In the wake of the last five weeks' irrational exuberance its time to get real again. Via the Zack's investment blog, real estate giant Cushman & Wakefield reports office vacancies continue to rise around the country (out of 31 markets tracked, only one, Dallas, saw reduced vacancy). FT's Alphaville blog points out that CDS spreads for U.S. banks markedly widened on Tuesday, underscoring investor anxiety.

This post is part of our Ads Gone Bad series. Share your thoughts and memories of this ad in the comments, and be sure to check out our other posts on marketing gone wrong.

If Americans are sensitive about racial issues, it's not without reason. Consider the Trail of Tears, or slavery, or the internment of the Japanese during World War II, and it's clear that we've breached more than our fair share of ethical boundaries. But, judging by the reaction to a Salesgenie ad that aired during Super Bowl XLII in 2008, we've also come a long way.

If the upset victory pulled off by the New York Giants in that game was shocking, so was the approach taken by Salesgenie.com's marketing masterminds. The commercial in question featured a pair of talking cartoon pandas, complete with Chinese accents -- a married couple, to be exact, and the apparent proprietors of Ling Ling's Bamboo Furniture Shack. (Click here to watch the ad.)

The storyline of the commercial is not too shocking: business is bad; nagging wife doesn't want to move back to the zoo; husband turns to Salesgenie.com for free sales leads; now, business is great! In other words, it's not nearly as appalling as some old, World War II-era Looney Tunes clips (don't click here if you're easily offended).

However, there was something distinctly off-putting about the Salesgenie pandas, with their broken English and their misspelled "Sofaz" sign. I remember seeing it myself and thinking, "Well, that's bold." It turns out the rest of the viewing public was equally unsettled, and the negative feedback was sufficient to result in the ad being pulled from the airwaves.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Commercial Metals (CMC), KKR Financial (KFN), Career Education (CECO), Ann Taylor (ANN) and Intel (INTC) were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• CIBC upgraded Commercial Metals (NYSE: CMC) to Sector Outperformer from Sector Performer based on valuation.

• KKR Financial (NYSE: KFN) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Friedman Billings, following managements detailed conference call and managements prudent and rapid actions to address the sale of its Rambus (RMBS) portfolio.

• Bear Stearns upgraded Career Education (NASDAQ: CECO) to Outperform from Peer Perform based on valuation.

• Ann Taylor (NYSE: ANN) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Piper Jaffray due to the upside at the company's LOFT division and the firm's belief that there is upside to their 2008/2009 estimates for Ann Taylor.

• Credit Suisse upgraded shares of Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) to Outperform from Underperform based on expected margin expansion, a more benign competitive environment in the MPU sector, better positioning vs. AMD (AMD) at the high-end, and strong demand trends...

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Citigroup upgraded Sovereign Bancorp (NYSE: SOV) to Buy from Hold.

• Network Appliances (NASDAQ: NTAP) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch and Caris raised shares to Buy from Above Average.

• JP Morgan added Continental (NYSE: CAL) to its Focus List. Punk upgraded Washington Mutual (WM) to Buy from Market Perform.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).

Boasting higher efficiency, versatility and power along with specially engineered operator comfort and control, John Deere & Company (NYSE: DE) announced on June 1, 2007 the debut of a completely new line of self propelled sprayers. The equipment line identified as "Series 30 Sprayers" boasts state of the art "integrated performance–enhancing technology which includes precision guidance, mapping and variable rate software." Additionally, as is the Deere standard, the "operator interface" aspects of the equipment has been given focused attention, meaning that ease of use, safety and comfort take these Deere machines well beyond the qualities of simply being useful.

The 30 Series Sprayers are sold and supported by John Deere Commercial Application Dealers and Application Support Dealers at 254 locations throughout the U.S. and Canada. Deere continues to show long term dedication to its clients and seeks to maintain its well deserved image of stellar customer service.

For further information regarding John Deere & Co. self propelled sprayers you may visit the company's website where you can also get up-to-date investor information on the company.

Gary E. Sattler holds no financial interest in and is not compensated by John Deere & Co.

A robot working at General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) makes a mistake, gets fired and commits suicide. No, wait, the robot wakes up and realizes it was only having a bad dream. Not funny, says the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Like the Snickers male-on-male kissing ad that I blogged about Tuesday, the GM robot committing suicide ad is getting a lot of negative criticism. Unlike the Snickers ad, which was pulled by the Mars company after the negative feedback, General Motors says it has "no plans" to drop the spot and plans on airing it again during the Feb. 25 Academy Awards broadcast.

To me, the only thing worse than having an ad that is received so poorly is not having the good sense to pull it fast enough. GM likely spent over $2 million for the backlash they are facing now -- including former Energy secretary Donald Hodel saying that anyone who loses someone to suicide in the near future should consider suing GM. So why exactly would GM pay more to put this same ad on the Oscar stage?

Looking at this another way, I think this sort of thing is likely to drive down the price of advertising at the Super Bowl, which is often criticized as being a waste of money for larger, established corporations.

Want to get your customers' attention? Swear at them. That seems to be the latest marketing strategy from Big Auto, who's peppering ads with barely bleeped-out swear words. While the most famous one is Dodge's Caliber advertisement showing a panel of sweet imaginary creatures (the fuzzy puppet, the fairy unicorn, 'Binky') reacting with fear to the auto, the most profane and disturbing is probably Volkswagen's crash commercial, where two friends get in an accident and one of them says, "holy shi " [fade to black].

Sure, people swear. Lots of people swear, and I'd be willing to bet that a majority of VW and Dodge customers are potty-mouthed. (I know, sweeping generalizations, but that's what marketing is about folks!) But is this really the best way to communicate brand? Shock tactics?

It depends, I'm sure, on the consumer. DaimlerChrysler AG (NYSE:DCX) unit Dodge's vehicles are heavily marketed to the wanna-be gangster audience (Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent are famous for wanting to be the first customers of Magnum, Charger, and the Chrysler 300), for whom "crap" is probably not even considered swearing, whereas Volkswagen AG (FRA:VOW)'s consumer profile is famously young and understatedly hip. Hip enough, it seems, to say "holy shit" without blinking an eye.

As for me? I don't give a damn about the swearing (see what I did there?). I'm much more disturbed by the depiction of the accident in the VW commercial, which always jolts me out of my primetime TV buzz and makes my heart beat pitter-patter. Entirely not the shock I want while I'm being entertained -- like the cute little hedgehog says in the Dodge commercial, it doesn't make feel all warm and fuzzy inside.