Entries from September 2010 ↓

Staples’s “Wow!” guy has beaten out the Quzinos singing kittens by a hair (30 percent to 29 percent) in Consumerist’s reader poll to find the Worst Ad in America 2010. Staples famously loved the “Wow!” guy, created by McCann Erickson, and this recognition—dubious though it may be—will surely only convince the client that the ads are working. The Consumerist contest officially awarded the second ad in the series (below). See the original, and an alternate version of the second one, after the jump. See WongDoody’s craptastic Quiznos work here.

Here’s another leg-based Photoshop calamity that’s making the rounds this week—an image put out by Japanese cosmetics company Shiseido in which a woman’s right leg is the longest leg ever grown by a human. It really is the Elvis Presley of Photoshop botches—the undisputed king and a hideous embarrassment besides. The image was dug up by PhotoshopDisasters and subsequently posted to Jezebel. Readers there figured someone was pulling their leg, as Shiseido supposedly has higher standards than this. But actually, they don’t—just look at this unnecessary tweaking of Angelina Jolie’s face. A Shiseido rep confirms to Britain’s Telegraph that the company did create the image above, though it was a while ago. “This image was produced locally by our subsidiary about five years ago as press material to be used for editorial articles,” the spokesman says. “It was never intended for use in advertisements.” See a larger version of the image after the jump.

Here’s perhaps the most unlikely entry yet in the recent spate of ads showcasing buttocks of every kind. In this U.K. Fallon spot, the Cheestring character swims ashore and lasciviously shakes himself dry in a bit that’s reminiscent of Bo Derek’s cheesy antics in 10. It’s a bid to promote the brand’s “Cheestrings Spaghetti” line extension, and here the Chees-guy is wearing a very form-fitting bathing suit. You might call it … a string-cheese bikini! He’s got super-tight glutes (like a finely aged cheddar), but those who eat this stuff regularly might wind up with thighs and derrieres of the cottage-cheese variety.