On the heels of this andthis thread, I thought I’d start a general thread about commercials where you don’t quite get the creator’s choices.
I often wonder why, when a recognizable actor’s voice is used, they have the person using “we” and “our”, as if the speaker is actually a an employee of the company. I understand the thinking behind having a famous person’s voice, but then if the very point is for the viewer to *recognize * the voice and thereby lend credibility to the product, why word it so that it sounds like the voice-over person supposedly is part of “the team?” Does that make sense?
In the same vein, why use an actor whose voice is less than pleasing to the ear. I’m thinking of John Goodman, whom I love as an actor but whose voice is not exactly radio friendly. Specifically, I’m thinking of the Dunkin’ Donuts ads (thougt he does a lot of other stuff).To be frank, dude has a “fat man’s” voice. Is that part of the reasoning?
Finally, there’s an ad for J’ador perfume with Charlize Theron" running into" other famous blonde bombshells (Marilyn, Grace, etc). The background music is some irritating Dolly Parton tune. Dolly is fine for her genre, but in what world does her voice convey sex and sophistication? Do not get.
So what commercials have you baffled every time you see / hear them?Not neccessarily ones you hate, but just make you ask yourself “what were they thinking?”
Dunkin Donut’s slogan at the time (might still be, actually) was “America runs on Dunkin.” Can you think of a more “All-American” actor than John Goodman?
I never thought about it, but *I *don’t neccessarily equate John Goodman with “All American”. It’s been too many years for a *Roseanne *connection, so what exactly makes you think “all American”? Intersting theory, though.
Well shut my mouth! I would have bet the farm that that is Dolly. So now I’m thinking I can’t be the only one who thinks it sounds like her, and either way, it just strikes me as totally unsuitable. Thanks for the education.
Surely there are a finite number of people buying car insurance. This battle of insurance commercials can at most only be shifting them from one company to another.
Progressive’s Flo creeps me out, but apparently some people find her endearing. I hate her so much that I will never buy their insurance. Have you noticed that GEICO is never on their rate comparison chart?
The “Nationwide is on your side” ads are like fingernails on a chalkboard to anyone with musical abilities.
State Farm apparently has nothing to recommend them, so they air ridiculous fantasies. Their ads also feature horrendous off-tune singing.
I can usually tolerate the GEICO gecko. The All State guy is a tall drink of water with a bedroom voice. I’ll buy that.
Gag. I know this isn’t supposed to be about commercials we hate but this one is odd and hateful. It is so freakin’ contrived and phony. My brother and I have a very nice (albeit long distance) relationship, but if I came out with that dreck he would ask me if I was on drugs again.
The Civic commercial with the blonde tween.
Teen drivers are being told that if they get a Civic their bratty little sister will destroy their social lives. Parents are told if they get this car for their 16-year-old, their younger child will get brought along to unsupervised house parties.
Which group is supposed to be more excited?
The Kodo one where the wrestler is in a gift box with a lit zippo, blows a fart, blows up all the other gifts under the tree, the tree itself, all the trimmings and most of the room and then says ‘Oops -
No Christmas for the Wilsons this year!’
Erm, what?
And the Dior on makes no sense to me either. Charleze Theron is a fox, but I don’t get why Marilyn Monroe has come back from the dead to take part.
I had no idea that others also found this commercial to be creepy—Sometimes I worry that I have an unnatural way of looking at things (I once mentioned that there is a popular cooking show, featuring a father and his teen-aged daughter that positively screams “Incest” to me) but this coffee commercial has also squicked me out for years…
There have been several episodes that made me literally squirm in a kind of undefined, uncomfortable “embarrassment” and quickly grab for the remote control.
(I should add that I actually kind of like Rick Bayless when his daughter Lanie isn’t on the program, and I also find Lanie to be a very attractive young woman, but the unmistakably coy, seductive way in that she acts towards her father is uber-creepy and I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that others pick up on it as well.)
I cannot figure out the appeal of the new “Southern Comfort” ad campaign, featuring a squat little fat man, probably in his late 40’s or early 50’s with a big bushy moustache and curly, but balding hair, walkimg on the beach in a speedo carrying a glass of “Southern Comfort” to the tune “i gotta be me.”. He’s even wearing the mirrored sunglasses if I remember right.
The guy screams “skeevy pedophile looking at your 12 year old daughter. That’s why I wear these sunglasses.”
His fat, squat, Danny Devito physique is also unpleasant to see in a speedo. I will never drink Southern Comfort because of this commercial.
I can’t imagine what the Febreze people were thinking with their awful ad campaign, where they lead blindfolded people into filthy, squalid rooms piled high with garbage. Supposedly Febreze covers the smell, but we at home can’t smell it; we can only react to the hideous visuals. All I get from the commercial is a visceral association of Febreze with repulsion and disgust.