Pepto-Bismal has recently updated I-can’t-believe-they-did-that commercial of people doing a symptom-specific knockoff of the Macarena with an even worse version, featuring giant monsters doing the same thing. My life was really better when I had no reason to contemplate the 50-foot Woman with the runs.
I just saw a Pedigree ad featuring shots of dogs in shelters, with a voiceover saying “I’m a good dog, I know how to sit” and continuing up to “I don’t know how I ended up here.” My girlfriend and I immediately looked at each other and wailed “We have to get to the shelter!” I’ve never felt so damned guilty for not owning a dog.
There is an ad for some shampoo where the boyfriend pulls a tissue out of his girlfriend’s hair, and asks her “You stuff your hair?” At which point some surreal horror movie takes over and her hair literally sucks the life right out of everything in the room. The boyfriend just…deflates! It’s the creepiest damn commercial I’ve ever seen and when I saw the shorter version that leaves out the deflating, I thought they changed it because they got complaints…
What gets me is how they’re showing clip after clip of a dog in a cage…then there’s a clip where a second dog pops up out of nowhere. I want both of them.
The only commercial that really disturbs me right now runs exclusively on the Food Network. They’re having some kind of Valentine’s marathon, mostly with shows about chocolate. This particular ad features their top personalities interacting with chocolate; there’s a clip of Paula Deen sticking her tongue into a running chocolate fountain. The chocolate touched her tongue and ran off, back into the circulating fountain to presumably be consumed by others. gag
Funny you started a thread about this. I too started a thread about a commercial that has me going: huh??
It’s a Wendy’s commercial that plays the Violent Fems’- Blister in The Sun, which is arguably about masturbation. To top it off the ad features a creamy white cheese being poured over a burger.
There’s a UK anti-smoking advert doing the rounds at the moment, depicting a guy working in an office getting suddenly hooked through the cheek by a massive fish hook and being dragged, screaming and thrashing out of the building. I complained to the Advertising Standards Authority about the related billboard ad for this campaign.
My god, that Pedigree commercial rips my heart out every time I see it. Immediately after the first time we saw that ad my wife got up and grabbed her coat. I had to remind her that we couldn’t get a pound dog because of our allergies (that’s why we had to buy a pure-bred Bichon). We then drove to the store and bought a big bag of Pedigree so we could assuage our guilt a little.
The most disturbing commercial to me is the one for the Campbell’s microwaveable cups of soup. It shows this dork wandering around his office with the cup pressed to his face, slurping and moaning the whole time and oblivious to the noise. He’s damn near orgasmic as he’s sucking down his hot liquid lunch and when he finally does put down the cup you see the stains across his face. Hmmm. I wonder what Campbell’s is trying to convey?
Worse than Campbell’s campaign are the UK’s Bachelor’s soup Hug Buddies. Disgusting, torso-less blue things with human hands that appear when someone drinks the soup, and latch on to the drinker, facehugger-style. What on earth makes anyone think that disturbing, hairy, composite golems would make me want to drink soup, I don’t know, but the campaign has been running for a year or so, so I guess it appeals to someone.
The non-smoking one was disturbing, but the one that really got me was the UK RSPCA one that starts with the ginger kitten and the inspector stroking its fur and asking what cats dream about, before cutting back to its rescue, then back to the vet…
I can’t find it online, but for non-UK residents
The kitten has just been put down after its owner threw it against the wall. The ad ends with the kitten on a metal tray in a deserted medical room.
And just when you think its over, they show a 5 second chaser ad right before the next programme. Cue tears. Everytime.
There’s one for Cancer Treatment Centers for America with a patient testimonial. She recalls the doctor’s diagnosis where she responds with optimism and he replies, “You don’t understand, your cancer is inoperable. You have five weeks to live”.
“It was as if he said…‘go to the store’, there was no compassion”.
I saw the short version several times before ever seeing the whole room deflate. It’s an effective, almost-funny ad in its short form, but it’s just* weird* in its long form.
I have to change the channel for two commercials: the Pedigree pound puppy advert, and the Cymbalta one showing the guy unable to get out of bed, the forlorn-looking chick with greasy hair in the back of the cab, etc. Even the music is depressing. Makes me want to put a bullet in my skull every time.
I’m not saying that adverts for antidepressants should be all smiles and sunshine, but the Cymbalta ad makes me even more depressed and ready to carry out “The Plan.”
Two workers at an aquarium are standing next to a tank and one of them is cleaning the teeth of a beluga whale. In a bored voice, he tells the other guy how appropriate it is that he’s wearing a wetsuit while eating a new, juicy Starburst.
There’s a Valentine’s Themed commercial (not sure what is’t for) running now showing people getting hit with arrows - one shot shows a guy getting hit in the back - no cutaway at all.
One I love, but could see it as disturbing, with the beastiality implications and all, is the one with the monster who goes up to the girl in the bar and offers her flowers or something and she smiles lovingly at him, I guess it would help if I could recall the product.
I am not a big tv watcher so can someone tell me what this Pedigree commercial is trying to sell with these pitiful animals? Or is it supposedly a public service thing to get people to adopt unwanted pets?
But I am typically amused by the absurd.
Yor are a good dog. A very good dog. Here’s some kibble and a rubber ball and the keys to my house.