Steve Hall from AdRANTS.com perhaps said it best:
"The people who created this ad are either living in a land far removed from current day culture, are completely clueless or, conversely, have a seriously twisted sense of humor. This ad for the Hasbro Super Soaker Oozinator features a gun that when pumped a few times shoots a white globular substance all over the faces and bodies of those in the ad. Sound familiar? We thought so. While we're sure it's fun to pump something until it shoots a bunch of gooey stuff, we can't help but imagine how this thing got created, reviewed and approved without a lot of snickering."WARNING: Viewer Discretion Is Advised.
Not exactly kid friendly, right? Even if your mind isn't in the gutter there is something clearly disturbing about this ad. The Oozinator and its advertisements were quickly pulled, most likely after several thousand calls from outraged parents.
I wonder what the storyboard looked like for this ad.
The biggest failure was not that this was a terrible product idea but rather, that the marketing team couldn't anticipate their target audience's reaction to this product and ad campaign. Parents buy kid's toys for kids. So not only does the ad have to appeal and be understood by children but it also has to be viewed through the adult consumer's perspective. The sad thing is this product idea could fly simply because it is a kid's toy and kid's toys are sometimes slimy/gooey/gross. A successful ad campaign may rename the product, the Galactic Slime Blaster. Instead of shooting unarmed children in the chest in the ad they could make it a space themed ad where the slime blasters blast evil aliens and stick them to the walls with goo in a comic fashion. This product was so bad that the few Oozinators that are in existence sell for hundreds of dollars as gag gifts. Maybe this would sell better as an adult toy. That idea is on the house. Your welcome, Hasbro.
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