Moron Marketers Think We're Morons

I have come across way too many ads lately that are made by morons who think their audience is made up of morons. I think this is probably symptomatic of the fact that marketers today are desperate and clueless. They don't know how to reach people any more. Mass media is no longer a viable medium, and personal media is too hard for them to learn how to use effectively. They're used to just throwing a lot of money at people and hoping enough sticks to keep their product alive. But it's not working any more. So they keep trying to come up with more cutting edge creative, more outrageous claims and messages that won't be completely ignored by huge masses of people.

This is an ad I found for what I think is a company that makes emergency radios. It's really hard to tell from the ad. Red Cross gets much more prominence, but I think that's just because they figure that will get more attention than their no-name name. It's really a mess from a creative and communication standpoint. A total waste of money.

But what really makes this ad stupider than stupid is the sub-headline:

Emergencies struck 82% of Americans last year*

Did you notice the asterisk? If you look down below, in tiny, tiny type there is another asterisk that says, "*based on a survey of 1000 people." What? They are saying that 246,000,000 Americans were struck by an emergency (whatever that means) last year (whatever year that was) because 820 out of 1000 people surveyed said they were? What did they do? Go into a town following a tornado? Find a coastal city hit by a hurricane? Heck, if they talked to people from New Orleans, they could have gotten the statistic up to 100%! What crap!!!

This is so bogus - and really insulting. Anyone who responds to this ad based upon the company's fraudulent manipulation of an obviously flawed statistic should be outraged. Like I said, they are morons and they think their potential customers are morons too. But this ad is so inept anyway, I doubt there are going to be many customers who respond. Scare tactics and spin are not the way to sell products or build a brand. I will not be the least bit sorry when this company (I can't really even tell you their name based upon this crappy ad) when this company disappears.