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Much has been said about Ask.com's marketing tactics in recent months, all of it negative. In the UK, they ran an underground anti-Google "Information Revolution" campaign that wasn't even disclosed as an Ask.com promotion: instead, people who saw posters were instructed to visit a site that would help them undermine Google's monopoly on the search market: sticking it to the evil corporation, in essence. In the US, billboards sprung up referencing "The Algorithm", with slogans like "The Unabomber Hates The Algorithm."
The UK campaign hasn't improved much - in fact I think it's now worse, with monkeys and a dog-human hybrid featuring in the inexplicable TV ads (first two clips). The US ads, meanwhile, actually work: a demonstration, with no audio or commentary, of the Ask.com interface (bottom clip).
Ah, but they've got people talking, and that will increase usage of the search engine whether the publicity is good or bad, right? Good in theory, except that there's something else about Ask.com that sucks: the search results.
PS. eSnips, which hosts the US ad, seems to be suffering some downtime today, which may cause loading issues on that clip.
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US