Law Humor

Seriously Funny Lawyer Ads?

By Kevin Underhill

I have not devoted nearly enough space here (yet) to the phenomenon of horrifyingly bad lawyer advertising of the kind that you tend to see during "Judge Judy" or on very-late-night TV. While lawyer advertising in general is not especially good, for various reasons the really bad stuff generally seems to be generated by personal-injury attorneys. I have mentioned Glen Lerner, "The Heavy Hitter," at least once, but there are many other examples.

So it is refreshing to see an ad on behalf of a law firm, especially a personal-injury firm, that is creative and genuinely funny.  That's how I would describe this one, which was mentioned in the New York Times this week:

It is a great ad, especially because it acknowledges the greedy-lawyer stereotype and makes it funny.  This one, called "Machete," is almost as good.

My ulterior motive for posting about this today is that I managed to get myself quoted in the NYT article about this new ad campaign. The quote itself is a little lame, I think, but there it is.  (I also sort of wish the reporter had not described me as taking "perverse pleasure" in some of the things I post about, but I guess that's more or less accurate.)

I have quite a few examples of remarkably bad advertising clips that I have used in presentations and will try to get posted here shortly.  For now, the "Attorney Ad Gallery" that now appears over in the left sidebar contains some good and bad examples of this kind of commercial speech.

Link: New York Times
Link: LTB "Attorney Advertising" Category

Full post as published by Lowering the Bar on January 21, 2010 (boomark / email).