Badvertising is a semi-regular hecklerspray feature where we take a current advert showing on British television and tear it to pieces for sport -even ones with serious messages, like today's exhibit. Ladies and gentlemen – the Think! Drink-Driving Barman ad.
Now, everybody knows that drinking and driving is dangerous, illegal, irresponsible and, above all, stupid; so stupid that Paris Hilton has done it, Nicole Richie has done it and Lindsay Lohan has done it twice – and who'd want to copy any of those bell-ends? But despite this, people still do drink drive. But Think! know how to stop people drink-driving – by showing them 30 seconds of a barman having a schizophrenic episode. The thing is, the Think! drink-driving barman advert doesn't make us want to not drink-drive – it makes us want to go and punch Robin Williams in the face.
In the Think! drink-driving barman ad, a man approaches a bar at which point he's set upon by the world's most ghoulishly unprofessional barman. After asking the drinker what he'd like, the barman lurches into a crosseyed impression of a whole range of hilarious characters which we've identified as…
A brusque police officer,
Dame Maggie Smith explaining how over the limit the terrified drinker is,
An unsympathetic employer who's either Scottish or from Yorkshire or a big cartoon gorilla,
Old Man Steptoe presenting a weird gameshow about cars, and
A slightly higher-pitched Old Man Steptoe whining that he hasn't got a job
…before the barman appears to become possessed by some sort of terrifying demon like Zordrak from The Dreamstone and the drinker grabs his coat, runs to another bar, downs drink after drink to banish the haunting image of the barman's mental breakdown from his mind, drives home drunk, crashes into a tree and dies.
That last bit isn't shown in the Think! drink-driving barman advert but, well, that's probably what we'd do in the same situation.
Mark says
I’m not sure which is more unfunny; the drink driving campaign thats not supposed to be funny or your retarded attempt at humour.
Go figure.