A commercial that offends me on so many levels is that new thing
“Merry ChrismaHanaKwanzakah” or however it’s spelled. Just wrong.
In our area there is was a Toyota ad a few years back where you see grainy home movies of a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck splashing throught mud bogs, etc., while the voice over screams “Look out world! Here comes Tocoma Man! And I look GREAT!”, etc., etc. A moment later, the film flickers to a stop, and this nerdy looking guy looks over at the Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover, which is propped up on the other chair next to the projector and says “So. Waddya think?”
So Toyota means to say that the target market for Tacoma trucks are losers with the people skills of a wet rock, whose social life consists entirely of their right hands?
Sheesh…
Like Magellan?
LIKE MAGELLAN?
WHO WRITES THAT CRAP?
I can appreciate ideas that just don’t work, things that actually seem gross instead of the desired “funny” effect, but there’s absolutely no excuse for completely inane nonsensical garbage like that. Just because it rhymes. That’s not a good enough reason, dammit.
My least favorite commercial ever.
It was a radio ad for Wild Turkey which I heard coming home from church. A bunch of guys at a Christmas party were talking about getting drunk during some other guy’s speech and how, when they did this last year, one of them dated a woman they considered ugly (I think they called her “man face.”) Oh, yeah, get drunk, insult people, and do things you normally wouldn’t do. That really makes me want to go out and by a fifth for my fellow or hang out with guys who drink the stuff :rolleyes: I know I’m not their demographic, although I have been known to go out and buy a bottle of good booze for the right person, including single malt scotch whisky. Not this stuff, though.
CJ
We just found out more about you than we really wanted to know, jayjay.
Well, I don’t have to have had them to know that…
And I haven’t. Well, most of them.
There’s a certain KIND of commercial. It’s hard to describe, but as close as I can think, it’s typified by a company that hires an ad agency populated by the lower 40% of the AD producing population.
You know the kind, you hear them mostly on local radio. It’s as if the Ad agency has a list of The Four Major Types Of Commercial by Formula and never EVER deviate from it.
“Do you ever <insert improbably stupid silly thing here>?”
“Well, we’ve got this <nifty product you Want To Buy!>”
“It’ll clear up that <silly, rip roaring, hilarious fictional problem> right quick!”
“So buy <product> now and you’ll be <adverb, hip, stylin’, not uncool, whatever.”
(And I like Smilin’ Bob, I think it’s a great ad campaing for a product you coudn’t POSSIBLY be stupid enough to buy…but enough people must because Bob’s ‘wife’ is still smilin’ too.
But I’ll heartily agree the dancin’ Bismo Conga is NOT a good way to win my money.)
I must say, these are certainly some effective commercials. What of all the average normal commercials that slipped right out of your conciousness?
So, What’s Pepto Bismol’s competitor? What are their ads like? How hard did you have to think about the first question? Do you have any clue about the second? Bismo Conga or not, you’re thinking about one product and not the competitor. They’ve got “mindshare”!
There was a commercial for a heartburn perscription pill that had cute little animations of green gastric acid spewing forth from cute little geysers inside the cute little dancing stomach, esophagus and duodenum swaying rhythmically to some invisible beat. That commercial succeeded in making nauseous, but since their medicine treated a different symptom I guess they took the wrong tack.
True, the goal of advertisements is to be remembered. However, some of these people have sworn never to buy the product, which is thwarting the advertisements.
A good advertisement is one that you remember because it is actually funny or something, not repulsive.
That’s a good pat answer, but I prefer Alka Seltzer. 
You kinda want to seel your product by NOT repulsing your audience. Remember it? Yeah, I remember it, doesn’t mean I’m going to BUY it.
Out here on the west coast there’s currently a series of commercials for Carl’s Jr. fast food restaurants that pretty much turns me off.
They show a Carl’s Jr. hamburger while the voiceover extols the virtues thereof; then the burger drops a foot or so to a table with an obviously artificial SPLOOORT sound, and juices and ketchup drip from the burger… turns my stomach every time for some reason.
I haven’t been to a Carl’s Jr. since they started running those ads, and probably won’t go ever again.
This thread made Weird Earl’s (WARNING: NOT WORK SAFE). It reminded me of the Pepto Bismol dancers.
Locally, the Virginia Medical Center is proud (and rightly so, I’m sure) of it’s Women’s Medicine program. I think they should be less proud of their slogan: “This isn’t your mother’s hysterectomy!”
Well, I managed to escape American TV a few years back, so I’ll reach back into the mists and bring up two oldies.
The “Do0d, you’re getting a Dell” guy, and
That damned AFLAC duck.
Sadly, the freakin’ duck followed me to Japan, first in badly dubbed form, and now in homegrown Japanese AFLAC commercials… :dubious:
There’s a Breathe-Right Nasal Strips commercial featuring Rudy (from the first season of Survivor) that’s pretty freakin’ irritating.
Sometimes you remember the ad, and maybe the product, but not the brand… When that happens, I think we win…
That. Is. Hilarious. I want to see this commercial now.
I recently did an opinion survey of a lame TV pilot, complete with commercials (and I think they were more interested in my view of the commercials.) I’m not sure if I’ve seen this particular commercial on broadcast TV or not, but it seriously grossed be out.
It was a commercial for Clorox. It involved a group of attractive 20-something women standing around talking about what didn’t get cleaned out of their laundry using regular laundering procedures. One of them was holding up a ziploc bag of sweat, and another a bag of “body soil.” It was seriously growth.
Add me to the list who was offended by the men taking the laxative so they could do their synchronized pooping routine. Too kinky for me.
It was an ad for a certain brand of jeans (Levi’s?) that featured a bunch of singing bellybuttons, while Diana Ross’s “I’m Comin’ Out” blares. It was one of the creepiest things I have ever seen.