Oh, and I forgot to mention that they really messed up the geologic timeframe on the coelacanth ad. So, I guess they’re not that clever after all.
The one that really grates on our family’s nerves lately is a commercial from the Papa John’s pizza chain. The company founder tries to help his daughter with her lemonade stand by getting her to switch from using frozen concentrate to making freshly- squeezed lemonade. This is to draw a comparison to how Papa John’s uses “freshly-made” canned sauce as opposed to canned tomato paste on their pizza. Anyway, at the end of the commercial it shows a line of people waiting for lemonade while the father is furiously juicing lemons as the daughter whines “Keep squeezin’, Dad!”. (In reality, it sounds like she is saying “Keep squeethin’, Dah!”) Seems pretty harmless when it’s described this way, but watching it makes your colon clench.
In general, don’t you all think it’s a bad idea to have company founders, CEOs, or presidents appear in commercials–especially ones that attempt to be funny? Dave Thomas’ Wendy’s commercials are uniformly bad, the old Remington shaver commercials with Victor Kayam were pretty weak as well, and the Carvel ice cream commercials are supposed to be almost legendary in their lameness. Can’t these guys just be content behind the scenes and count their money?
Old Navy commercials? This must be where psuedo-celebrities and has-beens rest up before continuing on their long trip to hell.
I agree with Veb - I can’t stand those Herbal Essences commercials either.
The Gap has gotta go…far as I’m concerned, we can just nuke Banana Republic (peel THIS!)…all car commercials…
You know, it’s kinda funny - I just went on a major rant about this last night…
“If there’s anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.”
That damn Ricola ad. 'Nuff already.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge…others just gargle.
Mentos.
“Some people are worried about the difference between right and wrong. I’m worried about the difference between wrong and fun.”
~P.J. O’Rourke~
I have to agree with the person who hates the grapejuice kid. She scares the hell outa me! It’s like she’s in some stunted development time warp or something. Her enunciation is so un-lifelike for a kid! I bet she’ll be in a bad sitcom some day. And such severe hair for a little kid! (shudder!)
All car commercials (three-fourths of all TV ads seem to be car ads nowadays).
Yeah, you know what Northern Virginia really needs? More cars on the roads!
Also you’ll never attract members of the opposite sex if you can’t spring for a $60,000 Lexus!
Sheesh.
They must not have the Mattress Giant commercials everywhere, because I would have expected tons of people to name this as their all time least favorite commercial.
It goes: Ooohh Ahhhhh, Ooohh Ahhhhh, Only at Mattress Giant {repeated AD nauseum} <–literally
Never has any commercial evoked the mood for physical violence as much as this one. This commercial makes me want to do a drive-by on a Mattress Giant and I sure as hell would never buy a mattress from them even if it were free.
Commercials I hate?
There aint enough room here to list them all.
That GAP commercial where they got these 8 or 9 year old kids strutting along in those damn baggy carpenter pants. I was looking forward to the end of the baggy style and I noticed that it was fading out with the arrival of the modernized 70s flares and then the GAP starts pushing bags again.
Any SUV or truck commercial where they show the product crashing over rough roads and plowing through woods while in *teeny, tiny little letters * they print this disclaimer pointing out that THOSE vehicles have been modified.
Beer commercials. All of them, especially the Sam Adams ones with his cute ‘smarmy’ narration that sets my teeth on edge. Drunks are steadily wiping people out on the road and hard booze is not allowed by law to advertise on TV and the ‘TRUTH’ people are pestering everyone with antismoking spots, plus the drug spots are all over the place telling kids to just say no to drugs, but beer is portrayed as delicious, seductive, manly, womanly and low calorie. {Next, they’ll be pushing it as good food.}
StoryTyler and Girlface, GOOD! I thought I was the only one who hated mutant Welch’s Grape Juice girl. I have to mute, that lip smacking thing just makes my ears smoke.
Maybe this needs a new thread, but there are a few ads I love!
There was one for Sprite (I think) about movie people dreaming up promotions for a giant slug movie that was hilarious. Of course, I saw it exactly once.
I have to second the vote on the 10-10 phone commercials–why do they ALL have to be so witless? I lost any respect I may ever have had for Dennis Miller when he started shilling for them.
But I loved and miss the cheesy old Carvel ads, with Wickie the Witch, Dumpy the Pumpkin, and Old Man Carvel holding some terrified child on his lap, seemingly having a stroke even as he rasped, “he’s havin’ a good time . . . ain’tcha, young man?” It was like something from early John Waters!
“Wake up and smell the echinacea.” 'Nuff said.
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I hate the Pepsi ads with that wretched little girl with the curly hair. I also despise the phone ads with David Arquette–I don’t even know which phone company it is because I have to change the channel or I’ll throw an ashtray, or some other suitably heavy object, at the TV. I also hate the ad for Hot Pockets when the woman tries to cram a pepperoni pizza into the toaster–barf.
I forgot to mention the stupid Coca-Cola one where the idiotic girl pours herself a glass of Coke, licking her lips the whole time, and the when she brings the glass up to drink it, the bubbles tickle her nose and she bursts out laughing. I just want to shout at the screen “It’s soda, you stupid freak, haven’t you ever had it before?!”
Man, I hate that girl.
“I wore an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time…”
Any company who does radio advertising with sound effects including sirens, screeching tires, ringing phones or pagers etc.
I boycott the companies who use these in radio ads. Drivers have enough to think about on the road.
Wishing all you at the SDMB Happy Xmas and a GREAT 2000 and beyond!
What really cracks me up about that stupid Coke ad with the idiotic giggle girl is that her teeth appear sort of worn away on the sides…they’re rounded in a weird way. All I can think of when I see it is that she’s obviously had enough pop already.
Oooohhh… there are most of my most hated commercials here. If I can add:
[ul][li]those ‘this moment brought to you by a man who knows his diamonds’[/li][li]the Gap Dancers - especially the new Christmas set[/li][li]bail-bond commercials[/li][li]prescription drug commercials[/li][li]ads that play on a families sense of security (i.e. home alarms)[/ul][/li]
Arrrrgh! I can’t go on… I am being overtaken by the urge to crack the nearest television with a baseball bat…
I also dislike that Pepsi girl and the Welches grape juice urchin! (I think her Mom used to be on some collectibles show that used to come on FX. They look suspiciously alike.)
I do have to wonder why it is that whenever I sit down to eat in front of the TV, they just have to start advertising feminine pads, deodorizer and everything else concerning down there. Even a boyfriend of mine complained about that. Do they TIME those ads to appear around supper time?
The ad with that chunky little boy and his rain check. If I have to see that baggy pants little bugger bouncing around and chortling ‘go rain check, go rain check’ one more time, I’ll probably put my foot through the screen.
I hate a few commercial personalities. Tom Shane is the biggest. You can’t escape his dull monotone voice… I went on vacation to Florida in hopes that I could escape, but he’s there too! How can his drone possibly sell diamonds?! Then, we have Sunny Kobe-Cook, a local mattress whore. She is part of a conspiracy of far too cheerful old people who sell furniture. For the love of god, they must be stopped. Or Dan Bretler, president of Car Toys. I think he’s in league with the above cartel, proof being the fact that he’s been using his mom in commercials recently.
Beyond personalities, what ires me more than being poked in the eye with a cattle prod is commercials where they present a couple and the woman is a smug genius and the guy is an absolute retard. They’re everywhere. I know women like little more in life than to point out the inadaquacies of men, but to see it over and over on every goddamn commercial…
And it isn’t the smartness that ires me. Its the smugness… they always have this self satisfied look on their faces as they talk. And they probably are self satisfied, because they make men out to be too incompetent to unzip their pants without serious bodily injury.
They never use women that look smart either… they usually have a vacant look in their eyes (possibly from reading the cue cards) to go along with the smug grin. Bah. I’ve nothing against women. I love women. But this crap just pisses me off.
http://www.madpoet.com
Computers have let mankind make mistakes faster than any other invention, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns.
Any ad where they SHOUT at you. Usually there’s some type of background noise that gives the actor a (lame) excuse to yell.
Ugh!