Generally what a giant company employs illicit methods to build buzz about its product, it does not proceed to brag about them. But under CEO Dan Hesse, who insists on appearing in black and white commercials, nothing about Sprint makes sense these days.

In order to build interest about its new Samsung Instinct phone, the wireless carrier is asking filmmakers to plug the phone in a video they post on YouTube — the first 1,000 get $20 and the winner gets a $10,000 grand prize. Under normal circumstances, Sprint might be able to get away with the stunt by saying it merely aims to reward promising young directors with a little cash stipend while getting first-hand experience in product placement.

But they're not even trying to hide behind an excuse. Instead, they think they're in the joke!

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Know what was a terrible marketing move for Chrysler? Having DaimlerChrysler's German CEO Dieter Zetsche play "Dr. Z" in its ads. When the ad campaign (which celebrated the merging of American and German engineering) aired, sales and market share plummeted. It was an embarrassment for the agency behind it, BBDO Detroit, who thought it could hone the success of making household names of Dave Thomas, Orville Redenbacher, and even Chrysler's own Lee Iacocca. They couldn't.

And Sprint didn't get the memo.

They've enlisted CEO Dan Hess, who's only been on the job since December, to star in its new TV campaign promoting it's $99.99 unlimited everything service plan. The ad is black-and-white; this tells viewers "the decision to switch to Sprint is obvious."

After the jump, a few of those terrible Dr. Z ads.

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