Straightforward - TV Tropes

Bill: How about this? "Ocean Breeze Soap: It's just like taking an ocean cruise, only there's no boat and you don't actually go anywhere."
Kermit: Seems a little long... Why don't you try something like: "Ocean Breeze Soap will get you clean"?
Jill: You mean just say what the product does?
Gil: No one's ever tried that before.

Automotive

• Budget car manufacturer Dacia toyed with this when they expanded into the UK market, running an ad that just showed their cars against a white background while a voiceover explained, "We don't do frivolity. Function's our thing." The voiceover then conceded that "research suggests a touch of frivolity" can help sell cars, at which point the ad cut to a brief montage of a Dacia racing through country roads while hard rock music played, before cutting back to the white background.

Beauty & Hygiene

• Medicinal dandruff shampoo Neutrogena has been fielding commercials for years with nothing but an image of the bottle (with the product glorping inside) and the tagline, "Neutrogena T-Gel: It works."
• Gimmick-Free CBD: CBDistillery launched an advertising campaign discussing this trope. In a rather ironic twist, the Gimmick-Free CBD's gimmick is that they call out most companies' (the ones that also sell cannabidiol included) tendency to make outrageous claims and stunts in order to sell their products. They contrast them in an Absolute Comparative way by putting a non-descript CBD product with "Another Gimmick" beside their "Gimmick-Free" CBD oil.

Clothes

• While they've both devolved into gimmicky, nonsensical song-and-dance numbers, both Old Navy and the Gap used to air commercials comprising little more than people standing around in their brands of clothes.

DIY

• Special mention should go to Ronseal, who for years have advertised their straightforwardly titled DIY products with the slogan "it does exactly what it says on the tin."

Food & Drink

• Marmite's slogan for a while was "you either love it or you hate it". In recent years this tagline has derailed into increasingly surreal comedy skits, such as a homeless man rejecting a Marmite sandwich and a big blob of Marmite emulating The Blob, but originally all that was presented was the jar of Marmite.
• The slogan for Glaceau Vitamin Water is "Try it." Simple and effective.
• Lipton's used a similar slogan when they tried selling their iced tea in the UK: "Don't knock it until you've tried it." The adverts themselves became somewhat sillier after a while, possibly because the Great British public did try Lipton's Iced Tea and began knocking it with great enthusiasm.
• Subverted by Reeves and Mortimer's slogan for the Cadbury Boost bar. "Boost: It's slightly rippled, with a flat under-side."

Insurance

• GEICO has a line of 15-second ads made specifically for online video sites that start with two people making a conversational note about a feature of their insurance that abruptly cuts to a screen with their logo and a "We now fast forward to the end of this GEICO ad so you can get on with your video." voiceover, then just as abruptly transitions to a silly ending.

Medicine

• HeadOn: Its ads merely repeat the phrase "HeadOn! Apply directly to the forehead" over and over. For those wondering, the reason it's advertised this way is that it's mostly a placebo, so truth in advertising laws prevent them from saying anything that would make you want to buy it.
• Buckley's Cough Syrup: The commercials with the tagline "It tastes awful... And it works." and consisting entirely of people standing around and trying their medicine, and then making weird faces. Straightforward indeed.
• Listerine mouthwash ran a similar campaign in the early '70s in which people would be asked how they liked the taste. "I hate it! But I use it, twice a day. It really works!"

Restaurants

• An old McDonald's commercial consisted of nothing but some guy picking up a Big Mac in slow motion. The commercial ended just before he got it to his mouth, making the viewer really hungry.
• In the eastern United States, the Checkers burger chain ran a series of commercials that featured a guy sitting in a car, ravenously devouring what is obviously a Checkers burger. The guy is visibly (and audibly, though there is never actual dialogue) enjoying the burger, to the point that, when the burger was gone, the guy picks up the wrapper and starts picking the excess cheese off of the paper and eating it. Cue the voiceover as the screen goes dark: "Yeah... it's that good!"

Harry Potter

• A Brand New Start: The ads that The Times wizarding paper runs about Hydrus' inventions are as factual as possible, much like their reporting. They describe their purposes and inform the public they are based on Muggle appliances.

• Boomerang (1992): Marcus pictures filmming a very straightforward commercial for Strangé's fragrance. Subverted because he gives Nelson complete creative liberty. It ends up being a Dada Ad instead.
• The Muppets Take Manhattan: In "Mad Ave Advertising", Kermit suggests advertising the Ocean Breeze Soap by just saying it makes people clean. The alternative, suggested by Bill, is a clumsy attempt at evoking feelings on the potential consumers. Gil remarks that no one's ever tried doing such a straightforward ad before.

• The Brady Bunch: Subverted in "And Now, a Word from Our Sponsor", Skip wanted a basic commercial, but instead got:
  • Take Our Word for It: While Mike and Carol recite the lines as intended - that Safe is a powerful detergent that is the best at cleaning a family's laundry - their acting leaves much to be desired, ruining the take. Later, the kids enter the kitchen, wearing horrendously dirty, stained, paint-splattered clothing, hoping to convey to the audience that Safe will get their clothes clean as new.
  • Appeal to Flattery and Perfume Commercial: Alice, wearing a fancy dress and her hair permed, clasping a (wet) mop to her breast and celebrating. Skip stops the filming, with Alice telling him that Safe could get the laundry done so fast and so well she had time to appeal to her vanity, not seeing that what she is doing has little to do with pitching the product.
• Community: In "Documentary Filmmaking Redux", the Dean wants to film a new commercial for Greendale. The plan is to simply show Greendale's student body engaging in their normal activities.

• Happiness (Steve Cutts): There are tons of ads on nearly every surface available. Some of them are rather to-the-point and concise such as the one for a condom brand. It simply reads "Introducing the Spandex Contraceptive".

• Danny Gonzalez: In one of his experiments, he proves that amongst all kinds of mobile ads, the type of ad that received the least engagement was the straightforward ad. Meanwhile, the type that's the least related to the actual content is the one to attract the most engagement.

• SpongeBob SquarePants: Mr. Krabs' cheapstake attitude is reflected in the kind of ads he chooses to promote his product, as seen in "Krusty Krab Training Video". Stuck on one of the Krusty Krab's walls there's a big poster with an image of a Krabby Patty that simply reads
  'KRABBY PATTY
  only at the
  KRUSTY KRAB'