[drewprops]

These things have grated on my nerves long enough, it's time to break out the little gold turds and hand out some awards...

I nominate the Little Debbies commercials that have little school boys who break into the song "I've Got Sunshine On A Cloudy Day". Horsewhipping isn't good enough for the clownheads who put this together. Me am GRRRRRR!!!

Second on my list is anything done by the restaurant chain "Joe's Crab Shack"; a company devoted to LOUDNESS. Their commercials are at least good and proper representations of their restaurants as they have people screaming out songs at the top of their lungs. You can't sit in one of these places without wishing you'd brought along some top notch earplugs. When a commercial is so loud that it makes me reach for the remote control that company has failed.

[psmith2.0]

There are so, so many. A few spring to mind:

1. The Coca-Cola one, where the little marble-mouthed skateboard teens give us all a lesson in earning and economics, working for The Man and, ultimately, chucking the job to continue skating blissfully like the directionless, greasy-haired slackers they are.

2. Each and every prescription medication, because the side effects are, while hilarious to listen to, ALWAYS are worse than the damn thing the medicine supposedly cures. Have itchy scalp? Try RenatinX, but prepare yourself for anal bleeding, mouth ulcers, severe migraines, burning testicles and your left eye possibly falling out.

Buy some Head & Shoulders shampoo and STFU.

3. Yes, the Little Debbie one, set in the convenience store with various people crooning "My Girl" is indeed horrible. Bad singing (just bad, not funny bad), lame concept, etc.

4. The Samuel Adams ones, with that wig-haired idiot at the end (good ol' Sammy himself, I suppose?). I get the same vibe from him that I get from that guy that used to host "This Old House"...Steve something-or-other.

5. The Cadillac ones, featuring Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll". Just seems such a transparent Boomer grab. If I want to listen to tired-ass 70's rock, I'll tune into one of the 11 radio stations in my town currently specializing in the genre.

6. That toilet paper one with the animated bears. It scares me on several levels.

7. Nothing, and mean nothing, is worse than the recent McDonald's "I'm Lovin' It" campaign. Don't even get me started because it sucks in so many ways.

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 7. Nothing, and mean nothing, is worse than the recent McDonald's "I'm Lovin' It" campaign. Don't even get me started because it sucks in so many ways.

I want to use a porcine bung dropper on the person/people responsible for the Chicken Selects commercials. I hate the Cadillac commercials too.

More commercials I hate:
-the TD Waterhouse commercials with the Law & Order dude
-the Gatorade with the stupid voiceover ... "A bat is a bat, even if it's flat!" "Ten feet n the east side is ten feet on the west side!" *vomit*
-all Epson radio ads
-Ovaltine commercials...WTF
-Fandango ads before movies...though their competitors have even worse ads...
-The Chevy "American Revolution" ads
-The Degussa print ads
-Coors beer commercials (especially since Miller and Bud commercials are usually awesome)

[Luca]

To be fair, those prescription drug ads are forced to list any possible side effects, even if they only affect a very small percentage of the population that would never be given the drug by their doctors anyway. They still bug me though - most of the time they don't tell you what it's meant to treat. The people they show are always doing the same thing... usually an old woman walking hand in hand with her husband or reading to her kids or something else that has nothing to do with the drug. The main thing though is that these commercials (which seem to be a recent thing - I don't remember prescription drug ads from earlier than sometime in the mid-90s) encourage people to go to their doctors and demand "the drug I saw on TV." Then the poor doc is stuck between satisfying their patient and doing what's best for them. Apparently in many countries, they just get out of it by prescribing a placebo, but they can't do that here.

I hate any and all pre-movie ads. I'm paying fucking $8 to see this amazing movie of yours, could you at least let me maintain some of my dignity by not playing those damn stupid ads for two minutes? Jesus H. Christ, it's a MOVIE theater, not an AD theater! The other thing is that they always show about a zillion previews (starting 2-3 minutes after the scheduled time of course), then the ads, then the little video the theater puts out, and then ANOTHER preview. Whenever I go see a movie (once every month or two), I always call it. The theater video finishes and I say "one more preview" and I'm always right. When I was a little kid, you could get to a theater ten minutes late and be okay because of the previews. Now it's almost half an hour before the movie starts. That's insane.

I've always disliked ads put out by local companies. Well, usually. Sometimes they can be really clever, but most of the time they're really crappy and involve some fat guy with a mustache shouting. Yeah, that's definitely going to convince me to go to your used car dealership.

There's also this one ad for Valleyfair (for you Minnesotans) that has a bunch of cartoon kids with live-action faces pasted on top. They're really, really creepy.

[psmith2.0]

Yes, I've noticed the recent stepping-up of commercials at the beginning of movies in the theater: usually Coca-Cola and maybe a U.S. Army or car commercial too. Seems to have picked up in recent years, for sure.

You can't escape this stuff, it seems.

The explosion of the prescription thing kinda worries me, on several fronts.

[Eugene]

And now for ads I love:

-the Old Spice Body wash commercial for the girl at the end.
-the Oil of Olay commercials for Caitlyn Keats
-the Neutrogena commercials featuring Mischa Barton
-the Maybelline commercials with Josie Maran...

[psmith2.0]

Horndog! I detect a theme here...

[Ryan]

Cortislim. Who can lose all the weight they want easily, moron? And why is your tracking alwasy off?

[BuonRotto]

ads I hate right now:

1. McDonalds commercials
2. Pepsi commercials
3. Wendy's commercials (we miss you, Dave.)
4. Sam Adams commercials
5. Coors commercials
6. Skippy commericals (Rastafarian elephants -- munchies for your potheads!)
7. new Skittles ads (total non-sequiteurs)
8. Dodge commericals with that totally unappealing couple
9. the CitiBank "thank you commercials" (first one with the guy at dinner was funny, the rest are already tired. And doesn't it make you think that CitiBank doesn't listen either?)
10. Those stupid beer "presidential" ads -- Bud and Miller equally bad.
11. Travelocity ads -- the gnome thing is a rip-off of the movie, Amelie.
12. boner ads, the ones for Levitra, Viagra, Cipro, etc. Just show a guy jumping his bitch already!

ads I love right now:

1. Burger King breakfast commercials (the creepy mask that somehow has exactly the right expression and the voiceover work great together)
2. Bud's Leon ads. The character is just as hateful as the first time I saw him. A guy you love to hate and isn't tired yet.
3. the new Brawny ads!
4. finally, a Hummer ad I like -- the kaleidoscope one.

[Messiahtosh]

Old Navy feel good clothes or whatever. Yes, the commercial has 4 million iMacs in it, but the lady is annoying as fuck.

[thuh Freak]

Originally Posted by Messiahtosh Old Navy feel good clothes or whatever. Yes, the commercial has 4 million iMacs in it, but the lady is annoying as fuck.

i hate those. everytime that bitch screams about how much she loves air i want to pump her guts full of lead.

luckily, beer can kill my deadly urges.

[SledgeHammer]

It's not a new ad, but it may still be on. That Coke commercial with the lady walking down the street, singing, and handing out open bottles of Coke. MY friends and I call it the creepy Coke lady commercial. Everytime I see it I want to see someone take a sip out of the bottle and immediately keel over. Who in their right mind would take an open bottle of soda from some weird woman who's just pulling them out of her purse? And also, I have to agree about the Old Navy ads. They are terrible. Their last few rounds of ads have been pretty bad.

[murbot]

There's a Dairy Queen ad that makes me want to puke. Ugly guy with hot sauce all around his mouth sees super ugly tall woman with hot sauce dripping down her chin... they walk to each other and start making out. When they're done, the sauce is all gone.

Cue the "do you love hot sauce this much" or something line.

Then they catch the gaze of some ugly older guy with hot sauce on his face.

So what, these ugly bastards are going to start making out with this other ugly guy to suck the sauce off of his face too? What the FUCK?!

[Wrao]

I almost always mute the TV when ads come on(heck, even when the program comes back on, it's usually on mute) But, I have caught a couple ads that have bugged me, specifically, the McDonald's Chicken Select ads.

[psmith2.0]

A hot sauce-induced three-way? My favorite! Don't knock it 'til you try it, m.

Seriously, I've seen that commercial and it makes me feel weird. Weird in a "I don't think I like where this is headed..." kinda way.

And yes, good 'ol Old Navy. I was one of those guys who thought their commercials couldn't get any more annoying, what with Morgan Fairchild, George and Louise Jefferson, Joan Collins, weird, robotic kids and mannequinized adults and weird 70's-inspired music and sets.

I was wrong.

That kid having to mow the law and the fresh air-loving chick take the annoyance factor to a whole new level, don't they? They're not funny and they don't make me want to buy clothes. It's annoying and lame and you want to smack both of them.

The kicker is that some six-figure-salary nimrod at the Old Navy corporate offices in Frisco actually got paid to come up with this "concept"...and the various prescription-addled higher-ups dug it and signed off on it!



People scare the living shit out of me sometimes.

[Crusader]

Champion: The Mazda 3 ads. "Then there was this car... with all this other stuff." I swear I would kill that guy in real life. He's like a stupid version of Ted (as in Bill and Ted's most Excellent Adventure), which, to this point, I had thought impossible.
1. Anything remotely related to politics.
2. The "Smiling Bob" ads.
3. The new AOL one with the overworked mom in the boardroom. It's eye-rolling factor hit 3 eye-rolls per second, way to high for even the most extreme of ads.

And ads that make me go 'WTF?'
1. The one where the chick puts her boob against the glass and a guy comes in and smiles. It's an ad for some kind of beer.
2. The local car dealership ads from around here, they just suck.
3. The ads where we have famous people tell us how we should raise our kids right. Like they really know how.

[Naderfan]

One that just came on that I hate:

Pro-life ad with an African-American woman claiming how she knows everything about rights because her people were denied rights for so long. And she knows about making choices for herself because her people had their choices made for them. But she knows she doesn't have the choice to have an abortion.

I hate most political ads, but that one just really irks me. It's not that it's pro-life vs. pro-choice. It's just how preachy it is. Grrrr.

[psmith2.0]

I hate political ads, period, but especially those of the local, low-budget variety, both Republican AND Democrat, which only seem to consist of a single approach: ominous music, a freeze-frame shot of the opponent's face in a less-than-flattering pose and quotes and so forth superimposed on said face (usually in a distressed, American Typewriter font) that paint the schmo in the worst light possible. And ending with some variation of "Joe Smith...bad for our children" or "Joe Smith...the choice we can't afford to make".

In other words, NOTHING about the guy running the ad (nothing touting his triumphs, plans, background, legislations, stances, etc). Only dinging the OTHER unfortunate idiot for having the bad sense to oppose him.





That constant "look at him...he sucks!" shit gets old, REALLY fast. But we're too far gone at this point, and I know I'll never live to see a campaign where some guy just stands there and points out the great things about himself and makes THAT the focus of his campaign.

If I ever ran for public office, I pledge to make my official slogan:

"Fuck the other guy...this ain't about him".



If you can't get elected based on YOUR beliefs, record, vision, etc. (and your sole "tactic" is dinging your opponent 24/7), then you don't deserve the job. End of story. Can I get an "amen"?

[Windswept]

I despise the Capital One ad where the old guy is lying on the beach, the rescuers come to feel his pulse, he jumps up in delirious joy that not only did he and his wife screw over the rescuers, but she got a picture of it. What total losers; they deserve to die.

I think they're advertising something about islands (vacations?); but I despise the commercial so much that I can't concentrate on what they're advertising. I just sit there thinking how much I loathe Capital One and the highly-paid decision-makers there who thought this was a top-notch commercial.

Their scorn for the viewer is clear, since apparently they imagine *we* would think this ad is funny, cool, appealing. *retch*

Ads I love: okay, I admit it, I have fallen for *the gecko*. He is SO cute and cool. I love that little gecko. He has class, good taste, dignity, humor, is quiet, charming, unobtrusive. I love when he's strapped into that huge car seat with the seat belt and he's rocking out to the music. He looks so little and cute.

[Windswept]

Amen!

[psmith2.0]

For you, C.

Yeah, he is kinda cute. I'm partial to the duck, myself.

"Af-flac!"

[709]

Originally Posted by Carol I despise the Capital One ad...

Oog. That whole "What's in your wallet?" campaign grates on my very last nerve.

I love the Aflac commercials.

[Windswept]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 For you, C. Yeah, he is kinda cute. I'm partial to the duck, myself. "Af-flac!"

Thanks, skates. He IS a cutie.

Whoever came up with the gecko ads deserves all the good things in life. And Geico must be a decent company for selecting them.

[applenut]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 5. The Cadillac ones, featuring Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll". Just seems such a transparent Boomer grab. If I want to listen to tired-ass 70's rock, I'll tune into one of the 11 radio stations in my town currently specializing in the genre.

Zeppelin is tired-ass 70's rock? My god, you really are a sad boy from the 80s :smokey:

[psmith2.0]

That song, in that context...yeah. Pretty much. What next, some Kansas, Foreigner and Bob Seger?

It's not a slam against Zeppelin (although...), just cheesy, unoriginal commercial makers ladling out more of the same, going for the easy "get".

FYI, I get the same feeling when Flock of Seagulls or the Go-Go's are used to market to us "old fart" 30-somethings. Just seems like no thought goes into it beyond "hey, this shit was cool when they were in high school...all they gotta do is hear it and they'll buy our crap!"

I'm not that gullible or easily lured.

Not a gripe against the music, necessarily, as how it's used. And yes, "Rock & Roll" is pretty damn tired. I've only heard it about 17,900 times...that's "tired" in anyone's book.

Sticking it on a commercial, targeted at 40-something yuppies to sell big ugly Cadillacs just takes it to a whole new level of lameness.

Makes me look at Page and Plant and just go "pussies...got a yacht payment due?". The same way I do at Townshend and Davies for letting everyone and their brother use great Who and Kinks songs for TV themes and commercials these days.



Eh, you're touched a nerve...I'll quit while I'm ahead, unlike some here.

[BuonRotto]

Some of those Geiko commercials are really funny, especially the soap opera one. I can't decide if those two actors are really good, or really that bad! Some have caught me completely by surprise too.

[psmith2.0]

I just saw a brand new one last night, made to look like a new reality show. I TOTALLY bought it because it ran on HGTV and the name of the "show" was "Little House", about a couple who has to live in a scaled-down house for a year to collect some huge sum of money. A tiny bed, tiny kitchen (everything's in perfect scale, only about 65% of normal size).



They totally had the style down too: shaky, handheld camera, that vivid "shot on video look", appropriate voiceover, clips of the "contestants" being hysterical and acting like assholes, quick-cut editing, build-up music, etc.

It's just like a "Big Brother" or "Joe Millionaire" promo!

But I was watching it (again, remembering it was on HGTV where these kind of "home re-do" shows reign, and this just seemed to mesh right in) and about to hit the roof "WTF kind of idiotic crap show is this? Can't this reality thing just end once and for all?!?" and BAM. It's that damn lizard!



They got me. Good.

[Windswept]

Oh yeah. The gecko *RULES* !!! What a sweetie. And he has such a mild, inoffensive personality. heh

Hey, does anybody here actually have Geico auto insurance? If so, are they pretty good about getting a person's car fixed after a collision - in a timely manner with few/no hassles? I'd *really* like to know.

I love almost any commercial with puppies. Remember one a while back when the puppy would come running for dinner, and would crash into cabinet doors because he would slide on the tile floor...so that the family actually had his 'crashing points' padded? That was pretty cute, though not my favorite.

Also the old Dust Devil vacuum commercials where all the little golden retriever puppies would dig out houseplant potting-soil onto the carpet, or make some other mess on the stairs. Then you would see them all in a basket, yawning and ready for a nap after wreaking havoc and mischief all over the house. Omg, what little sweethearts. What could be cuter than golden retriever puppies? (except for Samoyed puppies, of course... )

About music: not sure what decade it's from, and don't plan to look it up, but do any of you like the "Magic Carpet Ride" song on the (Chevy?) commercials? Just wondering.

[curiousuburb]

Steppenwolf. 1968.

[BuonRotto]

scates: that's a great one! I saw that the other night too. The super quick cuts of people screaming and slamming things are spot-on.

Studies and experience have shown babies and puppies sell things very well. People would buy more meat cleavers if you had a commercial with a baby or puppy on the cutting board!