Pringles Select – The Posh Pringle
25 December 2008 by SilkyThere was an advert a few years ago for the fast food restaurant Wimpy. It went something like this:
“Wimpy is a fast food restaurant with a difference. We have tables and chairs, knives and forks and your food is brought to you on a plate by a waitress.”
Which, obviously, sounds “Wow” but is, in fact, just like every other non-fast-food restaurant in the country, then.
But with worse food.
Which brings me to the latest Pringles advert in which a bunch of failed actors doing a very bad job of pretending to be “real” people try the brand new Pringles Select crisps:
My favourite bit is when the reject from the cast of Coupling says:
“Wow! Crisps? In a bag? How the fuck did you think of that?”
Magic.
Yeah, Pringles have taken the one thing that helped make their crisps stand out, their tube, and thrown it in the bin.
This is possibly because Pringles think that posh people – after all, this is the posh Pringle aimed at posh people who shop at posh John Lewis – are simply too posh to “pop” the lid on the chavy old tube – although I’m fairly certain that their butlers’ aren’t too posh.
So, despite what Pringles have been telling us for all these years, it seems you can “stop popping” after all.
Thanks to Gordon for submitting this bad ad.
Just How Bad is this Ad?
(45 votes, average: 4.47 out of 5)
20Responses:
Steve
Said on the 26 December 2008
I was just waiting for this ad to appear! Truly dogshit, crisps? but they’re in a bag?!?!
Pavlov's cat
Said on the 26 December 2008
“The bag matches yours!”
you utter cunt
Hannah
Said on the 26 December 2008
I was stopped in the street recently whilst shopping in Norwich by a market research man who had been lumbered with the Pringles questionnaire. Unfortunately he appeared to be quite autistic so the questions he had to ask were totally lost on him and I was wetting myself while he asked those totally random questions like: “I think these crisps look like they suit my lifestyle” “They are an innovative crisp in tune with my emotions” “I would buy these crisps and enjoy them with friends and family if I wanted to push the boat out”…
Agree strongly, agree slightly, neither agree nor disagree, disagree slightly, disagree strongly.
Bless him.
I’ve not had them by the way. They’re probably laced with crack like the ones that come in a pipe.
J
Said on the 28 December 2008
The middle one in the group of three girls is an actress that appears in BBC Three comedy ‘Coming Of Age’ – if you’re going to use fake vox pops, make sure you dont make it so obvious.
CovertJellyfish
Said on the 28 December 2008
Yeah!! Select Crisps!! Does that mean that only Sepcial people get to buy them? Yep ‘cos the tosspots on this ad have totally fucked thier carreers.. You can picture it now “Hi Mr Agent, I’m casting for a multi million dollar movie. Do you have any twats with purple handbags on your books?” The only fucking select thing about them is they cost you about a quid more at tescos.. and if you ever give them to friends they will look through your wardrobes….. god fucking help you if they discover your dark secret of not fucking knowing that Crisps have been coming in bags since 1926!! THAT IS 82 FUCKING YEARS AGO YOU NUMB GAP TOOTHED GORMLESS LOBOTOMISED TIT WANKS!!
Les
Said on the 31 December 2008
Posh?
Not posh enough for me and yes, the advert is complete and utter shite and it’s starting to get on my tits now.
Just what the fuck were they thinking at the time? Maybe they think posh people would pay more for a new product line, in this credit crunch?
Fat fucking chance, even posh people are skint.
reedy2809
Said on the 31 December 2008
The worst thing about the ad is when the stupid bint at the end squeals ‘ the’re in a bag which is amazing’. The amazing thing is some over-paid twat in advertising managed to convince the Pringles people that this shite would be a good way to spend millions in advertising costs. Makes me want to throw my cat at the screen every time it comes on….
Stan
Said on the 2 January 2009
I can’t help but swear at the screen when this ad comes on. Every comment made is valid so far! (although some a little OTT :S)
Have to say if I as a creative managed to manipulate a bunch of numbskulls into believing this could improve their sales.. I’d be well chuffed!
.. and then curse myself everytime i heard “and it matches your bag!!!” repeat daily. urrgh
jonty
Said on the 2 January 2009
even tho this has been mentioned a few times
the part where he says it matches your bag is just fuked up
for a start if you buy ur partner a bag that looks like a fukin pringle bag then your just a fukin weirdo.
woon
Said on the 4 January 2009
its in a bag, its in a bag which is amazing!!!.. what?? every other type of crisp also comes in a bag too???
oh my goodness what will pringles do when they realize
to be honest pringles are shit anyway
my big question is
when the girl eats the crisps what are the other 2 supposed to be laughing at?
Simon Breadbin
Said on the 5 January 2009
Pringles don’t really count as crisps though do they? They’re made from reformed potato powder or something. This led to an argument with somebody I knew, over whether they were subject to VAT or not. It turns out she was on about cakes all along; I wasn’t really that bothered though. This comment just sort of peters out about now and would probably been better had I kept it to myself.
Gordon
Said on the 5 January 2009
Thanks to Silky for highlighting this advert.
Another aspect of the advert also makes me cringe:
I actually like Pringles, and as long as I don’t think too long and hard about how bad they might be for me or the factory process of making them, once popped I can’t stop. I am, however, still the first to admit that Pringles are up there with icons of chaviness such as: thick gold chains, tracksuits and DFS sofas. Calling them “Posh Pringles” is no different to “posh gold chains”, “posh tracksuits” and “posh sofas”; it might appease the victim in us for a short time, but we all know, deep down, it is the same classless tat made worse by a tacky name.
Calling something “posh” is not necessarily an attractive quality of something that is posh and certainly is not when it’s downmarket – if you see what I mean!
Silky
Said on the 5 January 2009
Very true, Gordon.
Call something posh it’s normally the complete opposite – think Posh and Becks or say the Posh Noodle.
@Simon Breadbin – thanks for the story. I’ve an after-dinner speaking engagement coming up and I might fall back on your cake VAT tale if things start to go badly.
theBandwidthHog
Said on the 7 January 2009
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theBandwidthHog
Said on the 7 January 2009
The camera pans slowly from a late night empty parking lot into a crowded, smoke filled conference room, dirty ash trays and empty pizza boxes cover the table. These rocket surgeons in marketing have been brainstorming all night. Suddenly, Johnson, nephew to the CEO, speaks up… “Bags! We’ll use bags, but with a different logo! We’ll completely rebrand ourselves!”
“That’s BRILLIANT Johnson, absolutely BRILLIANT!”
If you really want to sit in on an interesting meeting, get marketing, the bean counters and attorneys all the same room.
Seriously, I’ve hated TV commercials forever, in the way that they attempt to insult our intelligence. I’m glad I came across your site. I’ll be reading. thanks.
R E Krishna
Said on the 7 January 2009
Meanwhile, behind closed doors at Walker’s the conversation goes something like this….
Marketing Person A :- “Those bastards at Pringle have fucked us over big time, they’ve started putting their product in…wait for it…BAGS! Now what? that’s been our trump card all along.”
Marketing Person B :- “Nil desperandum old boy, we’ll just play them at their own game. Why don’t we start putting our crisps in……you guessed it…..TUBES!!! Fucking take that Pringle Hahahahahahaha.”
woon
Said on the 7 January 2009
sounds like a peep show scrip
Jackson
Said on the 26 February 2009
“I wasn’t expecting the bag” ?? What were you expecting then? A tube?
Sean
Said on the 15 April 2009
Simon, you’re correct in saying that these things aren’t crisps. They’re described as “Sun-dried tomato with basil flavour savoury snack”. Catchy.
Yup, crisps in a bag? Amazing age we live in.
Tim
Said on the 3 February 2010
Oh, lovely. Just great.
Also, I read ” …you can stop popping…” as “…you can stop pooping…”