoms

Link to marmite commercial

No Tags