Hoehn's Musings » facebook

Bad Facebook Ads

Charlie — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 09:00:21 +0000

Dear Bonobos -

Thank you for presenting me with this picture of a man’s crotch. I will now buy a pair of your pants.

Love,

Charlie — a heterosexual male

Bad Facebook Ads

Charlie — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 06:54:50 +0000

This truly leaves me speechless. I’m really torn on whether this is just another lame ad, or if it’s awesome.

I’m leaning towards the latter…

(Why is it a recurring theme for small Facebook ads to be visually offensive? Is this really one of the better ways to advertise on the site?)

More Bad Facebook Ads

Charlie — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:26:24 +0000

Apparently some companies are still wildly unfamiliar with the concept that who you portray in your marketing should be the demographic that people want to identify with (i.e. someone who doesn’t look like that guy). Showing a lazy, overweight man is probably the wrong way of going about this, especially since you’re exposing your ad to college kids. I doubt many of them are thinking, “yea, that’s who I want to end up like.”

Not to mention the copy in the text screams SCAM. But let’s not point out the obvious.

Facebook Ads

Charlie — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:17:00 +0000

I’ve always thought Facebook ads sucked. Not because they looked bad or anything; I just thought they were pointless. No one pays any attention to them. People get on Facebook to see what their friends are up to. It’s like a virtual high school reunion every time you log on.

A company advertising on Facebook is the equivalent of a salesman peddling magazines at an actual high school reunion. No one’s going to buy from him because we’re not there to look for magazines. We’re there to connect with our friends. Ads are viewed as a necessary intrusion on our experience, so we don’t ever really focus on them.

That being said, some Facebook ads are better than others. The ad pictured above is one of the “others.”