Bad ads are one of many things that annoy me when I watch commercial television: normally this is quite infrequently, but due to the large sports event currently being broadcast on my local Seven Network affiliate, I’m being subjected to more than my usual allocation of bad ads.

Few ads are more annoying than Harvey Norman’s: bad jingles played to buggery, shoutey voiceovers, etc, etc, etc. Today, I was pleasantly surprised that they’ve put some effort into a new ad campaign. Their tagline? Nearly 50 years of Harvey Norman. Following the link to their web site, I found that Harvey Norman started trading in 1961, or for those of you who are mathematically impaired, 47 years ago. This leads to two separate conclusions:

  1. This is a highly desperate campaign designed to coincide with the Olympics, and will disappear very quickly.
  2. This is a highly desperate search for an interesting tag line, for a 6-year ad campaign (with a minor change in tag line to happen in three years time).

This is certainly a new low for Harvey Norman, and I hope that it is removed from my attention as soon as possible.