January 21, 2002

1:39 PM

The worst banner design ever?I've seen some tasteless advertising in my day, but this simple animation leaves me speechless. Is there any depth to which advertisers will go to hawk their services?
posted by mathowie (56 comments total)

omg
posted by starvingartist at 1:41 PM on January 21, 2002

We don't have to prepare for the worst now. There it is, right there.
posted by argybarg at 1:42 PM on January 21, 2002

No.
No there isn't.
posted by dong_resin at 1:42 PM on January 21, 2002

Saw this earlier today. I can't help but think it's an effort at drawing attention just by being tasteless and making folks like us react. If it's a straightforward ad, then it's just sad - if not then it's calculated tastelessness.
posted by kokogiak at 1:43 PM on January 21, 2002

Wow, that's impressive. And I thought simply kidding about dressing up as the North Tower for Halloween was tacky!
posted by zedzebedia at 1:43 PM on January 21, 2002

Has this been spotted in the wild? It could be a reject or bad joke by someone at linkexchange/microsoft.
posted by skallas at 1:45 PM on January 21, 2002

I have to admit, I laughed.
But I'm an sociopathic asshole.
I really hope my tastes have not become the norm.
posted by dong_resin at 1:46 PM on January 21, 2002

ROTFLMAO! BEST BANNER EVAR! EVARARARAR!

Okay, I'm done.
posted by Aikido at 1:48 PM on January 21, 2002

My jaw hit the floor. This HAS to be a joke.
It's not just tasteless, but a hideous design to boot.
posted by aacheson at 1:50 PM on January 21, 2002

Unbelievable.
posted by David Dark at 1:51 PM on January 21, 2002

There's no accounting for taste. If there was, however, this would have been handled by Arthur Andersen.
posted by tommasz at 1:52 PM on January 21, 2002

Odd. Beyond odd.

And the quality has that mid-90s web feel to it.
posted by grabbingsand at 1:52 PM on January 21, 2002

reminds me of an Atari 2600 game. Defender, anyone?
posted by bradth27 at 1:52 PM on January 21, 2002

skallas, I got the link from a webdesign list, but it could be an unfortunate design choice by one of wills.com's affiliate program members.
posted by mathowie at 1:53 PM on January 21, 2002

bradth27: no, it's more a Missle Command.
posted by holloway at 1:53 PM on January 21, 2002

It's no worse than a joke I heard yesterday

"What's Bin Laden's favourite football team?"

"The New York Jets!" *rimshot*

Face it, we live in a world that feeds off of tragedy... It sucks, but it's the truth.
posted by Dark Messiah at 1:57 PM on January 21, 2002

There's gotta be something redeeming about it. Maybe if you stare at it long enough, a ghostly woman comes out or something.
posted by MonkeyMeat at 2:00 PM on January 21, 2002

It was mentioned in Friday's ntk, but without any context. Yeah, tasteless.
posted by Nothing at 2:04 PM on January 21, 2002

Why does the airplane turn into a red pancake?

Oh, and by the way, it's definitely Defender style graphics.
posted by Outlawyr at 2:07 PM on January 21, 2002

for a minute there, i thought it was gonna be a "join scientology" banner
posted by blackholebrain at 2:12 PM on January 21, 2002

..Defender style graphics

DEFENDER! YEAH!

Sorry, I flashed back there...

About the banner, I've seen worse but that one is still pathetic.

Is there any depth to which advertisers will go to hawk their services?

Nah
posted by BarneyFifesBullet at 2:23 PM on January 21, 2002

Unchecked greed
posted by victors at 2:25 PM on January 21, 2002

I'm depressed now.

I wrote to wills.com to ask if they made it. If they write back I'll letcha know.
posted by mdn at 2:28 PM on January 21, 2002

Staggering, but I would say the graphics were more like Scramble than Defender.
posted by jackiemcghee at 2:45 PM on January 21, 2002

that was unbeleivably stupid....not to mention sick
posted by tiger yang at 2:51 PM on January 21, 2002

In these uncertain times, it's hard to be definitive, but the words "worst" and "tasteless" certainly come right to mind. Actually, it could have been even 'worst' if, after 'the red pancake,' little .gif people would have appeared, jumping from the buildings. (Let's hear it for restraint.)

p.s. victors: your comment brings up an interesting point. Can there ever be 'checked greed'?
posted by LeLiLo at 2:51 PM on January 21, 2002

Whatever it was, someone noticed -- the home page link no longer works. Anyone have an alternate one?
posted by mdeatherage at 2:55 PM on January 21, 2002

I am so sorry I ever mentioned Defender.
But it is refreshing that everyone remembers the game.
sorry for hijacking the thread.
posted by bradth27 at 3:07 PM on January 21, 2002

Anyone have an alternate one?

Against my better judgement, I pulled it from filepile and posted it on my site. Um. If you want to pass this around, I'd appreciate it if you download it rather than linking to it. I'm going to remove it tonight.
posted by emptyage at 3:10 PM on January 21, 2002

thanks, emptyage. wow, that is incredibly offensive. gah.
posted by modge at 3:24 PM on January 21, 2002

It's down now.
posted by darren at 3:34 PM on January 21, 2002

I am so sorry I ever mentioned Defender.

Hehe. Offender.
posted by MonkeyMeat at 3:38 PM on January 21, 2002

Yes, thanks to emptyage for saving it.

Well, I guess I was expecting something a lot worse. That was pretty bad, but hardly the Worst Ever.

It does seem to be a theme with them, though. Their Web site proclaims:

"Wills.Com was mentioned in the Wall Street Journal on September 25, 2001, in an article titled, "Terrorist Attacks Spur Americans to Produce Wills." The article describes how will preparation, and, in particular, do-it-yourself will preparation is part of many Americans' post-September-11th activities."

Hasn't someone mentioned here lately that there's always someone waiting to make a buck off other peoples' fear?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 3:38 PM on January 21, 2002

I'm sooooooooo offended. Not. What a fun little banner ad. Lighten up.
posted by mlinksva at 3:38 PM on January 21, 2002

Ok, this is not shocking to me for some reason. I must say it is tasteless though, well, more idiotic than tasteless. I guess I know there is always going to be some schmuck out there trying to drum up business by any means neccessary.

The creator of this obviously failed/didn't pay attention to design class. My 6 year old cousin could've done a better job. Comparing design work like that to Atari is an insult to Atari.
posted by JakeEXTREME at 3:59 PM on January 21, 2002

lelilo: checked greed?

yes, of course. A baby cries because it is greedy for food. Parents work and gather (sometimes at the cost of others) in order to feed their children. the question is: when is enough? at what point can you look up and say "I have enough for me and mine"
posted by victors at 4:28 PM on January 21, 2002

victors: that's the great unanswerable question of our malcontented age: "How much is enough?" Nuclear weapons, CDs, votes in Florida, CPU speed, and on and on. The problem is that, for whatever reasons, most of us never get to the point where we feel we "have enough for me and mine."

Come on by, though, and if you need some, we'll try and find it for you.
posted by LeLiLo at 4:37 PM on January 21, 2002

first off a big caveat -- I'm not preaching (per se), I'm letting other people know how I sleep at night after I've spent a lifetime stepping on the toes of others to get my piece of the pie:

we (especially americans) have no concept when enough is enough because we are never exposed to that idea in any meaningful way. even the ideas that are pounded into us (like racism is bad, free speech is good, etc.) don't stick very well. what chance does an anti-capitalist sentiment like "it's actually possible to have enough" have?

if you learn this, chances are you learned it on your own.

and hey, buzz me up, I'm right outside with the chicks and beer.
posted by victors at 4:49 PM on January 21, 2002

This is why I disable GIF animation.
posted by krisjohn at 5:06 PM on January 21, 2002

In the famous words of Bart Simpson from the "Crazy Marge" episode, "too soon".
posted by Mark at 5:10 PM on January 21, 2002

I didn't know anyone still looked at ads or allowed pop-ups during their web browsing day.
posted by honkzilla at 5:15 PM on January 21, 2002

can anyone offer it for those late to the...thread?
posted by ParisParamus at 6:00 PM on January 21, 2002

Paris: look up.
posted by sylloge at 6:16 PM on January 21, 2002

Could we put whoever dreamed that up in Camp X-ray, please. Profiteering from tragedy has never been quite as blatant as that.
posted by jonmc at 6:23 PM on January 21, 2002

um...thank you....Maybe I should stop reading Mefi while cycling at the gym.


(just kidding)
posted by ParisParamus at 6:24 PM on January 21, 2002

how anybody could have the stupidity to design that, use it for advertising, and expect anyone to patronise the advertiser-well, it is beyond me...........

if I had a loved one in the trade towers, i'd be in search of peasants with pitchforks......
posted by bunnyfire at 6:28 PM on January 21, 2002

sometimes, as a lowly graphics slave, i get asked, yeah verily, i get PAID to make horrible shit that is exactly what the client wanted. I'll be in counseling someday for some of the stuff that has been asked of me. Nothing as lame as this banner though...
posted by th3ph17 at 6:50 PM on January 21, 2002

um...mirror? I'm getting a 404?
posted by mkn at 8:59 PM on January 21, 2002

Will someone describe what the banner is. Links are all dead now.

Thanks
posted by gfrobe at 5:22 AM on January 22, 2002

gfrobe is right. 48 comments and nobody once actually said anything about what it was. hello?
posted by dhartung at 5:29 AM on January 22, 2002

I have never wanted to see anything so bad in my life! ARGH!
posted by jennyb at 7:32 AM on January 22, 2002

dhartung and gfrobe, here is a basic description recalled from seeing this two days ago. I apologize in advance for screwing something up:

On the right hand side of the ad, there are two 3-D boxes standing side-by-side that are supposed to be the WTC, but look nothing like them. On the left side of the ad, a poorly drawn ouline of a plane.

As the plane moves from left to right, the words "Hope for the best" is displayed in the upper left corner.

The plane hits the "towers", and the words "Prepare for the worst". The explosion is nothing but an expanding red dot.

The previous text dissapears, and then "Wills.com" shows up on the left and on the right, "Click here" with an arrow pointing to the explosion/red dot!

Hope this helps....but words cannot describe how much this ad looks like it was done by a 7-year-old in MS Paint.
posted by thewittyname at 7:32 AM on January 22, 2002

Here's the original banner.
posted by jennak at 8:15 AM on January 22, 2002

Yeah, that's pretty bad.
posted by jennyb at 2:26 PM on January 22, 2002

For those coming to this thread later, jennyb's link won't work, but this one still does.
posted by dhartung at 8:04 AM on January 30, 2002

i'm not jennyb -- i'm jennak. and i had to pull the banner down because a bunch of livejournalers were displaying the image on their sites (without saving it to their own sites).

so i ended up replacing the image with this banner. hahaha
posted by jennak at 9:58 AM on January 30, 2002