Marty wrote: Same here, ShyHeart. Unless they're affecting us in some subliminal way, it does make you feel that the advertising companies concerned are taking their customers' money under false pretences. Mind you, it generates some good entries for <insert the ad equivalent of the Cannes Film Festival here>.
In NZ (and I'm sure in Oz), Toyota have a history of very, very successful TV advertising in terms of the viewer's retention of the message. Some of the contents of these ads become iconic and enter the language, albeit briefly.
The latest one, which whipped up a storm of teacup proportions among the couch-bound semi-moral bleeters with which NZ (and I bet most other countries) is littered every night, was one for the Toyota HiLux utility vehicle (pickup for the Yanks). The only word spoken in the ad was "Bugger!", spoken by a farmer, his wife and his dog. A court ruling arising from the rump whingeland complaints left us with a new, acceptable word - bugger!
The really interesting thing is that within weeks another ad - a transport road safety ad - had a four-year-old girl saying it when her father, driving a ute, accidentally splashes her shoes when going through a puddle of water. Still, I guess bad language doesn't pay, because she gets hit by a car a couple of seconds later.
