Comments on: Comments on 14042

Post number 14042

mathowie — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 13:39:39 -0800

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?

By: starvingartist

starvingartist — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 13:41:15 -0800

omg

By: argybarg

argybarg — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 13:42:34 -0800

We don't have to prepare for the worst now. There it is, right there.

By: dong_resin

dong_resin — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 13:42:38 -0800

No. No there isn't.

By: kokogiak

kokogiak — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 13:43:14 -0800

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.

By: zedzebedia

zedzebedia — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 13:43:19 -0800

Wow, that's impressive. And I thought simply kidding about dressing up as the North Tower for Halloween was tacky!

By: skallas

skallas — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 13:45:38 -0800

Has this been spotted in the wild? It could be a reject or bad joke by someone at linkexchange/microsoft.

By: dong_resin

dong_resin — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 13:46:54 -0800

I have to admit, I laughed. But I'm an sociopathic asshole. I really hope my tastes have not become the norm.

By: Aikido

Aikido — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 13:48:02 -0800

ROTFLMAO! BEST BANNER EVAR! EVARARARAR! Okay, I'm done.

By: aacheson

aacheson — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 13:50:46 -0800

My jaw hit the floor. This HAS to be a joke. It's not just tasteless, but a hideous design to boot.

By: David Dark

David Dark — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 13:51:26 -0800

Unbelievable.

By: tommasz

tommasz — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 13:52:12 -0800

There's no accounting for taste. If there was, however, this would have been handled by Arthur Andersen.

By: grabbingsand

grabbingsand — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 13:52:38 -0800

Odd. Beyond odd. And the quality has that mid-90s web feel to it.

By: bradth27

bradth27 — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 13:52:44 -0800

reminds me of an Atari 2600 game. Defender, anyone?

By: mathowie

mathowie — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 13:53:17 -0800

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.

By: holloway

holloway — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 13:53:48 -0800

bradth27: no, it's more a Missle Command.

By: Dark Messiah

Dark Messiah — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 13:57:37 -0800

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.

By: MonkeyMeat

MonkeyMeat — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 14:00:17 -0800

There's gotta be something redeeming about it. Maybe if you stare at it long enough, a ghostly woman comes out or something.

By: Nothing

Nothing — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 14:04:39 -0800

It was mentioned in Friday's ntk, but without any context. Yeah, tasteless.

By: Outlawyr

Outlawyr — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 14:07:38 -0800

Why does the airplane turn into a red pancake? Oh, and by the way, it's definitely Defender style graphics.

By: blackholebrain

blackholebrain — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 14:12:34 -0800

for a minute there, i thought it was gonna be a "join scientology" banner

By: BarneyFifesBullet

BarneyFifesBullet — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 14:23:24 -0800

..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

By: victors

victors — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 14:25:10 -0800

Unchecked greed

By: mdn

mdn — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 14:28:19 -0800

I'm depressed now. I wrote to wills.com to ask if they made it. If they write back I'll letcha know.

By: jackiemcghee

jackiemcghee — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 14:45:13 -0800

Staggering, but I would say the graphics were more like Scramble than Defender.

By: tiger yang

tiger yang — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 14:51:22 -0800

that was unbeleivably stupid....not to mention sick

By: LeLiLo

LeLiLo — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 14:51:41 -0800

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'?

By: mdeatherage

mdeatherage — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 14:55:00 -0800

Whatever it was, someone noticed -- the home page link no longer works. Anyone have an alternate one?

By: bradth27

bradth27 — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 15:07:39 -0800

I am so sorry I ever mentioned Defender. But it is refreshing that everyone remembers the game. sorry for hijacking the thread.

By: emptyage

emptyage — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 15:10:17 -0800

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.

By: modge

modge — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 15:24:00 -0800

thanks, emptyage. wow, that is incredibly offensive. gah.

By: darren

darren — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 15:34:19 -0800

It's down now.

By: MonkeyMeat

MonkeyMeat — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 15:38:16 -0800

I am so sorry I ever mentioned Defender. Hehe. Offender.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 15:38:17 -0800

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?

By: mlinksva

mlinksva — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 15:38:51 -0800

I'm sooooooooo offended. Not. What a fun little banner ad. Lighten up.

By: JakeEXTREME

JakeEXTREME — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 15:59:24 -0800

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.

By: victors

victors — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 16:28:44 -0800

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"

By: LeLiLo

LeLiLo — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 16:37:43 -0800

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.

By: victors

victors — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 16:49:19 -0800

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.

By: krisjohn

krisjohn — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 17:06:15 -0800

This is why I disable GIF animation.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 17:10:19 -0800

In the famous words of Bart Simpson from the "Crazy Marge" episode, "too soon".

By: honkzilla

honkzilla — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 17:15:04 -0800

I didn't know anyone still looked at ads or allowed pop-ups during their web browsing day.

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 18:00:18 -0800

can anyone offer it for those late to the...thread?

By: sylloge

sylloge — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 18:16:19 -0800

Paris: look up.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 18:23:33 -0800

Could we put whoever dreamed that up in Camp X-ray, please. Profiteering from tragedy has never been quite as blatant as that.

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 18:24:01 -0800

um...thank you....Maybe I should stop reading Mefi while cycling at the gym. (just kidding)

By: bunnyfire

bunnyfire — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 18:28:25 -0800

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......

By: th3ph17

th3ph17 — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 18:50:34 -0800

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...

By: mkn

mkn — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 20:59:08 -0800

um...mirror? I'm getting a 404?

By: gfrobe

gfrobe — Tue, 22 Jan 2002 05:22:42 -0800

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

By: dhartung

dhartung — Tue, 22 Jan 2002 05:29:03 -0800

gfrobe is right. 48 comments and nobody once actually said anything about what it was. hello?

By: jennyb

jennyb — Tue, 22 Jan 2002 07:32:08 -0800

I have never wanted to see anything so bad in my life! ARGH!

By: thewittyname

thewittyname — Tue, 22 Jan 2002 07:32:48 -0800

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.

By: jennak

jennak — Tue, 22 Jan 2002 08:15:55 -0800

Here's the original banner.

By: jennyb

jennyb — Tue, 22 Jan 2002 14:26:31 -0800

Yeah, that's pretty bad.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Wed, 30 Jan 2002 08:04:02 -0800

For those coming to this thread later, jennyb's link won't work, but this one still does.

By: jennak

jennak — Wed, 30 Jan 2002 09:58:17 -0800

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