Ian Lurie over at Conversation Marketing blog is a man after my own heart.

If you love to hate bad ad campaigns as much as I do, you’ll love his post 5 Worst Ads of 2008.

Enjoy!

OK, so this a website, not an ad… but since this my blog, I chose to post this under my Irksome Ads series. Besides, isn’t a website just one big advert for your business??

Check out Restaurant La Maison François and click Welcome. You’ll see what I mean.

(Thanks to my friend Rachel for sending me this link.)

Now, this is just my opinion, but… if the information on your website is available in one language only, why do you make it look like you have the information in two??

As someone in the hospitality industry (bragging to be one of the best Fine Cuisine restaurants in the area), you’re thinking pretty small. You’re pretty close to the city of Montreal. What about tourists researching and planning a trip here, but DON’T speak French? Too bad for you. You’re losing precious business by being so close minded and “inaccessible” to a larger audience.

Welcome to a new series I affectionately call Irksome Ads. You know the ones I’m talking about — you hear them on the radio, you see them on TV, you drive past them in your car — ads that suck!

Deserving of an Irksome Ads award are promos:

• Where you have no clue what they are actually promoting.
• Have nothing to do with what’s being promoted (think perfume commercials).
• Make no sense and are confusing.
• Where the low budget ends up hurting the company’s credibility more than anything else.
• Are not memorable.
• That are terrible for any other reason.

To start off this series, I’d like to share with you an ad that plays on a local Montreal AM radio station. For some reason, it really gets on my nerves.

Here’s how it starts:

Do you enjoy paying taxes? Would you like to pay even more? Or would you, like many others, like to save… blah, blah, blah

I can’t quite put my finger on why it rubs me the wrong way… Maybe it’s because they are asking such a stupid question. Really, who would answer “Why, yes! I DO enjoy paying taxes!” or “Actually, now that I think about it, I really DON’T enjoy paying taxes! Let me give these guys a call right now!“

In marketing you ARE supposed to concentrate on a particular problem or challenge your target audience is facing, but is asking such a blatantly stupid question really going to make your potential clients feel like you can help them?

In listening to this ad, I feel patronized. I feel put down. If these are the kinds of questions they’ll ask when I meet them, I’d rather save myself the trouble and frustration.

Is it just me?

PS – Feel free to share the irksome ads you come across and we’ll discuss them here.