That ad would appear to be even more confusing than you claim - it's not for an insurance company at all, but for a website that compares insurance quotes made by lots of different companies.

I agree with you though - give me a "Ronseal. It does exactly what it says on the tin" any day.

With most of my television viewing coming from a PVR these days I rarely see television adverts but with the ones I do see I think I would agree with you. If you described a car advert to me I doubt I would know what the car was or even the make. Don't shout too loudly though otherwise we might lose most of out television channels.

the golden age of advertising has long gone. Shake and Vac I can still sing the words to, and the 'Bum bum bum bum Esso Blue' one, although admittedly that doesn't have as many words to it.

'Tis one of the best ad campaigns for many a moon.

Sitting here trying to think which insurance company he is representing.....and I can't, despite the ad being on every few seconds, seemingly.

Can anyone explain the car ad where the guy reacts to being sacked by singing with a terrifying blank-eyed intensity as he drives past a lorryload of sheep on their way to slaughter?
Something about not being a sheep any more because he doesn't have a job? He might be a metaphorical sheep but real sheep get killed and eaten? He doesn't have a job, but, hey, he's got music, he's got rythm, who could ask for anything more (And look! There are some sheep!)?
It has clearly snagged my attention enough to make me watch closely but a) I've no idea which car is being advertised (but I don't drive so no loss to them) and b) The only conclusion I have come to is that this ad is just odd.

it's about brand engagement across a range of vertical and non-vertical touchpoints providing holistic and resonant cross-platform synergies - okay?"

"Great - but will I sell more beans"

"Um...."

I know what you mean about flashy advertising that you don't associate with a particular product but if you were in the market for that kind of product at that time you would probably register it.

when it subliminally influences buyer behaviour. For example, I was trying to remember the name of a high street computer retailer (I had one of those post-40 inexplicable memory losses where as soon as I tried to think of the name it went). The only way I could bring it to mind was to sing, to myself, the theme tune: #Where in the world? ...).

The idea is that you don't remember the product until you need to. For example, you're in the supermarket faced with near-endless choice of washing powder. Your brain attempts to make a decision and uses what it has stored to pick one, and this could be from adverts you've seen. The idea behind the meerkat ad is that you would remember compare the meerkat and translate that into compare the market. Similarly, if you were buying a car then you would remember the subtle brand values transmitted by an advert rather than the ad itself. Even if you think they don't work just think about how you perceive different brands - chances are those perceptions were formed by their advertising and other promotional activity.

In The Apprentice there's always a task that requires teams to create an advert for some spurious product and every year at least one of the teams fails to put the product properly into shot in the advert, which riles Surallan no end.

Much as it pains me to admit it, his approach of making sure people can see the name, what it does and, if relevant, what it costs big, bold and upfront does seem to be pretty obvious.

How many companies genuinely do that?

I'm particularly unimpressed with the new Halifax ads in which they sycophantically try and give the impression that they're helping some chap propose to his girlfriend by giving him a helping hand climbing up to her office window: all accompanied by a suitably understated little acoustic song to make it "real". That they have the audacity to give the impression that as a bank they have my interests at heart is frankly insulting and worthy of reintroducing the stocks. Bring back Howard, at least you had a target you could focus your ire towards. Now it's all touchy feely and 'ooh we're lovely really, just like you you lovely customer you..go on hug us please'.

I've noticed a few companies have brought back some old adverts (Persil springs to mind) which I presume is a crafty way of covering over the fact that they've no money to spend on new adverts but that it's reassuring for us to know in these troubled economic times that we can still get whites whiter than white. Yeah, but my blues are still blue.

I've been a graphic designer working in ad agencies for over 20 years and I still shake my head in disbelief at some TV adverts and what on earth hey are trying to get across with their adverts (and trust me I used to oversee production of DFS ads, and they are completely billy bollox!).

Best ones for me were the mad Tango ads (crazy happy slapping bhudda guy) and the Pot Noodle is a slag ads, which showed how some clients were brave for thinking outside the TV box and letting an ad agency go feckin' wild with their products!

Wish there were more to be honest, instead of horrible logo'd companies (confused.com the worst offender on TV at the moment) plying their grubby trade!

I'm off to lie down with the honey monster now...

with no spoken message or catchy tune that reveals what the product is. If you are blind and trying to get the gist of what is going on you are snookered. More Barry Scott.

That meerkat ad is wrong on so many levels. Meerkats are native to southern Africa, so why does he have an eastern European accent? Why is he wearing a smoking jacket? Why would you need to compare meerkats? I just don't get it.

I'd never use a price comparison website anyway, whether it's meerkats or markets, so I don't care that the ad's lost on me!

IMO is there's just too many adverts about. I'm more than happy when Alexandrei Meerkat pops up as at least he's well made and also damn amusing. Cilit Bang! is still my fave though.

I mean, seriously: what is that all about, eh?

I am just waiting for some ad agency to finally run out of ideas and go the 'Tesco Value' route - a white screen, with a few words in big black bold lettering:

BOLD. IT GETS YOUR CLOTHES CLEAN. IT'S CHEAP. BUY IT, PLEASE.

...so the advert works. Job Done

Near the end of term, my 11-12 year old pupils suddenly started quoting from adverts that hadn't been shown since they were born. I asked them where they'd got all this from, and they told me it was the Thinkbox advert, so we watched it together on YouTube:

They thought the man was just saying random, silly things. So I spent the best part of a maths lesson showing them all the original adverts from which it had quoted. All became clear.

math?

tune, with the creepy whistling is rather scary. It reminds me of a DIY based Night Of The Hunter.

I had an email from The Guardian about a survey for Panasonic Lumix cameras and one of the questions was "had I seen any online adverts for this brand?" I answered truthfully, no. Then, lo and behold, I come here and what do I see? So, in this instance, the ad hadn't worked, then I did a survey saying it didn't work, then it worked! So advertising is only piece of the jigsaw.

On the other hand, my interest piqued, I tried to click through to the Panasonic website, but couldn't, so the ad, in fact, didn't work after all.

Or is that a mistake?

The only downside of the Ashes coverage, apart from Nasser Hussain droning on and on and bloody ON! about something we'd all just seen, was the heavy rotation of the Peugoet 308 'Drive sexy' advert (case in point : I had to look up the variant). Apart from being a blatant attempt to make ownership of an end-of-life model with extra gizmos chucked in look like the height of metropolitan sophistication, isn't it aimed more at the ladies? Because I'd venture the vast majority of cricket viewers are male, Lily Allen being a rare exception.