There's a special moment in a company's evolution when it feels the need to do really strange marketing. With a recession looming, for some multinationals, that moment is now.

Microsoft paid comedian Jerry Seinfeld $10 million to appear in a series of bizarre TV ads with Bill Gates; in one of them, Gates does a robot dance. With no mentions of Microsoft products, viewers were left baffled, and the $300 million campaign was pulled after just two episodes.

McDonald¹s sponsored The Lost Ring, a spectacularly expensive and little-reported "reality game" launched before the Beijing Olympics. Players followed online clues as they took part, but it's unknown how many burgers were consumed during the process.

Cadbury's airport ads, in which airport vehicles race around to the tune of Queen's Don't Stop Me Now, has similarly divided opinion. Strangely, its drumming gorilla ads were far more popular, despite having nothing to do with chocolate.

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