I saw this the other day...
And then I saw this...
And then I read this really interesting letter, courtesy of the always great Letters of Note, from Phil Hartman to an aspiring comedian. Phil talks about how amateur comedy is too 'on the nail' and too 'shock jock' in its nature and therefore lacks craft and subtlety, which is needed if one aspires to be funny on the level of, say, a Letterman...
Marketing is often the same way.
Like the comedy Phil speaks of, the craft comes from taking something simple ($1 drink days at a restaurant or owing someone a beer) and adding a sense of welcomed thrill like the wonderful McDonald's and Heineken ideas above.
But shock for the sake of shock that we're sadly seeing more of these days seems a bit amateur in marketing, too.