Short on Creativy? Use a Really Bad Pun

I understand the need for humor in advertising. It entertains. It helps the audience remember the ad. It may differentiate your ad from the clutter.

The are a few things to which I have aversions. One is midgets. I don't know why. It's kinda like a phobia, I guess. The second is badvertising, a term we coined back in college.

You may not have seen the Title Max spots unless you stay up late to watch Poker After Dark. I record and watch it while the kids and wife are still asleep.

I've seen two ads for the lending franchise starring Verne Troyer. He played "Mini Me" aaaand... not much else. I realize he did have a role in one of the Harry Potter flicks, but it was a while back and at the risk of using a pun, it wasn't a big part.

I understand he's just doing this for the gig, because squeaking "I got my title back with Title Max" isn't exactly stretching the old creative legs. Obviously he got tired of waiting around for Mike Meyers to get his shit together and write the fifth installment of the Powers trilogy.

The most egregiously bad part of the spots, besides the tag, I mean, is the premise. The spot shows our hero struggling with the obvious physical limitations of being his size. In one, he's shown struggling with the fact that he can't reach the buttons on the ATM. In the other, he's in a tree and reaching out on the very farthest limb for the money that obviously grows on trees in the Title Max world.

In both, the voice over asks Verne the same stupid question, "Short on cash?"

I'd really like to know what advertising genius who pitched this. He needs to be verbally smacked upside the head. I'm not being sexist when I say "he." No female copywriter would come up with something this lame.