When you're going about and coming up with ideas for your next advertisement campaign it's important to know exactly what message that commercial is putting forth. This is especially true when you're trying to sell people on the idea of buying brand new hardware that could cost several hundred dollars. If it's your goal to get people in the mood to buy your overpriced hardware then there are a few things you will want to avoid. For example, you probably shouldn't talk about one of their parents dying or anything relating to a funeral home. Oh, and it's best not to use the word "herpes" as a joke, since you would be turning off all of your customers that actually have herpes. And while vomit and snot may work for software, it's probably best if you don't use it to sell a new console or video card (and don't even get me started about the idea of sewing your hand to something, we've already decided that that's a bad idea).

Perhaps the most inflammatory theme you could feature in your advertisement would be suicide bombers. After all, nobody wants to think about somebody getting blown up for no reason (especially when it has to do with religion or nationality). But I suppose nobody is going to be stupid enough to liken their product to a suicide bomber that would be the very definition of disastrous. Right?

You would think so, but apparently that's not the belief at Real 3D. Now granted, this commercial doesn't show a man with a bomb strapped to his chest walking into a busy market, but the implication is certainly the same. According to Real 3D their new card is going to blow you away. Figuratively that is as good thing, but not when there's dangerous glass flying right at your face. That's the problem with bombs, it's not the explosions that injure you ... it's all the debris. And then there's that poor cat who is clearly flying back so fast that when he hits the wall he's probably going to break his back. Is Real 3D trying to suggest that they are for cat death? Then again it's clear that the person we're dealing with isn't a rocket scientist (despite what his tattoo says), for reasons I will never understand he decides to hold on to the one thing in his computer room that is not bolted down. It's things like this that make me less sympathetic to his plight; perhaps it really comes down to the concept of survival of the fittest.

FROM: Tim Gunn's Guide to Bad Advertising