I’m really all about ads. I watch them with great interest because that’s what Mr. tlw does these days – consults for an ad agency. However, in the interest of full disclosure, none of the ads I’m about to mention were done by his agency.
Favorites:
I gotta go against convention, I love “Zoom zoom” especially the ones with the song 'Za-zoom-zoom-zoom yeah zoomzoomzoomzoom"
“I’m a Ford Truck man, that’s what I drive, I ain’t got no boundaries, I don’t compromise…”
M&M ads with the talking Ms, especially those with holiday themes.
The campaign featuring Geico Gekko as the company’s employee of the month.
“I’m Yo Yo Ma and I’m a cellist.” “I’m Janie Porche and I saved Christmas.” I love the Apple Switch campaign but those two are the best.
Celebrity Cruise lines “you can be treated famously” campaign - makes me want to go on a cruise despite the current risk of horrid gastrointestinal virii.
Hanes socks ads, one with a mother and daughter and another with two brothers, with two variations on a song about “Everyone Everywhere” showing happy families doing happy things in socks. They’re just cute.
AmEx Gift Cheque ads, showing what happens when people are forced to use single-store gift certificates in stores that don’t fit their style.
Yoplait yogurt’s campaign with the two women who are thrilled with how good their yogurt is. “New shoes good.” “Favorite song on the radio good!”
Any ads featuring cute, good (i.e. not whiny, precocious or intentionally attempting to be adorable) kids. (See: the old Life Cereal “Mikey” ads, the old PeoplePC ads with Marc John Jeffries, the current LeapFrog Learning ads. Do not see: Hallie Eisenberg’s Pepsi ads.)
And tlw’s Top Ten Most Loathed Ads/Ad Campaigns:
10. Anything for Dell. Dell Dude was just sophomoric and silly, but the Dell Interns series takes series ads to a whole new level of snoozeville.
9. “Got milk?” This could be predicated upon my anti-dairy views.
8. Snuggle fabric softener ads made post 1999, aka the “Smug Snuggle Era”
7. The new “We’ll Be There” campaign for Chevy cars and trucks featuring silly Chevy drivers doing silly things to pop songs which mention the word “Chevy.”
6. Gap ads. All Gap ads. The ones with dancers. The ones with singers. The ones with celebrities. The ones with singing dancing celebrities. All of them.
5. Five syllables: “Ch-ch-ch-chia!”
4. Four words: “Clap on! Clap off!”
3. Three syllables: “Ri-co-la!”
2. The faux-orgasm shampoo ads. Now featuring a post-Ally McBeal Jane Krakowski, who must’ve squandered her series money. Ugh.
And the most loathed:
Cottonelle’s clean butts campaign. The talking toilet paper was dreadful, now we’ve got wagging rear ends in the camera to remind us that Cottonelle “gets you clean where it counts.” Who thought of that crap (no pun intended)?
Bud radio ads, “Here’s to you, Mr. <insert bizarre occupation here>!”. Some of these are pretty funny.
I just saw one of the Visa? check card/ID thingy commercials (never really paid attention to what the product was) with Charlie Sheen trying to check out a flick from a video store, and the clerk having to verify his ID. At the end, It’s Martin Sheen (he’s grown old waiting on all the efforts to ID him). Both actors spot attractive women in the store, smile, get the brush off, and have that awkward “swallow yer pride” moment. LOL.
loathe (pretty much all commercials by default, but especially):
Miss Cleo
Dell
Bowflex
Nissan (all car ads, but Nissan the most)
Long Distance companies (10-10-EAT-$#&@!, etc)
Direct-to-Consumer Pharmeceutical ads
I guess these irritate me most by insulting my intelligence.
I think that the “Aaron Burr” milk commercial (which they recently showed again after a few years) is very funny. Every time i hear that guy quietly mumble “Ewun Buh” at the end I laugh. Thinking about it, I laugh. Typing about it, I laugh.
Catherine Zeta Jones cell phones commercials actually make her ugly in my eyes. Don’t those two have enough fucking money?
I HATE car commercials in general. ESPECIALLY truck commercials. I live in Texas. Grrreeeaat. That guy who sings about his Ford truck should be strangled with his own guitar strings and run over by a Chevy.
The Catherine Zeta Jones cell phone radio commercials make her seem just very rude.
People have already mentioned it before, but I LOATHE that Satanimatronic™ Pepsi girl. Likewise the Satanimatronic Welches kids in any of their commercials. Some brilliant ad writer must have sold his soul in order to condense the foul mists and vapors of pure evil and annoyance that make up the very essence of those kids.
“How fast is the new Isuzu I-mark?” He takes out a gun, aims off into the distance and fires it. Walks casually around the car and gets into the drivers seat and takes off. Zoooooooooooooooommmm. He stops gets out carrying a target.
“Faster … then … a … speeding … …”
He lifts the target in front of his face and the bullet goes right through the center of the target and he catches it in his teeth. He pulls down the target and he had a big grin on with the bullet in his teeth.
Hey…I think I might remember that. Did it show a bassinette in the distance, and as the shot got up close, a mangled monstrous hand shot out of it? shudder
Or am I thinking of something else?
All-time favorite(s): The light bulb commercials from the late '80s with the tag line “It’s Time To Change Your Lightbulb,” like the one where the guy tells the other guy in the elevator “I think I should tell you I find you very attractive” (Bronx acceednt: “Well, t’ank ya very much.”) and the one where the woman vacuums up her cat. Anyone else remember these ads?
All-time loather(s): Those horrible, horrible spawn of Satan Welches grape juice kids, especially that freaky looking little Southern blond girl and the way she smacks her lips.
Favorite:
It’s gotta be the Yellow Pages Ads (Furniture Stripping, Rock Drills, Herbs, etc., etc., stc.)
Least Favorite: Monstre’s Louie the Lizard Bud ads
I like the T-mobile advert (mainly the music) in which the picture of a baby seems to be everywhere.
And I loathe with all my heart all of the insurance company adverts on SKY TV (which usually involve some guy (often a washed up kids tv presenter) walking through an office with his hands in that holding-a-football position. Or the sad family who seem to find the insurance orgasmic.
In fact I **HATE HATE HATE HATE ** All adverts in which people, who are supposed to be real average people, like something a little too much, like the fucking slags who take a stupid bag of white chocolate sweets into…oh I can’t be bothered … it’s not even worth getting worked up about… sigh…
Love: ESPN ads have never gotten old. I would buy a DVD which contained all their ads. I still chuckle over “Drew Bled-so-much-he-needed-a-tranfusion.”
Hate: Apple Jacks ads. And any ads which are aimed at children which feature adults as the enemy. The stupidest freaking message on TV. “Eat Apple Jacks, your parents wont understand you.”
Any EDS ad that runs during the Superbowl. They are truly inspired.
“I have lost many friends to the squirrels”
Loathed:
Campbell’s Soup ads with that obnoxiously congested plump cheeked bastard treating his parents and everyone else like crap, as if it were somehow endearing.
Any Energizer ad.
Any ad that uses emaciated teens that look sweaty and dirty. Why are they so shiny? MAKEUP!!!
