The BK ads have been alternatively funny and just plain bizarre.
I hate that BK ad about square butts, or whatever. I can't believe that's marketed towards kids...and as RBJ stated that king is plain creepy to the max.
Some of those were pretty funny. Yep those are the ones. They were extra funny to me because they used the actual Coke Attorneys. Extra funny because while I was at Coke I was head of the Legal Division's IT Hardware Division. This one starring Elizabeth Finn-Johnson is one of my favorites. They had to do it over and over because she cusses like a sailor. If I ever was to be in court I'd want to have her on my side. Never would I want to be on the wrong side of her. I've seen her rip people apart and not even break a sweat.
This is Mike Kline. His personality really shines in this ad.
This is Jim Kolelemay, are really great guy. One of the few I really miss.
Those are OK ads. The ones I thought sucked were the ads with the detached body parts.
There are others that were equally as bad, the commercials Coke does are usually pretty good, it's the ad campaigns that really sucked.
What occurs me is NONE of the ads mentioned in this thread would have any effect on whether I bought the products or not. While at Coke, I befriended a girl in Marketing. She is an absolute whiz with Photoshop, and I constantly picked her brain for tips and tricks. I asked her about Marketing once, because I told her pretty much what you just stated. She said, it's not about selling, as much as it's about brand recognition, trademark identification and the like. It matters not if you're in Thailand, you'd still know this is a Coke.
Buell would love it if every time someone saw a Pegasus they would think Buell.