BADvertising

Get a load of this billboard for local Mexican restaurant Hacienda. It features a nurse displaying a desert dish that consists of an enormous cookie topped with three scoops of ice cream and drizzled with chocolate syrup.

Some overpaid corporate genius at Hacienda's headquarters got the bright idea to name this desert, "Code Brown." Oh, how I wish I could have sat in on the marketing meeting for this promotion, just so I could find out how this idea ever got out the door.

As everyone knows by now, many hospitals use the "code" terminology to alert the staff of an emergency, without alarming the public. The meanings of the codes vary from hospital to hospital, but generally they go like this:

Code Red: Emergency
Code Blue: Cardiac arrest, bring the crash cart
Code Brown: Patient has soiled themselves, bring a mop and bucket

What would possess a company to use that terminology on their restaurant billboard? Especially one promoting chocolate?

And lest you think it might have been an innocent mistake, my boss pointed out that the obviously fake nurse in the ad is named "Tina LaDuttie." That's "LaDuttie," pronounced like "doodie." That pretty much proves it was deliberate.

Some friendly advice for the Hacienda marketing team: Customers generally don't care to think about poo while they're eating Mexican food (though they'll be thinking about it all too soon the day after). Especially chocolate covered Mexican food. Perhaps next time you should pick a name for your desert that doesn't remind people of an uncontrollable bowel movement.