Let me add (other than feminine hygiene commercials for guys)
The first that comes to mind for me is the Charlie Sheen/Martin Sheen check-card commercial; a variant involves rabbits that breed 12 generations in a few minutes. Both are about the amount of time it takes to approve a check.
I’ve never had this problem; either the place just doesn’t accept checks at all, or they ask to see my drivers’ license and for my phone numbers and that’s it. Does it really take that long to get it approved some places?
An infomercial for an indoor barbecue grill mentions the problem with having stand sweating and swatting flies and mosquitoes over an outdoor grill. Uusally I stay inside, go out every few minutes to check or baste, and the lid keeps away the flies.
Any commercials that address problems you’ve never had?
Those vain, thin, wan people - wandering around in airy, perfectly lit rooms - that look like that just stepped out of Town & Country with sharpened pencils in their hands - extolling the virtues of a weekly subscription to the New York Times.
They are aliens. Normal humans do not act or dress like this in their own homes. They are worse than the Calvin Klein “wear this cologne and become as emaciated as me” ads.
The most recent one is where the dad and the daughter are debating what fancy computer he’s going to buy for her when she goes away to school. I think she says something like “this would be great for school” and he says “how about this laptop so you can bring it home?” In my family it would’ve gone something like “Hey, this would be great for school!” Parents: “Next time bring your wallet with you!”
And any commercial where people give each other cars as gifts. WTF?!?!
Yes!!! That commercial where the girl gets a Lexus for her Birthday or Christmas or something. Its got a big bow around it.....who thought that up? I guess they really are trying to appeal to the rich snob-spoiled brat demographic. I would not buy my daughter a Lexus as a gift even if I could afford it.
Those cheap long distance commercials are just dumb. Most people, I am assuming, have a cell phone they use for long distance and no longer give a second thought to this issue for this reason. Or they use email. Or you can buy a calling card. Long distance costs just don't seem to be big deal that I ver consider anymore.
This will be out of the purvey of all but a few SEAsian dopers, but there’s a fruitjuice commercial here that’s been bugging me for AGES!
The scenario being: Dude in supermarket sees a sampling stand for new brand of fruit juices, goes over and tastes a cup (those small plastic things they give you samples in). And says something along the lines of, ‘mmm, delicious, do you have any other flavours behind you?’ (indicating the refrigerated cabinet behind the promotions lady). She looks at him and then turns around indicating all the different flavours, when she turns back he’s scoffed down about 6 of the sample cups and hurredly hides them behind one of the standees on her sampling table.
Now, that in itself is really funny, and I can relate to it, having done similarly juvenile things myself in real life (or should I say, IRL cheese).
The thing I cannot relate to is that look she gives him before turning to the cabinet! It’s so wierd, so full of emotion and sex and… it’s just WIERD!!!
She looks at him like he’s asked her to run barefoot with him to some enchanted place where they will have copious sex and she shall bear the fruit of his virile seed! Now I could be reading a lot into this, but a lot of people have commented on how out of place that -LOOK- is and how it makes the ad completely un-connectable for a LOT of people.
Why would she intrepret an inquiry about other flavours of fruit juice as anything other than a normal query? (although his subterfuge following the query would prompt a look AFTER she had turned around).
Do people REALLY flirt this early in a chance meeting? What the hell is going on here?
The commercials wherein calling collect is the cool thing to do.
Look, if you’re calling collect, you are basically telling the person on the other end “Look, I’m so pathetic I didn’t even have a quarter (or 50 cents nowadays), and I hope you’ll talk to me anyway.” Every collect call I’ve ever taken began with “I’m sorry I called collect, I’ll pay you right back.”
Another one is for plug-in air fresheners with power outlets. The woman using the ‘non-powered’ freshener looks around vainly for an electrical outlet for her hair drier! Horrors! “Oh, an outlet, an outlet, a kingdom for an outlet! No, I can’t unplug this air freshener for two minutes, for you see my entire house smells of monkey feces and I’ll be overwhelmed and swoon and hit my head and die if I ever dare unplug it.”
YES! I hate the one with the woman who has a kitchen full of kids shrieking, “MILKSHAKES! MILKSHAKES!” while she stands there wishing she’d bought the other brand of plug-in air freshener. 'Cause you know, she just can’t unplug the dang air freshener for 5 minutes to make milkshakes for the entire neighborhood.
It also ties in with Lissa’s…
I hate the ones with kids obnoxiously making a mess, while mom smiles calmly, knowing she can clean it up with whatever product they’re selling.
There is a soft drink, AMP I believe it is called, that has a guy kicking himself in the head. I have no idea what demographic they are shooting for, but I’m not in it.
My God, yes! I HATE these commercials. Thankfully, my kids know that these commercials have no basis in reality.
I also hate every one of those damn ‘Gellin’ commercials.
Anyone else notice that quite often they use the same young ladies for all of those ‘feminine hygene’ ads? There’s one girl, I swear I know more about her vagina that my wife’s. That’s not a good thing either, given that from the array of medications and products that are used on it, this young lady must be dating a biker gang.
I also cannot stand these, because they seem to play into the whole “New York City is the center of the universe” crap.
I do not live in New York City (and wouldn’t want to), so why the hell would I want to subscribe to their paper? The Flint (Michigan) Journal or the Detroit Free Press will do just fine, thank you!
Besides, Ann Arbor is the real center of the universe!
Thank you! I’ve been annoyed by these ones since they started airing them. Unplug the damn air freshener for five minutes! Stoopid, stoopid commershial hoomans…
The check cashing one that bother me the most is where the customer goes and gets his priest, his priest’s barber, his …
Dude, by the time you ran all over town getting these people you could have gone home and got your ID 4 times! (not to mention the ATM or bank)
I admit I called collect while in school, but that was only before I coulsd arrange LD service (probably less than 5 times in 5 years)
Just borrow someone’s phone and pay them back.
Actually, N9IWP, that check-card commercial was a joke based on the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon internet game. The “customer” was Kevin Bacon. He gathers up five people who connect him to the clerk. Just like the game. I thought that commercial was hilarious…
The guys getting mobbed by Huns for having the wrong credit card. I can’t see myself ever being dumb enough to carry a balance when interest is in the double digits. Their card is like any card to me: a way to burn one $20 bill every time you earn 5 of them.
I don’t get the Total ads where someone else has 4 or 10 or 30 bowls of cereal. They have 100% of a few vitamins. But I want all the vitamins, so I take a generic pill.
I remember the old SNL takeoff on it, often rerun, where Phil Hartman sits on a growing mountain of cereal bowls and touts Colon Blow Hi-Fiber cereal. And Super Colon Blow.
