Visit Our Blog
Call to Action of The Day: Send Us Your Worst
I have a bad habit, when I’m using my personal Gmail account, of clicking on the most ridiculous-sounding PPC ads Google decides to serve me. I know, I need help 
One such ad brought me to a very tall landing page with the expected “sales letter” style copy. What struck me, though, was the hilarious call to action button at the bottom of the page.
And so I give you (drum roll, please) the Call to Action of The Day!
Do you Grok readers have any good (bad) examples you’d like to nominate for a Call to Action of the Day? Leave us a comment. The only rule is that it has to be silly! Oh, and let’s keep it classy, folks 
About the author
Brendan Regan is a Senior Persuasion Analyst. Prior to joining FutureNow, he worked in B2C online travel and B2B marketing. He likes to grok web design, user experience, and persuasive copywriting.
More articles from Brendan Regan
- Nobody wants to read your sh**!September 21st, 2009
- Redesign? Ask The Right Questions!September 18th, 2009
- Cross-post: How to Improve a Product Page, Part 1September 15th, 2009
For More, Subscribe To Grok!
- Capterra: The Conference Sept 13-15, Wash., DC
- "Recession Marketing: From Pre-click to Post-click" (webinar) Sept 16, 12pm EDT / 9am PDT
- "Securing the Sale: Turn Your Site's Browsers Into Buyers" (webinar) Sept 17, 2pm EDT / 11am PDT
- Excellence and Innovation conference Sept 28-30, Orlando
- The SEM Conference
Sept 23-24, Oslo, Norway - eConsultancy Peer Summit Oct 8, New York City
- The Bolo Conference Oct 12-14, Scotsdale, AZ
- Google GAAC/WOAC annual meetings
Oct 13-16, Googleplex California - eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit Oct 19-23, Wash., DC
September 1st, 2009
2:57 pm
Because of your sarcasm, you’ll be missing out while other people are enjoying their inter-dimensional quests. That’ll show you
I like to read sites created by people who are, to use a professional term, completely bonkers, and this call to action caught my eye the other day:
“YOU can Stop Alien & Military Abduction!”
Seriously, who doesn’t want to stop that?
September 1st, 2009
5:04 pm
HA…my favorite call to action was…”Click here to have HOT MODELS knocking on your door.”
$19.95 later…I’m still waiting.
Chuck
September 1st, 2009
7:25 pm
Doesn’t Gmail usually tailor ads to your email’s content? Just sayin.
September 1st, 2009
8:20 pm
I don’t an example of an interesting call to action such as yours, but I really do have to mention the call to action our marketing team recently launched in a campaign with a significant spend. How’s this for a powerhouse CTA…… “Go >”
September 2nd, 2009
1:04 am
Sites with call to action like apply within 15 minutes before the offer ends and if you come there after 1 hr same thing will be there with a countdown clock
September 2nd, 2009
7:35 am
Sounds like they are
‘Lost in Space’.
September 2nd, 2009
11:34 am
@Ryan: That’s the other fun game I play in Gmail. Trying to figure out what in ‘tarnation in my various email threads triggered an ad about Quantum Jumping. I mean, I used to watch the TV show “Quantum Leap,” but I haven’t ever admitted it in Gmail
September 2nd, 2009
11:51 am
You guys call this call to action silly, but if I was interested in an Inter-dimensional Quest, I would have clicked on it. As it is, I’m not sure what that is so I’m probably not their target audience. At least it sounds less scary than those buttons that ask you to “submit.” (BTW, I also loved the show Quantum Leap and this is the first time I have admitted it publicly too.)
September 2nd, 2009
11:29 pm
The only bad CTA is one that hasn’t been A/B split tested against others.
‘Go’ can sometimes be good – in fact better than longer expressions.
September 3rd, 2009
7:44 pm
That just makes me laugh. What a great call to action!
September 3rd, 2009
8:42 pm
Ha, that’s a good one! I haven’t seen to many bad ones, just generic, like “click here”
September 3rd, 2009
8:47 pm
Why do they always say “add to cart” when they really mean “get it now”?
September 3rd, 2009
9:49 pm
I have a bad habit, when I’m using my personal Gmail account, of clicking on the most ridiculous-sounding PPC ads Google decides to serve me.
I don’t think this is a bad habit…conversely!
September 4th, 2009
8:18 am
Thanks for the good information.
September 4th, 2009
8:20 am
great information.
September 4th, 2009
5:59 pm
I am a shape shifting lizard man from another dimension. Take me to your leader… or David Icke. Ha ha ha. Seriously though, I also used to watch Quantum Leap and never publicly admitted it.
September 6th, 2009
2:09 am
Dont forget to use the word FREE in your Call to Action.
September 6th, 2009
6:11 pm
Thanks for this helpful info.
September 7th, 2009
1:45 am
You guys call this call to action silly, but if I was interested in an Inter-dimensional Quest, I would have clicked on it. As it is, I’m not sure what that is so I’m probably not their target audience. At least it sounds less scary than those buttons that ask you to “submit.” (BTW, I also loved the show Quantum Leap and this is the first time I have admitted it publicly too.)
September 7th, 2009
11:44 am
You missed the other “great” CTA on that page near the top/right “Jump into another dimension”… now how could you resist???
September 7th, 2009
3:19 pm
Hmmm… and all this time I’ve been trying to get people to come BACK from the inter-dimensional quests and focus on the tasks at hand!
Somewhat more seriously, I agree with the sentiment that the product seems sillier than the call to action. Not knowing their market, their CTA might be right on the money.
September 7th, 2009
4:58 pm
A client the other day came back with ‘changes’ to a new series of google image ads & had added the wonderful line ‘Press Here’ to all the ads.
I just had visions of all these people tapping their 22″ monitors & wondering why nothing was happening
mike
September 8th, 2009
6:56 am
hehe, all very useful CTA’s! thnx all!
September 8th, 2009
2:16 pm
Jargon busters?! Does anyone have a clue what it means?
September 13th, 2009
9:10 pm
I also clicked on this guys PPC ad, in the exact circumstances as I recall – because it sounded bizarre. Then when I got to the landing pages it got even weirder, I had a hard time believing this guy is for real. I have to say, I think his call to action is the least of his problems!!! “YOU have a hidden power that will transform you into a universe-hopping utopian being…”
September 16th, 2009
11:55 am
Well, a call to action can be so funny because the one who created it, badly wanted to create an attention-grabbing line, but he or she tends to overdo it.
October 14th, 2009
5:43 am
[...] Source:Call to Action of The Day: Send Us Your Worst Share and Enjoy: [...]
October 30th, 2009
1:47 am
I assume that most marketers do test their sales page, so event calls to action that we might find ridiculous probably do work.
November 1st, 2009
9:44 pm
Great, Nice posting, thanks for this information
November 5th, 2009
12:23 am
LOL, I need to find a worse call to action image. I can do that
November 5th, 2009
1:00 pm
Start my interdimensional quest, I love it! hahaha
November 6th, 2009
3:17 pm
That’s hilarious!
November 8th, 2009
5:01 pm
Calls to action are important but this is funny.
November 9th, 2009
6:35 pm
That’s a good one.