Ask any marketer what they think about appearing on the list over the years and the chances are that they will say they are 'honoured'. A brand's presence in our table proves it has stuck in consumers' minds. To be irritating is to be memorable and thus effective, so it can be argued that the fact that these ads have caused irrational rage among consumers is beside the point.
Do brands really set out to irritate consumers, and is this a brand strategy that is sustainable in the long-term? According to Richard Holmes, marketing director of Specsavers, the answer is yes. 'As Oscar Wilde said, there is only one thing worse than being talked about, and that's not being talked about,' he argues.
However Elliot Moss, managing director of Leagas Delaney, says that good advertising should not be about who can shout the loudest; instead, it should be about creating a meaningful conversation with consumers. 'Crap advertising does not have to exist, but the fact is that most advertising is crap,' he adds.
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Pointing to the now-defunct 'Daz doorstep challenge' ad, Moss claims that ultimately, if an ad becomes too irritating, consumers will simply vote with their wallets and stop buying the product in question. 'People want to be entertained,' he says, adding that irritating advertising is often lazy advertising.
There are several direct-response ads in the table, notably InjuryLawyers4U, which retains the top spot, while price-comparison site Confused.com and insurance brand Churchill also make the top 10. Chris Watney, head of brand at Churchill, is unfazed. 'Churchill is one of the most well-known insurance brands. We know that [dog character Churchill] has a lot of fans out there and the ad has performed really well,' he says.
Churchill's agency, WCRS, also has the somewhat dubious honour of having created the highest number of ads in the table. It has produced arguably the most grating spot of the past year for Weetabix's Oatibix, as well as a series of eccentric executions for Phones4U, and introduced us to the weird and cringeworthy 'odd couple' of health-food shopkeepers, Mr Holland and Mr Barrett.
In the age of social networking and mass-blogging, many of the ads that appear on our list have also attracted widespread derision and outpourings of anger from consumers online. One particularly unpopular entry in the list is the Specsavers campaign, created in-house, featuring legendary French singer Edith Piaf belting out her most famous song, Non, je ne Regrette Rien, with the subtitle giving a cod-translation of the lyrics suggesting that the chanteuse did in fact have one regret - not having bought her glasses at Specsavers.
The campaign attracted the wrath of consumers online. One incensed blogger wrote: 'Specsavers' hijacking of the song and the woman to offload a couple of pairs of glasses is, in my opinion, beyond reprehensible. Aside from the fact that it takes the personal, emotional core of the song and castrates it for the sake of corporate "humour", did any of the firm's copywriters do any research on the woman whatsoever? If they had, they would have known that from the ages of three to seven, Piaf was blind as a result of the disease keratitis. That's right, Specsavers have tastefully chosen to parody a dead alcoholic who had no sight as a child.'
As ever, there remains something of a gulf between what the public and the marketing community deem a 'great' ad. Orange's 'I Am' campaign ranked as the 15th most irritating ad, while Cadbury's 'Trucks/Gorilla' mash up came 24th.
Consumers also showed signs of 'food-porn' fatigue, voting Marks & Spencer's 'M&S Food' ad the 16th most annoying of the year - a ranking it shared with pasta sauce brand Dolmio, whose puppet ads continue to give grown men nightmares. The public also proved that they are not duped by ill-thought-out marketing ploys; the Pizza Hut/Pasta Hut 'rebrand' came in at number 19.
What you said
What was the most irritating ad of the year? A selection of what you had to say at
Pizza/Pasta Hut and Oatibix: both effectively the same ad, both sound like they've been written by the marketing director's 12-year old son.
David Clyde
Has to be the 'Rockstar' DFS ads! Managed
to combine cringeworthy acting with NICKELBACK, surely the ultimate bad taste combination? ...shudder!
Andrew Newland
Polaris World - great comedy value for the first three or four times at the presenter's inability to speak English, sounding like a
B-movie Spanish villain, and trousers-under-chin fashion. It then became deeply offensive after the 5678567856785678568th time.
Paul Finch
Has to be the Cadbury 'Gorilla'/'Trucks' cut-and-shut job. Awful.
Stephen Attree
HSBC: tired, at odds with the reality of the products and services. Convoluted and dismissive of the domestic market. Marks & Spencer: overblown and overcooked. And anything Morrisons have ever done.
Sue Turner
One person's irritating is another's unforgettable, and even annoying ads get through to the people they annoy. Thank God we have the IPA Effectiveness awards as well. I suppose that this poll does show that, good or bad, people can't help talking about TV ads; and that they are more memorable than other ads - where are the most irritating online, print and radio ad polls?
Lindsey Clay
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