# Are some companies targeting a-hole s in their commercials? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 17, 2011, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967 "2011-01-17T18:14:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967/41 "2011-01-18T13:04:48Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > I couldn’t believe that Toyota kid when I saw the ad last time I was over in the States. Is it actually appealing to anyone? Douchebags-in-training 9 year olds. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967/42 "2011-01-18T13:07:37Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > I couldn’t believe that Toyota kid when I saw the ad last time I was over in the States. Is it actually appealing to anyone? Psychotic homicidal pedophiles. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967/43 "2011-01-18T14:56:10Z")
The Cheetos ads where the animated mascot tells the human to do shitty things others like putting a handful of Cheetos into another womans dryer at the laundromat. Another illustration of commercial asshole behavior were the alcohol ads that instructed you how to be a player. Things like stacking the deck of business cards so that a coworker ended up buying all the drinks. To me these are the worst because they actively portray acting shitty to others as a “cool” way to be. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967/44 "2011-01-18T15:00:07Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > I heard there were 6-dollar burgers available in this thread? At the top of the hill if you get there first. ---
**Author:** ![rebent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8e8cbc/32.png) [@rebent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rebent)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967/45 "2011-01-18T15:01:31Z")
Ha, are ads these days really doing this? I try very hard to avoid watching any media that has advertisements. Boy do I love it ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967/46 "2011-01-18T15:33:07Z")
> [@Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](#): > > **In the Bud Light commercials I keep waiting for the bar owner to come out and tell the bartender, “Insult another one of my customers and you’re out of job bitch, your job is to sell drinks and make people feel welcome, not to act out the high school frustrations you never resolved.”** > > One in the series is especially stupid. A guy asks for a light beer. The bitch asks if he cares about taste. Frustrated by such a stupid question he replies, “No.” So she gives him the off brand. I don’t get it. If she is so damned obsessed with Bud Light, why, when the man says he doesn’t care what brand she serves, does she serve him the off brand? An excuse to insult him I guess. And the insults in that commercial are so clearly homophobic that I wish the advert would just come right out and say it: “If you aren’t putting a Bud Light bottle in your mouth you might as well put a hard cock in there, because men who drink other light beers are clearly homosexual. You don’t want people to think you’re a fag do you?” Thank you for this post, especially the bolded. More douchebags: Jack Link’s “Messing with Sasquatch.” The things done in those commercials are downright mean, pointless, and not very funny. What’s the message? ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967/47 "2011-01-18T15:41:40Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Psychotic homicidal pedophiles. Well, let’s get that kid in touch with one. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967/48 "2011-01-18T15:50:31Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > More douchebags: Jack Link’s “Messing with Sasquatch.” The things done in those commercials are downright mean, pointless, and not very funny. What’s the message? Well, Sasquatch always kicks their ass in the end so I guess the message is not to mess with Sasquatch. Also, eat beef jerky. ---
**Author:** ![Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_First_Time)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967/49 "2011-01-18T16:01:25Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Well he \*is \*Mayhem. > > I don’t know if Mayhem counts for this category. The point is to avoid mayhem, or rather, to buy their car insurance so when you run into the inevitable mayhem, you won’t be dealing with it on your own. > > No one’s trying to tell you that you should be \*like \*Mayhem, or drink what Mayhem drinks or buy what Mayhem buys. > > (And he \*is \*weirdly hot, isn’t he? Not at all my “type”, and I’m not sure I’d think he was attractive in other roles, but I think it’s the total confidence in this one that makes my engine rev. Cocky is cute, dammit.) I think this series of commercials was launched because the insurance company wanted to give risk a human face and make it something folks could identify concretely, be afraid of, and thus buy insurance. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Jocko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncle_jocko/32/2932_2.png) [@Uncle\_Jocko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Jocko)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967/50 "2011-01-18T16:04:30Z")
Boy, this thread is bringing out my inner rage at eye-rollingly ridiculous current ads. Speaking of snootty car ads … Audi is running a new one with the voice over based on Goodnight Moon, except they’re saying goodnight to various elements of what is portrayed as “obsolete” wealth (including a Benz) - then “hello” to innovation (Audi, of course!). In addition to the woman’s voice being brain-bendingly irritating to me, it just comes off as … this is why there was a French Revolution. Do people this rich even watch commercial TV anymore? Wouldn’t they just hire actors to come to their mansions and do the programs live? > [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > The most blatant example of this is the ads for Sprint Mobile, the football trainer and the Christmas neighbor. Both of these commercials feature guys using and extolling the virtues of their cell phone plans to be complete passive-aggressive assholes. Sprint, the phone for your inner asshat. I actually kinda like the doctor one, because he seems so blissfully unaware (and the “ho-horrendous” line in the Christmas one was a hoot), but the latest one is just … too much. A couple are sitting in a diner and the woman is breaking up with the man bit by bit … he gets a tweet, she updates her Facebook status to single right in front of him. Then, at the end, she picks up her phone, his starts ringing. The implication is now she’s calling him to “break” the break-up news to him. On the phone. While they’re sitting two feet apart. WHILE SHE HAS THE MOST DISTURBINGLY GOOFY WIDE-EYED INSANE EXPRESSION … and smiling! That is super creepy. And I can’t imagine how it’s supposed to sell any phones. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967/51 "2011-01-18T16:07:30Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > Hasn’t the Six Dollar Burger always only cost $3 or $4? Wasn’t that the point of the name, that it is a cheap burger that’s as good as the expensive burgers you’d find at a real restaurant. In what world can you find a six dollar burger at a non fast food restaurant? ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967/52 "2011-01-18T18:22:29Z")
I’m just posting to say that I love the Mayhem commercials. Can’t remember the insurance company they’re for, but I love the commercials. Especially the one where he plays a deer. I love the look on his face as he gets hit by the car. I also love the AT&T commercial where the guy complains that no one invited him to the taco party at work. The message of that one is “If you use our phones, you _won’t_ inadvertently be a douchebag.” That’s a moral I endorse, although it’s pretty blatantly untrue WRT AT&T, since I understand they have the _worst_ network performance. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967/53 "2011-01-18T18:32:58Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > I couldn’t believe that Toyota kid when I saw the ad last time I was over in the States. Is it actually appealing to anyone? Is that the commercial where one kid’s parents are singing a song about angels? I have never noticed what brand of car it is mainly because as soon as I hear the singing, I mentally block the commercial ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967/54 "2011-01-18T18:35:19Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > And then there’s the asshole kid whose mother, thank GAWD, has the cool minivan, not the dreadful social suicide cars of some of his less fortunate classmates. > > God, I want to punch that kid in the mouth. I want to kick that kid in the balls. IN THE BALLS!!! ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967/55 "2011-01-18T18:36:36Z")
> [@Uncle\_Jocko](#): > > Boy, this thread is bringing out my inner rage at eye-rollingly ridiculous current ads. Speaking of snootty car ads … I think it’s BMW who has my all-time most annoying car commercial. They run this every year around Christmas. The setup is that people are dazzled by Christmas lights, yet this couple with no lights Grinches it up by opening their garage and shining the headlights, driving the cars slowly onto the driveway as people flock to see them. It’s just a car, and not a particularly great one at that. Get over yourselves :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967/56 "2011-01-18T18:59:08Z")
> [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](#): > > The one that I remember is for an iPad or related tablet. The woman spouts all of its advantages, then says that she paid more for her sunglasses. You want me to trust your consumer advice after telling me that you paid $130 for a pair of sunglasses? Prescription glasses with all the trimmings cost less. The only way you can get prescription sunglasses for that cheap is if buy the cheapest, flimsiest frames they have. Prescription sunglasses are fucking expensive. > [@Uncle\_Jocko](#): > > A couple are sitting in a diner and the woman is breaking up with the man bit by bit … he gets a tweet, she updates her Facebook status to single right in front of him. Then, at the end, she picks up her phone, his starts ringing. The implication is now she’s calling him to “break” the break-up news to him. On the phone. While they’re sitting two feet apart. WHILE SHE HAS THE MOST DISTURBINGLY GOOFY WIDE-EYED INSANE EXPRESSION … and smiling! I think that was the first one (I know I was seeing it in the Summer, so it can’t be too new) and I actually think it’s the only one that doesn’t come across as completely mean-spirited. She’s a ditz, but those plan features are pretty awesome. And her calling him at the end was a “but let’s stay friends!” call. Pretty amusing to me. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967/57 "2011-01-18T19:14:35Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Well he \*is \*Mayhem. > > I don’t know if Mayhem counts for this category. The point is to avoid mayhem, or rather, to buy their car insurance so when you run into the inevitable mayhem, you won’t be dealing with it on your own. > > No one’s trying to tell you that you should be \*like \*Mayhem, or drink what Mayhem drinks or buy what Mayhem buys. > > (And he \*is \*weirdly hot, isn’t he? Not at all my “type”, and I’m not sure I’d think he was attractive in other roles, but I think it’s the total confidence in this one that makes my engine rev. Cocky is cute, dammit.) I don’t see the hotness, but I’ll agree with you otherwise, **WhyNot**. The point of the Mayhem ads is that you’re supposed to hate the people he’s mocking, and that the insurance he’s pitching will help you deal with the chaos Mayhem brings. ---
**Author:** ![susan\_foster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@susan\_foster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan_foster)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967/58 "2011-01-18T19:50:45Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > There’s the car commercial with the guy who smashes out the window of the donut shop and then drives like an asshole so he can get the donuts to the staff meeting on time. > “This tiny, boxy car is faster than it looks, so you too can be a dangerous menace on the roads!”\* > > \*Professional driver on closed course. Do not attempt. I can’t hate on that one, because it stars one of my tv crushes, Brett Erlich. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967/59 "2011-01-18T19:59:51Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > You know, I never took that commercial as him lying. I took it as him going “Holy crap, there’s a girl named Terri texting me. Oh right, that’s my boss.” The girlfriends reaction sounds like she knows Terri too. That’s an odd interpretation. Looking at the set of those commercials, it’s clearly a set up to be “need a moment to think of a lie to cover your ass?” Every one of those the moment is about thinking up a lie for the ridiculous doucheness the guy has found himself in. One of them is asking the girl back to his place, she gets angry, so he has to think up a reason other than sex. No, it’s clearly a scam to cover that he has another chick on the line, his current date is apparently questioning why she’s not the exclusive partner she thought, and the line about “my boss” is a cover using the sexual ambiguity of the name. “Oh, your boss is calling you, I guess that makes sense, as opposed to some skank you’re seeing behind my back.” > [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > What about all those mollyfocking Carls Jr. ads, constantly touting that they are the home of the 6 Dollar Burger!!! while showing aspiring Gen Xer assholes/douchebags stuffing their face with a hamburger that supposedly costs more than a full, sit-down meal at a decent diner? What’s your definition of “decent”? I can see $8 to $10, $12 with a beverage, but six? > [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](#): > > The one that I remember is for an iPad or related tablet. The woman spouts all of its advantages, then says that she paid more for her sunglasses. You want me to trust your consumer advice after telling me that you paid $130 for a pair of sunglasses? Prescription glasses with all the trimmings cost less. Amen. You spent over $130 on your shades? I hope they’re prescription, or you’re simultaneously flaunting your great financial prowess at picking up a Kindle cheap while at the same time demonstrating your total financial gooberness by spending 5 times what the shades are worth. > [@SciFiSam](#): > > There’s a n M&M ad in Britainwhere the woman orders her bloke to get her a snack while she just sits in her arse watching TV, whereupon he wrestles the reluctant giant M&M into a bowl for her to eat alive, and the woman just rolls her eyes at him because (as the M&M also complains) he didn’t get a bigger bowl. But M&Ms has had those living giant M&Ms for some time, trying not to get eaten. This is just another in their pattern. > [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > More douchebags: Jack Link’s “Messing with Sasquatch.” The things done in those commercials are downright mean, pointless, and not very funny. What’s the message? Yeah, they never made sense to me. So you accidentally discover Sasquatch - he’s real! So what do you decide to do as the first thing? I know, let’s play a prank on him! The sound like those college douches in the dorms who thought it the height of hilarity to put ketchup packets under the toilet seat so when you sat down you’d get splattered. Or penny locking doors so you were stuck in your room. Most of these commercials are going for memorable = gets you to think of our product by name recognition when you are buying. Then are trying for funny. It’s funny watching a douche be clueless. It’s funny watching a dumbass get appropriately ridiculed. We like to see tv characters do the things that would be rude for us to do in person. Of course it’s a two-edged sword, because the reason it is rude for us to do in person is the reason the characters doing it come off as douches. ---
**Author:** ![Raskolnikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac8455/32.png) [@Raskolnikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raskolnikov)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967/60 "2011-01-18T20:31:57Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > I’m just posting to say that I love the Mayhem commercials. Can’t remember the insurance company they’re for, but I love the commercials. Especially the one where he plays a deer. I love the look on his face as he gets hit by the car. > > I\*\* also love the AT&T commercial where the guy complains that no one invited him to the taco party at work\*\*. The message of that one is “If you use our phones, you _won’t_ inadvertently be a douchebag.” That’s a moral I endorse, although it’s pretty blatantly untrue WRT AT&T, since I understand they have the _worst_ network performance. does the munching in the commercial bother you? I find it annoying. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-companies-targeting-a-hole-s-in-their-commercials/567967.md?page=4)