A recent commercial for a credit card with “rewards” for use features a guy that looks like the Al Capp character General Bullmoose who speaks in a loud voice and with a phony eastern European sounding accent while a doltish friend tries to distract him. The card he uses he says is VERY VERY VERY REWARDING!
This commercial I find VERY VERY VERY ANNOYING!
What recent (or old) commmercials annoy you most?
Holy Crap, I used to love all the different varieties of Gap Ads, but the most recent one is so horrible it threatens to wipe out the memory of all those preceding it.
In it some rapper (probably famous, unknown to me) manages to accomplish a minor miracle by having his first stanza rhyme hood with…Hood.
And hood again.
And then hood again.
It becomes a welcome relief when he finally attempts rhyming two different words (though the rhyme itself is terrible).
And did I mention that he’s strutting around on a giant gold-plated peace symbol? Or that all these fellow strutter/posers are milling around with their hoodies (presumably the object for sale)?
Or that the Money Phrase (repeated at the end, and printed onscreen in large letters) is “Peace, Love, and Gap”?
Allow me to amend:
“Peace, Love–not Crap”
Ugh.
I dunno who General Bullmoose is, but I came in to say the credit card commercial with the guy with the fake east-european accent, I suspect we are talking about the same guy. I will have to take note of which card it is so I am sure not to ever use it.
There’s one for a weight-loss product being hawked by an intent blond woman who insists it’s “not your fault.” If I ever encountered her in person, I’d have to hurt her, she annoys me *that * much. If I was in the market for a weight-loss pill, I’d not buy whatever it is she’s selling because of the commercial.
Those car GPS commercials set to Carol of the Bells. The ad worked in the sense that I remember the product name (damned if I’ll repeat it here, though), but it backfired because now I’m quite averse to buying it.
Sonics managed to accomplish the same thing. People acting like absolute pricks towards each other doesn’t make me want to buy a sandwich or milkshake or whatever.
There was also this commercial on the Discovery channel for a dog show that they played all the time over the last couple of weeks. Fortunately that’s past, but damn that song was irritating.
Pretty much every jewelery commercial.
I love you all. The premierepass credit card with the fake accent, the dog show with crappy beats - terrible!
I see this brilliant ad on daytime TV often; it skips the niceties and pretension of common marketing techniques and goes straight for a syllogism:
- Stress raises cortisol.
- Cortisol increases belly fat.
- Relacore reduces cortisol.
- YOU. NEED. RELACORE!
Brilliant!
Thank the Lord they’ve (apparently) pulled the Jon Lovitz Subway commercials. My boycott
of them is now over, as is my urge to get a cardboard cutout of Lovitz and riddle it with
buckshot from my friend’s shotgun…
Unfortunately that idiotic little &**&^%^%$#@%$$&^%& gecko is still doing his thing for Geico…
Isn’t that faulty logic, though? What it really means is, “You need to reduce your stress.” 
Those commercials for 1-800-SAFE-AUTO. I HATE HATE HATE that fucking jingle. Ooooh, do I hate it.
The Mike’s Hard Lemonade and (especially) the “Mike-a-rita” prank phone calls.
Any commercial with people discussing their new osteoporosis or menopause or whatever medicine where they speak in the kind of clinical detail you’d expect to hear from the keynote speaker at a pharmacology convention, while their having lunch or jogging with their friends. God damn it, if you want to give us these details, give us these details, but don’t pretend people talk that way!
The Ferrara-Roche or however you spell it commercials, with all the doorbells playing “Deck the Halls.” They play the same damn commercial every year, and every year I hate it more, and if any of my friends show up at my door with a box of those crappy chocolates I will refuse them entry.
I’ve only seen it once and I don’t remember the product. It was for a prescription drug, and it was shot with the spokesperson looking away from the camera.
If you want me to buy drugs from you, the least you can do is look me in the eye.
I don’t know if it gets shown nationwide or if it’s mostly on Dishnetwork but they have a series of commercials where the two women are calmly discussing what an incredible idiot the one woman’s husband is. The husband is running around in the background trying to build something like a studio or a comedy club and if he weren’t such an idiot he’d realize he could just watch what he wants by subscribing to Dishnetwork. Instead, he basically just injures himself as his stupid building projects fall apart. How hilarious.
:rolleyes: It completely fails my “what if the roles were reversed” test. Two men sitting there nonchalantly discussing what an idiot the one man’s wife is. Yeah, like that commercial would ever see the light of day.
I do, too, but it seems to be effective. I was over at my sister’s house right after she and my cousin had gone to pick up my cousin’s newly-purchased car. “I need to get insurance,” my cousin said. “I don’t know who to call, though.”
My sister instantly started singing, “1-800-SAFEAUTO. Pick up the phone. The call is free. Or, you could go with: For the best car insurance rates in town, call 1-800-GENERAL now!”
And that’s exactly what my cousin did.
I wouldn’t call them on principle. I MIGHT check out Geico-I can’t help it, that little Gecko is just so freaking cute. Oooh, and they have Gecko beanies on the website!
Just thought of another one:
“Head on-apply directly to the forehead!”
My problem with Ferrero-Roche’s ads is that they all appear to go for that high-class image and I always have trouble believing in the high-classness of any confection that’s sold at the register at Sheetz…
There’s a rheumatoid arthritis medicine commercial going around right now that makes me want to punch the people involved in the face every time I see it. There’s an incredibly sappy song in the background with lyrics like, “I’m not ready yet/but i’m gonna be soon/maybe I’m gonna start treatment today” and stuff like that, while a condescending voiceover basically implies that if you weren’t such a coward, you’d be already doing something about your rheumatoid arthritis, but it’s ok - you’re going to start today with this new medicine. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s worth it, because you’re not a coward, are you? etc. etc. etc.
And then they list the possible side effects, which include lymphoma, nervous system disorders, a fatal reaction that has been reported, and other nightmarish possibilities that make me wonder how the thing was ever approved by the FDA to begin with as the sappy song continues in the background.
Infuriating.
Well, they may not be entertainment, but they are TV.
Moved from IMHO to CS.