This is a kind of perfect storm of an AdTurd. ‘Funny’ wacky characters like Beefeaters acting like twats, absurdly faded celeb, post-modern retro stylings, designed to drill into your head.
What’s worse about this one is that Ray Parker Junior has had to accept this ad, as I assume Ghostbusters is pretty much his only revenue stream. It was probably this or an appearance on The Surreal Life.
RPJ strikes me as a nice guy, and I love Ghostbusters, so it’s a bit like the 118 people have taken a huge steaming dump all over it by associating it with their stupid service.
Who phones these number anyway? Use the internet, you morons, it’s free and easy. You have the sum of civilisation’s knowledge at your fingertips.
I’m not sure how much this service costs as I’m not stupid enough to use it, but I reckon I can make out from the deliberately hard-to-read writing at the bottom of the screen that from a landline it costs a minimum of £1 to use the 118 service.
Presumably from a mobile it costs ‘significantly more’ as broadcasters have now been forced to say.
I always ask people who I think waste money whether they would stop behaving in a certain way if I paid them cash. For example, would they look up queries like, ‘What’s the phone number of a local takeaway?’ if I gave them a quid to use the internet instead of calling an overpriced, totally unnecessary service?
The answer is obvious, though curiously I would pay a pound if this advert just went away forever.