By Sarah Falson
SYDNEY: Television advertisements from Harvey Norman and The Good Guys have been voted in the top 10 most hated of the year, by securing seventh and ninth positions respectively.
In a survey compiled for advertising agency Singleton Ogilvy & Mather (SO&M), 1400 people voted nationally and decided that both the Harvey Norman sales ads and The Good Guys singing sales people ads were worthy of a top-10 most hated ad rating, lead by the Tooheys ‘Tongue’ ad at number one.
“Human beings are emotional creatures first and foremost, rational creatures second,” SO&M head of strategy, Ben Lyttle, told The Australian newspaper.
“Engage the emotions in a positive way and you’ll get attention.”
Of the top-10 most loved and top-10 most hated ads, it is clear that people like ads that make them laugh, and dislike ads that show the human body disfigured in some way, or those that yell at consumers.
Telstra BigPond’s ‘Rabbits’ ad, which shows a father telling his son that The Great Wall Of China was built “to keep the rabbits out”, came in at number one on the most loved ads list, while numbers two and three were both taken by Carlton ads – the ‘Big Ad’ and its follow-up, the ‘Flashbeer’ ad. Other chart-dominators were Hahn beer, taking out numbers seven, nine and ten on the most loved ads poll, and Optus, with its two talking animals ads holding fourth and fifth spots.
In addition, 13 per cent of respondents said they became interested in the product or service being advertised, if they particularly liked the ad, while 12 per cent went further and actually bought the product and two per cent switched from the brand they were using in favour of the advertised product.
When people disliked an ad, 53 per cent said they switched channels, nine per cent purposefully avoided purchasing the product, and seven per cent actively boycotted it.
National television broadcaster, SBS, will air a montage of the most loved and most hated ads during the half-time break in the US Super Bowl on Monday from 10pm, which is the biggest annual advertising event in the world and the highest-rating program each year in the US.