Wow - what happens when you take a concept a little too far? (When bloggers comment on your ad? ;)
Yahoo.ca has a nice little ad going - woman buys fertilizer from TV ad, kills everything in the garden, including a huge tree. That’s effective. Same woman buys fertilizer based on Yahoo Answers recommendation, garden blooms with huge plants, including the tree. That’s effective. The dog, buried in the garden, comes back to life. Little girl jumps off swing shouting “Scruffy! You’re alive”. That’s tasteless.
Yahoo had a nice ad going there. I’m not exactly sure why I find this mildly disturbing - reamination of the dead? Zombie dog? One hell of a powerful fertilizer, not to be used in graveyards? Actually, the more I think about it, that more I can understand why they did the ad the way they did - the dog adds the twist that makes the ad memorable. A bit icky, but memorable.