Radar (advertising)



"Interviewee Am I your man, Mr. Dumbass?
 * The Engery Sheets commercial. The people in the commercial are saying stuff like "I take a sheet in the pool" and such, referring to where they take the product.
 * The Tums Corn Dog commercial. Just...watch it. No idea how THAT made it past the radars...
 * The fact that the girl felt the need to cover the teddy bear's eyes shows viewers at home that their minds are not in the gutter. It was supposed to look wrong. (A new version cuts out this specific scene, making it seem like our minds are in the gutter.)
 * Advertisers dealing with "intimate" products need to be more circumspect than most. French prophylactic maker Manix has a habit of producing ads so subtle they're family friendly at a casual glance, and very not after a few moments consideration.
 * In one of the "Windows 7 was My Idea" ads was a guy who is outside of his room because his roommate put a sock on the doorknob, which is a visual shorthand for sex. He also finger quotes "private tutoring" so it's specifically intended to state that they're having sex.
 * "I can stay here all night!"
 * In a 1980s ad for Federal Express, famous fast-talker John Moschitta includes "dork" in a list of names of businessmen he is speaking with, much to the dismay of the ad's producers, who were worried that networks would be upset that a slang term for "penis" was used so casually.
 * Let's not forget this commercial.

Mr. Dumass: The name... is... Dumass.

Interviewee: (blank stare with a huge grin)

Mr. Dumass (after the interviewee leaves): What a dumbass!"

"Toaster: I want you to do something.
 * There's an Old Spice body wash commercial featuring a centaur and his (human) wife. Old Spice works for him because he's two things in one, a man... and a provider. There are definitely some Squicky things implied, despite the horse's body being that of a mare. That, and mythology states that centaurs have a nasty habit of raping human women.
 * In 2001, Expedia.com had this commercial about a young woman going on a business trip with an obnoxious co-worker named Cooper. As she imagines the lengthy flight in the window seat next to Cooper, we see brief glimpses of some of his annoying behavior. In one, Cooper points both his thumbs at his chest and boisterously cries, "THIS GUY!". This is the punchline to an off-color joke, but it's also the punchline to many less offensive jokes, so they were probably intending to let the viewer fill in the blank there.
 * One of the commercials for Pepsi in Argentina features both every kind of sexual innuendo imaginable while "I Touch Myself" by Divinyls is played.
 * A campaign for Burger King's Chicken Fries featured a GWAR-like, chicken-themed band singing tunes such as "Bob Your Head" and "Cross The Road". The band's name? Coq Roq (try saying it out loud).
 * Make 7-Up Yours.
 * The Australian anti-littering campaign with the slogan "Don't Be A Tosser".
 * For their Molson Canadian beer, Molson brewery made a commercial about how many beavers we have in Canada, so many that sometimes we have to chase them out of the house. The commercial ends with the phrase "Molson Canadian, for when you're chasing beavers."
 * There was an Australian ad that used that meaning of the word as well. It involved a woman taking a beaver out on a day-trip. It ended with her presenting the advertised product to the beaver. What was being advertised? Frigging maxi-pads and tampons! It even had the catch-phrase "Care down-there" for cripes sake!!
 * When obviously "Care down-under" would have been so much better!
 * When Nintendo first brought out the DS, they used the slogan "Touching Is Good". The obvious Double Entendre was hardly lost on consumers...or on the game developers, judging by some of the earlier titles. (Feel the Magic, anyone?)
 * The bee having fun with a flower was actually an advertisement of a mobile phone tune which somehow managed to air midday.
 * The Quiznos Torpedo commercials. A deep-voiced talking toaster told an employee to take the sandwich and "put it in me," and when referring to the "only four dollars" line, to "say it sexier" There must have been complaints, since they ended up slightly edited, (the line was changed to "say it with passion") but even then the "put it in me" line was still there. It was then changed again: "Put it in me" was changed to "I'm waiting for it". The unedited version still aired late at night, though. View the extreme radar breakage here.
 * Also:

Scott: Not doin' that again...*looks at crotch* that burned..."

"Wonder Woman: You girls are developing into quite the superheroes.
 * You're gonna love my nuts.
 * ¡Mira mi huevo!
 * Subway's ads have included referring to subs as "yum rockets". Manages to be a Narm too.
 * This corn nuts radio commercial.
 * There was a TV spot a few years ago for a local newspaper, that had a man in a trenchcoat walking through a park, opening it up to numerous (shocked) people. After a few seconds, a voice over gently says, "Got something small to advertise? Take out an ad our paper." How did that get through?
 * Aspercreme's original slogan was "You bet your sweet Aspercreme!" Then somebody realized the ad was talking about people's sweet asses, so they changed the third and fourth words to "if it's".
 * There is a regular series of ads on Australian TV for a brand of Peanuts called Nobby's. It involved someone talking about "Nibbling Nobby's Nuts". In every case people nearby would all look suspiciously when that someone, it was usually a woman, said this out loud. It's been going strong since the 1980s.
 * When this company aired ads in the UK, they used the same slogan, though the advert featured UK 70's Slade frontman Noddy Holder. The ad showed a group of men who, upon reading the title, started to lunge towards Noddy's crotch, stopping just short when he announced "Not Noddy's. NOBBY'S!". God knows how they got away with that one.
 * It's even funnier if you're a Discworld fan. Nobody wants to nibble anything of that Nobby.
 * Kellogg's Corn Pops presents... The Spooning.
 * A TV 3 ad from the mid 2000s. Feic, feicim, feicamar etc. said the teacher. The joke being in Ireland feck is a swear word while feic is the Irish for see and pronounced exactly the same.
 * The Cadbury's Flake ads.
 * In a certain Cartoon Network ad...

Bubbles: Someday, we'll be as developed as you!


 * A Comedy Central ad has a guy with his head in a hole in a table (as if it was being served on a platter in a cheesy horror movie). He is surrounded by cats, and keeps saying "I don't think they're going to get it..." Then the following two exchanges happen:

Guy In The Table: I think this cat is hairless.

Guy 2 (putting more cats down): Here, this one's Brazillian."


 * The tag was "You'll be up to your neck in-".

"Director: Okay, cut!
 * Target's 2009 Black Friday sale ad has a woman standing in a kitchen putting white frosting on a Target Gingerbread House. She pauses to describe how excited she is about the sale. As her excitement builds to a crescendo and she tells the viewer "I haven't slept for days!" white frosting gushes from the tip of her frosting gun.
 * Pretty much any commercial from Joe's Crab Shack. Ads like "Take your Top Off" and an entire family cursing are some of the things that went past the censors. Also, this.
 * Unfortunately, in some markets (including Florida), someone caught on to that second ad. Later airings completely ruined the joke by cutting away from the bleep entirely.
 * This infomercial for a cat litter scooping device named Catch-It.
 * The Charmin bears: the toilet paper company has an entire international advertising campaign based around taking the phrase "Does a bear shit in the woods?" to its logical extreme. (Apparently, the answer is "Yes, and they use Charmin toilet tissue to clean up afterwards.")
 * A German toilet paper company proceeded to make a parody. It's not likely the "Does a bear shit in the woods?" idiom exists in German, though.
 * And the German version of the initial Charmin bear advert is even more explicit than the American one (then again, they can get by with more shit on German television...).
 * Heck, probably all Axe commercials are good examples.
 * One ad had a guy playing cards with two teen girls who were in only bra and panties. Their father comes downstairs and starts beating the hell out of the guy while a voiceover says "Don't mess with the King's Queens or he'll kick your Ace, Jack."
 * The infamous "Axe Land" commercial.
 * "This one." Still trying to figure out how they got that past the network censors.
 * Another one which Lampshades the previous one.
 * During the 2009 Indy 500, Firestone had a blatant example. The station had paused for a station ID (which was announced by the analyst) and it went to a radio commercial that invited the listener to strap down tightly, feel the rubber and smell the excitement, gripping it tightly with sweaty palms. Thanks Firestone for making us think you're offering a new line of tires. (Incidentally it didn't get complained about once. Wow.)
 * You'll see the "Suck da head and pinch da tail" slogan all over New Orleans. It's the technique for eating crawfish: break in half, pinch tail to get the meat out, and suck the juices from the head.
 * Y'all know what "suck the heads" means?
 * The ads for FX's Nurse Jackie: first one was "Life is full of little pricks", while another was "Holy shift".
 * The Schick Quattro Women's shaving razor has an ad in which a woman walks about town, and everywhere she goes, overgrown bushes get... trimmed.
 * Toyota's current commerical for the Sienna has a woman in her new van, marveling at how relaxing it is to be in it. The woman then explains that she escapes the hours in the Sienna by saying that time in the van 'gives her fewer headaches'.
 * One commercial for Fruit by the Foot has one kid claiming to have replaced something vital of another kid's with Fruit by the Foot while pointing at his crotch.
 * A commercial for Late Night Liars, which appears to be an even more dysfunctional Greg the Bunny, has one aged starlet puppet (think Miss Piggy on a bender after realizing she was too old to have a career) doing a screentest drunk. She falls asleep, and this exchange happens:

Puppet: (wakes up) What did you call me?!"

"Yellow: What happened to my M?
 * A Jack in the Box commercial features Jack conversing with his mother about whatever product he's now selling, when his father barges in exclaiming "Honey, call the doctor! It's been more than four hours," accompanied by a panicked glance downward.
 * Jack in the Box seems to be adopting this as a core element of their ads (which isn't a bad thing, mind you). One ad features Jack discovering some...rather intimate purchases amongst his wife's groceries, which she tells him are for "later". He then finds a spiked collar and gets VERY excited...until being told it's for the dog.
 * An older Burger King commercial, in which a Whopper sandwich is berating his son, Whopper Jr., for selling himself for only a dollar.
 * "Your dad's really throwing his weight around!" "All quarter-pound of it!"
 * The Spanish lollipop brand Chupa Chups, which is distributed to other countries, got away with their slogan "The Joy Of Sucking" for many years before changing it to "Life Less Ordinary". There also exists a sign in a store that sells them that aside from the "no smoking" part sounds less innocent than intended, available on Wikipedia.
 * An advert for Tetley tea bags had the head mascot Gaffer and his date in a taxi outside her house. She asks him if he'd like to come in for some "coffee". But Gaffer takes this literally and, as a tea man, he's disgusted. He says "What sort of a bloke do you think I am?" and leaves her standing on the curb.
 * The Tiddy Bear! Which sounds very similar to what the product is hugging half the time. Good thing those women were adults wearing seatbelts.
 * A commercial for the Mini Countryman had a gameshow called "Cram It In The Boot" where the (British) host asks the (American) contestant if he'd ever crammed it in the boot? The commercial was advertising how Countryman's boot is able to hold more stuff, so you can cram more things in its boot. The radar obviously had no idea what else that means.
 * This ad for Johnson on-board motors. The only thing that makes me wonder whether it was intentional or not is the line about "your kids." That seems a little risky, even for getting crap by the radar.
 * An ad for Herbal Essences shampoo features women using the shampoo and hallucinating their fantasies with the slogan "Someone's been doing the Herbal".
 * An M&M's ad featured Red and Yellow stuck in a cold area. It was just a freezer, though. After they get out we got this:

Red: It's called shrinkage."


 * And here's more stuff that they got away with.
 * One Bigspot ad shows some kind of yo-yo product (which, as all the Bigspot ads imply, is a failure). At one point, a woman walks up to a man in a very suggestive tone and says "Can I play with your yo-yo?" The guy winks at the screen, and the ad ends.
 * G.I. Joe toy commercials were made under the same restrictions as the TV series. However this episode managed to sneak in a little lethality: When introducing the joe Sub-Zero, he comes up behind two Cobra troopers, and fires one-shot each.
 * There was once an anti-littering PSA starring Aquaman called That Dirty Beach.
 * There was an ad for Oreo Cremes where a man and his children are eating some of the Oreos, unable to describe how tasty it is, and then his wife comes in, eats one and she says "Shut the front door!" in a surprised/disbelieving tone, and as they're coming up with more Unusual Euphemisms it cuts to the grandfather in the nearby room who exclaims "Franklin Delano!"
 * Actually 'Shut the Front Door' is not an unusal euphamism; it's a fairly common replacement for 'Shut the Fuck Up' in real life.
 * There was an even older Orbit Commercial that used "Shut the front door!". Orbit commercials in general are known for their Unusual Euphemisms, including "Who are you calling a cootie queen? You LINT LICKER!", "What the French toast?", "Well, kiss my- ASHTON!", and of course, "I will pineapple slap your ASCOTS!" The whole purpose is to show that Orbit gum makes your mouth so clean that you won't say any dirty words.
 * This trope is the whole point of the women in the KGB Deals promotions, online and on television. Not to mention the fact the dark-haired, pale-skinned girl is an Expy of Michelle Ryan, although she is never named as such.
 * The Jello Pudding's "Pudding Face" commercial. The Urban Dictionary definition of "pudding face" gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "$#!+-eating grin".
 * "Whatever happened to drinks? It used to be real liquor, in a real glass. Now it's cocktails called razzle...twatitinis and who knows what. This cocktail's called tequila." Yes, 1800 Tequila certainly "changed the game" with that commercial.
 * A commercial for FarmRich frozen foods the woman narrating says "When my kids were babies, they were so sweet I just wanted to eat them up. Some days, I wish I had." Since when is fellatio an apporpriate discussion among frozen snackfoods?
 * I thought she meant something else...
 * One wonders how this ad for Luvs Diapers got past the radar. Yes, you saw it correctly. Those babies are having a competition for...who can be the most "heavy duty".
 * Overstock.com's (now O.co's) tagline "The big, big O" is odd but reasonably innocuous. Their Jingle bells-esque Christmas jingle ("Oh Oh Oh, the big big O, Overstock.com", which never comes after the company is identified) crosses the line into a disturbingly unrelated attention-grabber.
 * A commercial for Mario Kart 7 features a group of guys playing. One's kart is struck by the lightning weapon which shrinks the kart. He asks "Hey, why am I small?" and his buddy replies, "Genetics".
 * Wilkinson Sword's "mow the lawn" did make it past us censors...for a little while. See here.
 * This legendary Fiat commercial from the 2012 Super Bowl. One shot even have the girl smear a white foamy substance on a guy's mouth and drop some on her chest. It's a wonder how this commercial got the okay to air.
 * This is one of those cases where Getting Crap Past the Radar was actually done literally: in the newest commercial for the Chevy Volt, the woman in that spot said that the car will "save you a crapload of money." (A caption at the end showed that she meant to say a boatload of money.)