Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Holy shit!  I can’t believe I was so surprised at that commercial. Fuckwads!  I didn’t expect to see your post quite so soon. I’ll have to order some flowers from proflowers now.

Holy cow patties! Do they know their target audience?????

Heh. I was wondering who would post this first. Katiebabs beat you to it.

Tele-who? Sorry, it’s not computing. Guess I’ll never call them…

Idiots.

Yup, I thought this commercial sucked, too. Big time. Major personal foul on Teleflora. They’re never getting my business. Mocking romance novels and being misogynistic in one breath? No, thanks. I’ll get my flowers somewhere else.

You folks are fast! And yeah. ProFlowers. And just in time for Valentine’s!

Whoa.  That’s BAD.  Now, I don’t use Teleflora, because ProFlowers is totally awesome, but if I had been thinking about it that would turn me completely off.

I sent an email to teleflora re: their massive FAIL!  Wonder if I’ll get a response?

Thank you for posting about this! My jaw literally dropped when I saw this commercial. I’m still trying to think how anyone thought it would be a good idea to air this travesty.

My ugly mug and fat stinky pussy will pass teleflora up for sure.  Teleflora isn’t just against romance novels it’s obviously got a poor opinion about women overall.

Flag on the play!  15 yard penalty, personal foul, unnecessary lameness, etc.

Go Cardinals.

I agree, that’s bullshit.  I’ve gotten a gorgeous vase and Gerbera daisies from Proflowers before. They lasted 2+ weeks.

Mocking romance novels right before Valentine’s Day? Smart.

And don’t forget they mocked cat owners also.

I was so furious I screamed and threw stuff at the TV.  My boyfriend, bless his heart, didn’t even blink at my outburst.  He went on to say that they were jerks.  *grins*

Stupid stupid people to make an ad like that.

This ad makes no sense. It doesn’t sell the company or the flowers or even the idea of sending flowers. I’ve forgotten what the company is already.

And anyhow, men should know that if they really want to impress, they should send an attractive naked man in a chocolate G-string.

DH and I were also surprised at this commercial.  Yeah, Valentine’s is coming up…and yeah, he knows not to use Teleflora.

http://www.teleflora.com/FLOWERBLOG/post/Flowers-get-the-last-word-this-Sunday!.aspx

teleflora’s own blog. sock it to them.

All I can say is, if there were any women involved in thinking up this commercial to begin with, they ought to be drawn and quartered!  And shame on the actresses too!

neanderthals…

Oh I dunno—the target market is clearly the blokes who BUY the flowers, not the women who receive them. This is going to pander to a few prejudices quite nicely.

Agree with the summation of it being a pathetic ad. Up there with the annoying one in my local movie theatre that berates men (!! because y’know, men pay for the ticket if you are on a date) for being cheap asses for not buying their date a GOLD CLASS ticket!

Please. Your target market is clearly NOT the people like me in the cheap seats (who, may I point out, has a joint account so not really interested in husband Proving His Love by spending OUR money).

When will people learn NOT to insult their customers, either directly or by proxy? It really doesn’t make us want to buy their products.

Wow, that was insulting on so many levels, not to mention just plain obnoxious. And that’s why I have a “No-business-with-fucktards” rule.

I agree, that was a fricking major FAIL.
But, well, it’s easy really. Hit them where it hurts. I’ve never bought flowers from them, and now I never will.

hmm. The blog link gets an error - wonder if someone got a clue?

Oh I dunno—the target market is clearly the blokes who BUY the flowers, not the women who receive them. This is going to pander to a few prejudices quite nicely.

Yeah, but the Super Bowl is as much a social event as a sporting event and as such, there are probably as many women watching as men and if anything, the women probably pay closer attention to the commercials than the men do, so it was an epic FAIL on a lot of levels.

Plus, it was stupid.

I sent them an email too.

http://www.teleflora.com/FLOWERBLOG/

Try that one . No comments there yet.  They seem rather proud of their commercial.

I believe that the owner of Teleflora is a woman, so EXTRA FAIL for associating your business with “ugly” “rude” and “misogynist”.

You can also vote on ads at hulu.com.

As I sit here on my fat ass, a purring kitten on my lap, a bagful of books—many of which are romances—at my feet, I find myself ASTOUNDED.  Frankly, around here, if I get flowers, he buys them locally and brings them home.  If flowers get sent, such as to the MIL for her birthday or my daughter for Valentine’s Day or just to cheer her up on a bad day, I’m the one doing it.  I doubt that I’m the only one.  So, teleflora may think they were playing to their demographic (guys, watching the game, who have only just realized that V-Day is coming—because women don’t watch football, right?), but they really dropped the ball on this one, didn’t they?

Schmucks.

Proflowers and 1-800-flowers will get ALL of my future business and these women-bashing assholes can just bite me.

I left them a polite comment, but I guess that the moderator needs to approve it first. My guess is that he/she won’t feel inclined to approve, but we’ll see. Why don’t you all go and write them something nice? I’m sure they appreciate customer feedback. ;-)

I tried to comment but it won’t show up. Morons.

I posted a version of what I said here on their blog and it didn’t post.  Whatever.

All I got from that commercial was “blah blah blah we’re a bunch of dick holes.”

I just sent the lovely asshats at teleflora a professionally written biting email.  I was so embarrassed by this commercial. I have never used their service and now I never will.  The ad will be pulled by tomorrow I am guessing by the feedback I’ve seen in my last google search. Wait till the ladies at Feministing and Shakersville get a hold of them.

my word was serious78.  Yep, serious as 78 heart attacks!

From their site:

“Flowers and romance are as inseparable as two people in love”

okaaaaayyyy??

the main page will get you to the blog post. However, comments are not showing, so I thin k they’re moderated, even though it doesn’t state as such.

http://www.teleflora.com/FLOWERBLOG

I knew ya’ll were going to be all over this. And good for you! And all of us.

And here’s a pro-tip Google the town where you’re sending flowers. Call the local funeral home ask who does the best flowers, call them and don’t pay Teleflora or anyone their shitty Ticketmasteresque markup.

Hey, Sarah…why don’t you contact Proflowers and see if they’ll give a discount to anyone who writes the word “Bitch” in as the secret word?  Or Smartbitch???

My jaw dropped at that commercial.  I foresee a lot of women turning to their husbands and honies and saying, “Please don’t buy me flowers from those ...(insert expletive here).”

Amen.  I was fuming too, lol, and was about to put it on my blog when I saw it here.

If someone has a youtube account they should post there too- so far people think it’s funny. (Ok, 6 people, but still, that’s too many)

Wholly Crap! That was a whole smear misogynistic crap! 

Did anyone else notice who got the “mean flowers”.  Of course the single woman in the grotty cube farm.  The “silent flowers” went to the the peen-earning-power-purchased-upscale-georgian-brick-two-story-dwelling-right-outta-sixteen-candles.  There’s a whole world of subtext right there.

That “no one wants to see you naked ” comment still has me pissed off.

I didn’t watch the game—was otherwise occupied during most of the relevant time period—and so missed the ad.

Like the rest of the gallery, I’m boggled that Teleflora approved the ad for broadcast.  However, I am also boggled that whatever ad agency was involved let the relevant account execs show the proposal for that ad to that client in the first place. 

Mind, I understand the intended psychology—the intended target for mockery is the competition’s lame flowers, with the intended message being that Teleflora’s are better than that—but the execution fails on so many basic levels that the ad shouldn’t have gotten anywhere near the Teleflora offices in that form.

I foresee a rapid change of ad agencies in Teleflora’s future, and very possibly an equally quick trip to the unemployment office for the agency staffer(s) who developed and pushed through that particular ad.  The failure of perception is positively appalling.

This is the company who had a category for mothers day called NON-MOMS that had adopted/adoptee groups in an uproar also. Whoever handles their advertising department needs some so serious groin kicking.

And they spent how much money on this? I was in a different room and heard the husband, daughter, and her fiance all groan, followed by the patter of feet, a “whew,” and my daughter yelling to her dad. “It’s okay. The TV is still intact. Mom hasn’t thrown anything…Yet!”

Yeah. She knows me. Teleflora is on my Do Not Call list now, too.

“Teleflora’s in-house unit Fire Station Agency handles. The spot was directed by John O’Hagan at production company RSA (Ridley Scott Associates).”

found here: http://www.flowersandcents.org/index.php?topic=2178.0

This seems to be like all those moms of the American Idol entrants who can’t sing - too close and invested to realize the truth.

We like 1-800Flowers and FTD, too. Teleflora, FAIL!! I’m so ticked off.

You can drop them an email via their website.  Hit “about us,” and then “email customer service.”  I’d bet they have comments turned off on their blog.  I would.

I sent this This email is regarding your Superbowl ad, which aired on 2/1/09.  I find it to be misogynist and offensive.  I will not be patronizing your service, and I will encourage my friends and family not to patronize it either.  You made a gross misstep in insulting women as the (only) target of floral gifts and alienated many potential customers in doing so.

Their dig at romance novels was the LEAST of my issues with the language in this ad.

My husband’s sent me flowers twice this deployment alone. I’ll make sure he won’t be using Teleflora.  The idiocy is astounding.

At the party tonight the only time the entire room was quiet was after that ad played… the women were just astounded at the stupidity and the men knew better then to open their mouths.

STEELERS for the WIN!!!!!!!!!!!

Teleflora, NOT

Pathetic. And hatefully disrespectful of women. Truly unbelievable that they didn’t realize the message they were sending.

I was thinking about this, though - how often does anyone buy flowers these days? I’m 40 now, and I thought it was kind of a “mom” gift to receive when I was 20. They’re OK, but I’d much rather go out to dinner than get a $70 bouquet on valentine’s day. Delivery flowers are for funerals and mother’s day, or for husbands who can’t be bothered to show up in person. (send me a plant, or bring me a bouquet from the farmer’s market - now we’re talking.)

Anyway, watching that my thought was - they are dinosaurs and they advertise like dinosaurs. They need to travel back to 1961 and find some customers. (men who have contempt for women, like Teleflora does.)

Um,
ok, this ad didn’t make me angry. It’s just a stupid ad.

I guess what they were trying to say was ‘careful what you send out, you never know how people are going to take it’.

The irony is perfect. The ad agency should have heeded the very message they were trying to sell.

When that commercial ran, I turned to my partner and said, “SmartBitch Sarah is going to be ALL OVER this one!”  Wow, just wow.

Congrats to all you Stillers fans, too!

Here’s my comment:

Dear Teleflora,

Absolutely stunning commercial. I hold myself in awe of your figurative testicular mass and fortitude, because it takes a gutsy company to throw misogynistic ranting, cat-hating, *AND* a jab at a literary genre which has millions of constant and die-hard readers, in thirty seconds of airtime. Unfortunately, you gutsy dare did not pay off. I have never bought from you, and your obnoxious commercial has ensured that I never will. As a tip, I’d recommend that your future advertisements concentrate on building yourself up—such as you do in the above written description of the commercial. Devoting most of your screen time to offending people by putting words in the mouth of some imaginary company, by contrasting, is not an appealing use of your advertising dollar.

FUCK. One day, I shall be able to post a comment without making typos. Maybe I should do them in the morning when I’m still fresh.

Am I the only one who thinks you people are taking yourselves too seriously?  That commercial was hilarious!  Offensive, sure, but very funny.  Suck it up- why care what anyone else thinks?

Dear Troll,

There’s a big reason to care what people think—their opinions reflect how seriously they take you and how much respect you get, and that, in a social setting, determines pretty much everything you can accomplish. I’m 22 years old, live on my own, and have a 3.69 GPA pursuing a geology degree in a college whose Earth Science department is run by slavedriving sadists whose stated intention is to break us down and rebuild us in their image—but I can’t argue a damn thing with my parents, because they still see me as their child. It’s similar—that commercial just enforces the stereotype of romance being a shitty genre, and romance readers being sad, shitty people. I don’t even read romance that much, but I’m pissed at the layers of offense stacked into that commercial.

Fuck you.

I only watched bits and pieces after the half-time show and was taken aback at how boring all the commercials were.  I’m glad I missed this one.  The cats would have been upset, if they’d heard that.

It’s truly amazing that here we are in the 21st century and this makes it to national TV and one of the most watched programs of the year.  Truly amazing!

Words fail me.  No I do not have another96 words to say.

Between the Teleflora clusterfuck, the Pepsi “Pepsuber,” which proved that people who drink Pepsi are self-centered and stupid enough to blow themselves up rather than act with any modicum of common sense and I am so never, ever drinking Pepsi ever again, and the GoDaddy “Enhancement” mind-boggler that cut away just as the enhanced bimbo yanked off her clothing - was this year worse than usual? Or am I just bitchier these days and less willing to put up with this kind of bullshit?

Wow, that was just so MEAN on so many different levels.

Sent them a strongly worded message about their idiocy and crassness. (if I term it anything else, I will certainly lose my temper)

The fact is - sure, most men buy the flowers but, dude, there’s normally a female on the receiving end. You think women want someone to send them something from that company? Valentine’s day is coming up and I’m certainly informing the significant other that if anything from that company shows up, I will Not Be Pleased.

My mum is definitely getting her flowers from proflowers. My sisters? the same. My SIL? Same. Anything but this company.

Me, my fat ass, my multitude of dogs (not cats, am allergic) and my romance novels are not impressed.

peace58? yeah right. not over this.

I wrote them, too.  I was completely aghast when I heard that ad - it brought me back into the living room from the kitchen.  It was so shockingly nasty, and a roomful of kids were watching.  Give me a wardrobe malfunction any day. I’d far rather my kids get a good long look at Janet Jackson’s breast than have them hear “You’re a train wreck/No one wants to see you naked” in that snide, demeaning tone.

I mean, I get what the ad people were going for: DON’T choose flowers that insult the recipient.  But the impression the ad leaves is, “This crude, misogynistic rant has been brought to you by Teleflora.”  Gee, thanks.  But where’s my frickin’ vase?

I liked the Bob Dylan Pepsi commercial best.  I also liked the Coke commercial with the bugs, and the Cheetos commercial where pigeons were a weapon against the rude cell phone user, as well as most of the movie trailers.  And I admit I did laugh at the MacGuyver spoof for Pepsi, because I was so hot for MacGuyver in my youth, and there was Richard Dean Anderson himself in a baaaad mullet wig.  Looked like he belonged on an old-skool snarkable cover, maybe for a romance about a lumberjack….

I’m going to vote this year, I think; it will make me feel better.

ETA:  The hulu.com vote for your favorite Super Bowl ad is sponsored by Teleflora.  Ew.

Fortunately, I’ve never bought from Teleflora and now I never will. I tried leaving a message on their blog, but it wouldn’t post!
Gosh, I’m so surprised!

I’ve used 1-800-Flowers for about 8 years and have never had a
problem.  At least I’ve never seen a shitty commercial from them.

I guess I’ll take my fat ass to bed and read 3 or 4 romance novels.

My security word is might69. I might if I had a good partner.

On a positive note, this ad didn’t make the Sports Illustrated top 20.  That perhaps suggests missing the target market.

Am I the only one who thought they were being clever, or at least trying to, by having the ‘bad flowers’ employ worn-out cliches as insults?  Romance novels and cats: yes, she’s a spinster.  The boxed flowers are so unimaginative (yes, I’m anthropomorphising computerised flowers) that they can’t even find anything original to say.  The bad flowers said something bad.  Wasn’t that the idea?

how often does anyone buy flowers these days?. . . Delivery flowers are. . . for husbands who can’t be bothered to show up in person. (send me a plant, or bring me a bouquet from the farmer’s market - now we’re talking.)

Or for husbands who aren’t *able* to show up in person, due to work constraints and so forth.  And I have the blackest thumb ever born (my record for killing a live plant is two days) so a plant is a very bad idea.  *g*

It’s outrageous!  I could hardly believe it. 

I’m sure that those who devised the advertisment did think they were being clever/funny/ironic, but it simply doesn’t work.  It comes over as unbelievably crude, vulgar, bigoted, offensive and just plain nasty.

Doesn’t the USA have an equivalent of our Advertising Standards Authority? 

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/about/short_guide/

A large volume of public complaints to the ASA about an advert always creates a lot of media coverage in the UK and can be a huge embarrassment to the offending company.  Mind you, I think this company is going to be pretty embarrassed anyway, not least by losing a vast amount of business.

I was reading an article this morning on sfgate.com on the Super Bowl ads and while they didn’t mention the Teleflora ad specifically, this one paragraph did jump out at me:

The pervasive theme of violence in this year’s ads was a change from past Super Bowls, when kicks to the groin shared equal time with sexual content and bathroom humor. But recent controversies made it more difficult for racier content to make it to your living room, starting with Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show and an upside-down clown that appeared to drink beer from its anus. Last year, the makers of Snickers candy bars were criticized as homophobic for an ad featuring two auto mechanics who accidentally kiss, and then pull out their chest hair in an attempt to prove they’re still manly. And Salesgenie.com was chastised for a deliberately bad panda bear-themed commercial that featured a Chinese racial caricature. With the political correctness police watching closely, violence may have been all that the advertisers had left to work with.

So while the PC police are going to be hypervigilant about gay and racial slights (and rightly so) it would appear, yet again, that the last acceptable group left to attack happens to be women, especially, the subset of the single woman.  Because while yes, I’m smart enough to have gotten the irony, they missed the boat, big time.

And yeah, the Danica Patrick/Go Daddy commercials bugged me too, but whatever.  She’s a grown up.  If that’s what she thinks it takes to play with the big boys, then right on.

What morons.  Instead of the asshole flowers being associated with some fictional competitor, they will forever in my mind now be linked with Teleflora.

And WTF is wrong with flowers in a box?  I have lots of vases, and no room for any more, especially the cheap assed ones that come with flowers.

This is like complaining that your pants didn’t come with a belt.

Lorelie - you’re right. That was insensitive of me. Of course our loved ones can’t always be there in person.

But what I was meaning to say in my clumsy way :-) is that I don’t think delivered flowers is really a growth industry. It seems to me like a campaign (if they continue it) that has the potential to backfire on their whole industry because it left me with such a bad impression. (flowers are for losers was the takeaway I got.)

Like someone else here commented, the whole thing about boxes and vases is just weird. I wouldn’t know the difference, or care. I’d just be happy someone bought me something! They seem to have imagined a target audience of people who are really paying attention to the details of floral delivery, and I’m imagining an audience of people who maybe think about it once or twice a year.

(Also, since we’re comparing notes, when I need to order flowers I always call a local florist. You can talk to the person picking out the flowers for your arrangement, plus you save $5 or $10.)

Ugh, that was a horrible ad.

And I have to talk about this somewhere. This morning I got an email from Ideal Image (the place I get laser hair removal from) and the email pretty much said that laser hair removal gift certificates were a good idea for Valentine’s Day. Umm, no. Why in the world would anyone think that laser hair removal is an appropriate gift??? Any gift that says “you should change this about yourself” is not something you give another person!

They seem to have imagined a target audience of people who are really paying attention to the details of floral delivery, and I’m imagining an audience of people who maybe think about it once or twice a year.

I think the vast majority of people who send flowers don’t even think about a box or a vase at all or really care either way. To me the ad was not only offensive, but very stupid and cheap.

What if the woman receiving the flowers was drop dead gorgeous or a famous model? Would it be funny then? They made the woman pathetic and sad.
The commercial also has an “Office Space” movie feel to it.

You know, I don’t know that I read this specifically here, but in our home, we do send flowers, planters with flowers in them, what have you, for lots of different occasions. And you know who does the ordering? ME! Not the DH. So why would anyone in their right mind (though obviously this bunch isn’t) make a commercial which is so very insulting to the ones who chose which florist they’ll use?

The only thing my DH ever orders for me is Vermont Teddy Bears. Everything else is me.

*sigh*

dumb…just really dumb…

And I have the blackest thumb ever born (my record for killing a live plant is two days) so a plant is a very bad idea.  *g*

I think that qualifies as the Black Hand award!!

And yeah, the Danica Patrick/Go Daddy commercials bugged me too, but whatever.  She’s a grown up.  If that’s what she thinks it takes to play with the big boys, then right on.

If you go to GoDaddy.com, you get the complete commercial, and it’s not what you thing the ending is either. I actually enjoyed it.

The first ad that ProFlowers had was just as bad- a woman in the hospital who recieved flowers from the office. That one wasn’t funny either.

I really like the coke (or was it pepsi) commercial where the bottle was highjacked by the bees and bugs from the guy on the picnic. Thought it was very nicely done. And the Bob Dylan/Will.I.Am (what a stupid name, btw) one, and of course the Budweiser Ads. Wonder what will happen now with the company no longer American owned? They are closing the hospitality suites at the parks. What next? The ads??

GO STEELERS!!! FUCKING A!!

I guess if Teleflora were the first and/or only ones to trash romance novels/readers, I’d have my knickers in a knot.  However, seeing as that is so not the case .......... c’est le vie.

Plus I order all flowers at local florists, so no need/want to boycott some place I have no need/want to deal with.

Maybe if I had seen the actual commercial (no computer is going to help me with that, one at work has no speakers - one at home too slow) I MIGHT be able to muster up some rage…then again, I doubt it.

Just an FYI for the bitchery…

As a former florist, a lot of small floral shops use teleflora as a service if you are sending flowers to someone outside their local delivery area. 

Make sure if you do this (for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, birthdays, whatever) that you tell them NOT TO USE Teleflora as a service.

That will actually hit Teleflora where it hurts.

I ordered ALL my wedding flowers from an online Flowers-in-a-box company, and they were GORGEOUS!  I’ve never had so many compliments and “where did you get those”! 

These were bulk flowers so you have to let them stand in water for 3 days to rehydrate and look pretty but wow!  Ordered the Calla Lilies from The Grower’s Box and the roses from Blooms by the Box.

Time.com gave the Teleflora ad a C+, stating it probably missed its mark with at least one or the other, men or women.  I say both.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1874549_1874552_1876182,00.html

Point of interest, the Time Super Bowl Ad commentator gave the Teleflora ad a C+, but the Danica ad an F.  The guy giving the grades, is a ... guy.

Yep.  The plainish cubicle slave gets flowers at work (we assume from her boyfriend), but he didn’t send a cheap, crappy vase, which makes him a loser.  Cubicle slave, you are ugly, boring, and stupid, and your boyfriend is lame.  This message brought to you at great expense from Teleflora.

Golly, who could possibly be offended by that?

Women, you should evaluate and judge every little gift you get from your fella, just to make sure it measures up, because a thoughtful gesture is meaningless unless it’s expensive (assuming that flowers in mere boxes are inexpensive, sheesh).  Men, go big or go home.  Women will only like you if you spend lots of money on them, you stupid and cheap losers.

Are there any potential customers they DIDN’T insult?

Wow, wasn’t that a steaming pile of misogynistic suck.

I’m not sure the whole meaning of the ad was grasped here.

The flowers in the box where the jerks being dickheads, the ones making fun of the poor women, her novels, her cats. The point was that the flowers were jerks, saying and doing things that jerks say and do. The FLOWERS, not the ad. The ad was implying that their comepetitor’s product was of bad quality, which I think came across loud and clear.

The actress was clearly a lovely looking woman, so the tone of the ad wasn’t so much mocking as sharply funny. The message: send quality.

I didn’t think the ad was great in terms of clearly presenting their own product, but it was pretty funny. Especially the nerd at the end who tries to make everything better: “I’d like to see you naked…”

You could, in fact, read the ad as saying that people (or flora) who make fun of women who read romance novels are big asshats.

And to follow up: BUY LOCAL, people, especially in this economy. Yes, if you are sending far away, local florists will undoubtedly use a larger company to ship—but still, go to them first so they get the bigger percentage of the cash.

And to sum up: The ad was not trying to imply that the woman was pathetic, or that the guy sending her flowers was pathetic. It was trying to imply that the FLOWERS the guy sent were pathetic, and didn’t properly (or at all) convey the message he was trying to send to his lovely lady friend. No one but a bit of dying plant matter was implying the woman was ugly, read stupid books, or was worthless. Someone was actually trying to send her flowers to be nice, and because they chose a bad product, it failed.

And quite obviously the commercial failed if it took me that many words to explain it!

I think most on here are aware of the message they were “trying” to get across.  I won’t speak for others, but I at least found the way they chose to do it rude.

How about (since the flowers already have human-line properties and can talk), the flowers gasp for air because they can’t “breathe” in the box and come out wilted and gross-looking?  Wouldn’t that have conveyed the same kind of message without using cliche’ed insults that a lot of their clientele would maybe find offensive?

Ahem. I’m a florist by day. The TF rep came by our store the day before to tell us to watch for the ad. I said, “What’s it going to be about?” and he replied, “Boxes of flowers.”

:(

My advice to everyone? CALL YOUR LOCAL FLORIST.  When you go through TF, FTD, 1800flowers, justflowers…they’re just order handlers, they take a cut of your money before they send it to a local florist for you. So you if you spend fifty dollars, they might only send $45 to the florist. Then, they take another percentage cut out of that $45 so the florist knows they aren’t getting all of that money. In the end, for the florist, wire orders are more of a marketing op than a money making thing. I make them nice because we stick our card on them and hope the recipient will call us at some later date directly. But a lot of florists will look at the wire order for $45 and a phoned in order for $45…which one do you think they’ll take more time with and fill to true value? Especially on a crazy day like Valentines? It’s not fair, but there you go.

Plus, please, let’s give the mom and pops some help here :). We’re DYING.

Having worked at a large ad/public relations agency, I get what the ad was “trying” to say.  But one thing I learned is that the whole “this is why the other guys are asshats and we’re better” apporoach in advertising backfires about 50% of the time.  Often the audience remembers and connects the asshat behavior with your company’s name because you aren’t pointing out the competitior’s name.  Not good.

So overall, this ad fails miserably to achieve its objective—which would be for people to call Teleflora for their flowers. 

I agree completely with Alisha (because I worked at my m-i-l florist shop before she became my m-i-l), order from your local florist rather than an online or 1-800 service.  They’ll do a better job and they need the support!

The Superbowl ads in general either bored or bothered me this year. The Superbowl is sports, yes, but it’s also a family event, with lots of kids milling around the TV when its on, and some of those commercials were just…no. Yes, we could screen the entire Superbowl and its commercials before allowing our children to watch, but jeez! Who wants to watch that crap 2x? *laugh*

I guess it’s just what’s accepted now. Commercials are often violent and disturbing these days, especially ones for other tv programs or movies. They freak my kids out when we watch anything live and can’t fast forward through the ads. Like, I dunno, the Superbowl.

Karen said:

I think most on here are aware of the message they were “trying” to get across.  I won’t speak for others, but I at least found the way they chose to do it rude.

And I think the ad is going to backfire, big-time.  How many millions of Superbowl-watching women do you think watched this commercial yesterday, then said to their SO, “Don’t you EVER buy flowers from this company.  EVER.”

Theresa reinforces my original thoughts—the intended message is a valid advertising tactic, but the execution in this case fails on entirely too many levels.  Good comparison advertising is specific, focuses on the positive, and spends most of its time on your product.  The Teleflora ad is vague, focuses on the negative, and doesn’t even mention Teleflora until far too late in the commercial.

Quizno’s did a good run of comparison spots a year or so back (“our sandwiches have more meat than Subway’s”); they named the target, picked a specific feature, and did a good job of building their own brand up.  Burger King’s ads often do a good job with a more general comparison, when they emphasize that their burgers are flame-broiled whereas everybody else’s are fried.  And it’s been amusing over the last couple of months watching Progresso and Campbell’s run strong comparison ad campaigns specifically targeting each other’s soups—they’re both doing a good job of homing in on specific points and building on their strengths.  By contrast, the Teleflora ad is a textbook example of how to do a comparison promotion wrong.

Foul, foul advertisement.  It doesn’t work at all, for any reason, no matter how you look at it.

The flowers are ‘yelling’ at the lady who received them.  Doesn’t the fact that she is getting flowers negate all the comments that the flowers are yelling at her?  Someone obviously loves her enough to send the flowers, so all of the comments make no sense. 

Plus, no matter how you look at it, the commercial was just rude.  Rude does not IMO sell anything.

Very good advice about calling your local florist instead of the online service. Or better yet walk into the store! Gotcha!
The ad was mean and stupid. My husband dosent send flowers I have a whole yard full or I buy them myself. I agree with the above poster that they are kind of an oldlady gift. Flowers delivered are great for someone across the country. But you can always look up a florist in their town, and call them.
After that commercial I too had the thought, That big explosion was Sarah’s head blowing up. My husband turned to me and said (after I had my own little rant about the commercial)  “So, I buy from them I’m dead, right?”

Okay, I’m sorry, but I’m just not as insulted as I guess I should be. I admit it - I laughed at the ad because I found the idea of flowers - asshole flowers - spewing snark to be rather funny.

I do agree that the way they went about promoting their message - if you don’t order from us, you run the risk of sending the wrong message - was maybe a little misdirected and not well-thought out as far as broad reactions go. I was insulted by the romance readers=lame slam, but hey, they aren’t the first to pull of such lazy crap. I just never got the idea that they intended to insult women, and for me, intention does mean something when it comes to giving an asshat move like this one a pass.

But, like I said in my blog post today, I think we all are doing more of a disservice to our outrage by expressing it. We’re giving this ad weight by making it A Thing. More people will see it, more people will remember it, and that’s the uber-goal of all advertising - brand recognition. This might be a case that letting it fade darkly into the annals of past Super Bowl ads might be the best course.

I get what they were trying to say…but they could have picked a better way to say it.  I was watching it with my mom and we both were like wtf? Saying that getting boxed flowers implies that you are somehow unworthy of vase flowers is recidulous.  Boxed or in a vase most people don’t give a shit, they are just excited that someone thought enough of them to send flowers in the first place.  And the way that they said it was just rude and offensive, not funny in the least.  In 30 seconds they call her ugly, a trainwreck, and then top it off with a nobody wants to see you naked.  Great message all right, would love to meet the “genius” behind this load of crap.

I don’t normally get upset about this type of thing and I’ve never consciously boycotted a company for whatever reason, but this ad hit me totally wrong.

I think the ad also failed because of a lack of recognition of the company advertising and a lack of relating to the supposed downfall of the other company. When you see the Pepsi vs. Coke or one of the many beer ads you know all the players and their “fix” of the perceived problem…better taste, less filling, etc. I didn’t know who teleflora was and I’ve never had any issues with boxed flowers, so that part of the ad didn’t catch my attention. The flowers spewing insults did and then I saw the name of the company. Until I watched it again on this site I didn’t event remember the part of the commercial where the guy came to the door with the vase of flowers. The wrong parts of the ad stuck with me and, judging by this site, I’m not the only one.

I know I’m probably not the target demographic they were going for with this ad, especially since I apparently didn’t know about the huge quality control problems people were having with boxed flowers :), but it seems like if you are going to spend millions of $$ on a superbowl ad you might want to run it by a few people outside of your industry before ok’ing it.

Snort!

Maybe we should gather together and purchase a Teleflora delivery for someone high up in the company.

Card reading something like: Thanks so much for your offensive commercial. This is the last you’ll ever see of our money. Signed, The large demographic you pissed off.

tag word: thought69

Romance novels and cats: yes, she’s a spinster.

That’s called stereotyping and is offensive.

I have cats (and rabbits and a dog and fish), I read the occassional romance type novel. And guess what? I’m married and have been, happily for nearly 15 years.

Not every cat owner /romance novel reader is a spinster.

I was just showing some of the better commercials to a friend on Hulu, and Teleflora was one of the sponsors.  Their message, running across the screen of one of the Bud horse commercials - “Make her Thorny” for Valentine’s Day. 

Excuse me while I go pound my head for awhile.

I’d just finished posting a blog asking that everybody boycott the asshats and then I popped over here. LOL.  I lurve this place.