Those commercials are horrible and they’ve been around forever. Is there even a reason for their ape-like arm swinging and goofy laugh?
I don’t know if these are local only but there’s always these ads on for 1-800-Ask-Gary. It’s a series of different ads with people talking about their accident experiences, in the one that plays the most the woman pronounce “ask” as “axe”. I hate that. If I keep hearing these ads I may want to axe Gary.
Well…not that I’m defending that horrible commercial or anything, but the very few times I’ve flown there have been fast-food joints beyond the metal detector, fairly close to the gates. So, Blizzard in one hand, carry-on bag in the other, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that he bought it right before the flight so he’d have something to eat on the plane.
Of course, that was until Smarmy Guy had his way… (man, that guy pisses me off. He’s a good actor, because he seriously makes me, generally a fairly mellow person, want to punch him in the nose every time I see the commercial).
Empire’s in Pittsburgh, as well, with a nice, folksy old man doing the voice work. I thought they were local, too.
The ads that get me are radio ones for Mike’s Hard Lemonade with the bottle pulling phone pranks like calling a help line and asking for counseling. If your spiel is acting like a jerk, I’ll avoid your product. On the other hand, I doubt I’m their target market.
Oliver Jewellers.
For years this guy has been doing lame “we buy your old gold!” ads on radio and TV in the Toronto area. Then, when ads moved in to cinemas, he started showing up in ten-metre-high glory before each movie… and we had paid to be there. At the same time, he was doing a particularly pathetic act as a superhero called CashMan or something. His super-suit was wrinkled, and we got to see that in excruciating detial.
At least it had a cape. I haven’t seen these particular ads for a while; maybe CashMan got sucked into a vortex.
Yes, but…Dairy Queen? I’ve never seen a Dairy Queen in an airport, and I’ve been to a few dozen airports in my life. Does anyone know of an airport with a Dairy Queen?
Mpls/St. Paul (DQ’s home city, you’d expect it there). Probably others.
I wish. I saw an ad for him about a week ago. I saw him on the street once. He’s a tiny little man. You wouldn’t think you could pack that much irritating into such a small package.
Denver Metro Area: Dealin’ Doug and Rocky’s Autos.
Anyone who has ever watched television on the Front Range knows exactly what I’m talking about.
On a sidenote, I think those old Quizno’s commercials with the bizarre singing were some of the most hilarious things I can remember. I still laugh when I think about them.
If I see another lame ass commercial for electronics (usually laptops) showing whatever they’re watching or listening to come to life, either in their lap or livingroom, I’m going to destroy something beautiful.
OKAY. We get it. Your cheap ass Dells or HPs or whatevers are so amazing, it’s like Frodo or the Black Eyed Peas is right there with you. LAME. The first 18 or 19 products that used this oh-so-cleaver concept simply annoyed me… but now, you can’t see a fricking laptop or cellphone commercial that rips it off. It’s sooo tired. Now I hate. :mad:
I used to work a helpdesk in the student union bookstore at my university. There was a very large wall of TVs in the middle of the room tuned to a news channel, and every so often the Spongmonkey Quizno’s commercials would come on. I derived great enjoyment watching random people in the store stop and stare at the TV in horrified bewilderment.
I also like the plastic-face Burger King. Go figure.
(Staying on-topic: I have hated every jewelry commercial, TV and radio, I’ve ever had the misfortune to listen to. It’s not like I have the means or the interest in shopping at those stores in the first place, but if I did I’d boycott them.)
KFC’s commercial pisses me off for the same reason.
One word:
“Fanta.”
I want to go Knights in Pskov on that company’s headquarters.
Not a product exactly, but those fcking thetruth.com anti-smoking ads are so fcking pretentious, self-important, condescending, and obnoxious that they literally make me want to take up smoking!
Oh gee, thank you Gen-Y slacker skateboarding douchebags. Before you came along I had no idea smoking was bad for you! 
You just reminded me of another commercial I hate–and, coincidentally, another one that got played into the ground so I could hate it many times.
Four words: “You’re such a side-hog.”
Put that kid (the boy, not the girl who has every right to complain) next to Smarmy Guy from the Dairy Queen commercial and let me take ‘em both out with one nice swing of a bad-commercial-character-smitin’ baseball bat.
Can’t believe I’m asking for this, but apparently the marketing whizzes behind HEAD-ON! APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD! have two other ads, one for hemerrhoids and arthritis. Anyone know where I can find these online?
They’re so spectacularly bad, there has to be some rationale for this tactic. They certainly have captured the nation’s imagination.
I think the rationale is the company marketing whizzes were too cheap to hire ad agency and just did the commercials themselves. Most of them consist of just a picture (often just a still of the product) and an announcer saying the name of the product and giving a brief one sentence description of what it is (“Freedom from hemmorhoids? Freedhem hemmorhoid cream.”) or how it’s used (“APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD!”). This is then rapidly repeated three times. These have to be the most bare-bones minimalist TV commercials I’ve seen broadcast anywhere (including late night local TV).
Just a quick note before this thread fades away. Judging from this review of the “Head-On” commercial in the most recent Slate’s Ad Report Card, my hunch about it was correct.
Oddly enough, they end up giving the ad an A+.
Ok, no prob. They’re somewhere in Atlanta…co-co-cola or something like that.
No sooner than I post a joke about feigning ignorance about the name of Fanta’s manufacturer* than I read this funny line from the Slate review:
I’d find that pretty funny. But then, again, I think the HeadOn ads are funny.
*Fanta is a Nazi drink! Sort of. After World War II broke out, Americans only shipped necessities abroad, and trade with Nazi Germany thinned. The German branch of Coca-Cola had to invent a replacement that could be made in Germany using German ingredients. That drink was Fanta.
Of course they do. It’s brilliant. Everyone here is talking about it.