While looking for inspiration for my final blog post of the semester I came across a blog on adfreak written by Gabriel Beltrone. In her post entitled “Pepsi NEXT Refreshes the Taste Test with Web Parodies” she talks about the effectiveness of ads generated by companies specifically for the web. This got me thinking about a trend towards “banned ads” which are advertisements containing to much questionable content to be shown on mainstream TV. For the most the most part these ads contain enough violence/inuendo/substance abuse to be on par with many late night television programs. As a result these “banned ads” are only posted online on sites such as youtube and consumers actually have to go and search them out.

It may seem strange to think that consumers would voluntarily watch advertisements, but the same elements that make the ads unsuitable for tv also make them hilarious and shocking. These to factors combine to elevate the advertisement to a form of entertainment for consumers. As was discussed in the video from class today, this makes the ad infinitely more effective. In fact, when combined with the power of the internet and social media, entertaining banned ads can be the ultimate tool for reaching the mature but imature segment. These consumers will seek out the ad, watch it over and over again, and pass it on to other friends who will enjoy it. To reach a large audience the marketer needs only to create an entertaining ad without boundaries and make it available, consumers and their social networks will take care of the rest