Ah, the bathroom stall. Nothing sells your product better than an advertisement that reminds you of what it looks like when you're doing your business at a bar. The graffiti and inappropriate jokes, the phone numbers and that bad smell in the air; it's just one fond memory after another. Apparently that's exactly what Parker Brothers was going for with this advertisement for their phone service. This 1-900 number will cost you fifty cents per call, but knowing that somebody thought it was a good idea to parody a sleazy bathroom stall is priceless.

The inherent problem with this advertisement is that people rarely get their information from the graffiti on the wall. I don't care how much time they put into writing that crude and racist joke, chances are you aren't going to repeat it or even think of it again. And when was the last time you actually called a phone number because it promised a "good time"?? Face it, the information you get in a bathroom stall is unreliable. You aren't going to take their dating advice, so why would you call this number?

Another big problem is that the graffiti in question is so stupid that you hope that whoever wrote it was fired within minutes of finishing. "For a vid time"?? And what about, "Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, Q-BERT'S A HOPPER and this place is too!" The roughest exchange comes when somebody says that "Jeff is a Wimp" and Jeff responds, "I am not wimpy! I play PopEye!" I'm sorry, but this may just be a new low for bad concepts, this advertisement is ridiculous, I would hope that nobody would follow this design. All this does is remind me how much I hate going to the bathroom in bars. Oh, and I also hate 1-900 numbers, but that's a story for another time.

FROM: Rockstar: Bad Advertising