Do annoying adverts work? When you see one on TV that makes you want to put your foot through the screen do you then buy their product or use their service?

Look at the Go Compare opera singer ads. They make me dive for the mute button the second that chubby guy with the scary moustache appears and starts to tenor. Do you do that? I’ve seen people post on Twitter that they want to take a base ball bat to him. Or that they would like to do unspeakable things to the agency that created the campaign.

When I was learning the ropes as a marketing assistant I learned about the traditional advertising formula of AIDA.

• Attract the customer’s ATTENTION
• Arouse INTEREST in your product or service.
• Create a DESIRE for it
• Make the customer take an ACTION – like buy your product

Whilst the singer might attract your attention for a moment, it seems he doesn’t arouse interest. More like derision that leads to an action like muting the sound. Plus it creates hoards of very annoyed people. And yet many months later when those same people get their insurance renewal they remember that jingle that was burned into their brain. And they buy from Go Compare.

So the opera singer has been very successful in building brand recognition and for that we will get no apology from their marketing people or their advertising agency.

But here’s the best bit. I always thought that eventually they should do an advert where THEY hit the mute button themselves. Well they went much further than that by getting Sue Barker to fire a bazooka at him. By suddenly doing exactly what everyone has been wanting to do they have turned a huge population of alienated and annoyed people into happy people engaged with the brand.

That is the genius of this latest instalment of the campaign.

Over to you: There are some great adverts out there and there are many more annoying one. Please share your favourites old and new. And I mean your favourite “good” ones and your favourite “bad” ones. Leave a comment below.