How Can We Stop These Annoying Commercials?

In My Humble Opinion
1

If I have to watch that New York Times commercial on TV many more times, I’ll barf! You know the one which starts with two CEOs who started two companies, but one was a grand success because it’s employees read the New York Times, while the other one, which did not, was almost a failure?

I also wonder what TV would be like with at least a 50% reduction in stupid car commercials. I’m real tired of seeing special effect car commercials displaying cars as mystical, magical machines, a home away from home, and, thanks to computer animation, somewhat surrealistic.

Speaking of surrealistic, what is with all of these modern ‘gray futuristic’ commercials, where everything is in dull shades of silver gray, huge balls roll around empty streets, people act like something out of Fahrenheit 454, or zombies and are just plain weird! Those ad guys had to have been using acid to come up with those spots.

And the commercials with the foreign little pecker head whispering ‘zoom zoom.’

How do average people like us let these companies know that their commercial suck!? That they turn us off so much, we’ll by from their competition? Don’t tell me that ‘[smart alec voice]If you don’t like it, don’t watch it[end smart alec voice]’ because they’re all over the place and I’m paying to watch TV that used to be free!

How do we get in touch with these isolated, overpaid, corporate heads who probably never pay attention to their commercials and let them know that we resent their thinking we are idiots?

Anyone got some ideas. I’m a smoker and I really want to get ahold of the designers and sponsors of those smartassed no smoking commercials, preferably with a bat to smash the kneecaps of those smug, smirky, holier than thou kids they show ‘confronting’ cigarette executives (like, that would really be allowed to happen).

2

That was the Wall Street Journal, not the NY Times.

3
  1. This will probably be moved to the pit.
  2. I second that it was the Wall Street Journal and not the N.Y. Times.
  3. Hi Opal!
  4. You can probably find website for many of the companies (including Truth.com) and send comments about their commercials from these sites. If not, you can always find out their snail mail address and write to them about your dissatisfaction with their commercials.
4

Mebbe it’s just me, but I tend not to pay attention to commercials… Life’s too short to get upset over such things.

5

“foreign little pecker head”? hmm…

6

I’ll tell you what commercial I hate. That stupid new Britney Spears Pepsi commercial. What a dumb ad. The once catchy Pepsi “Ba ba baa” has become maddening, and I hate the rythm. All the stupid faces are completely uneccesary as well…

7
  1. Don’t buy the product.
  2. Send an email to their advertizing relations people.
  3. It’s Farenheit 451.
  4. That was the Wall Street Journal, not the NY Times.
8

Levi’s has decided to butcher another song with purposefully bad karaoke singers. When I get home tonight, I’m gonna find their freakin’ web site and send them a letter expressing my dislike of these stupid and downright annoying comercials. Well, that’s if I remember anyway, I always seem to find something better to do than send negative email.

9

Re the karaoke commercials: The Levi’s people seem to think that irritating viewers will help them sell more jeans. Maybe they’ll take the concept to its logical conclusion and send a signal to your TV to flash patterns of light that give you an upset stomach. Then while you’re puking up your dinner, they put up the Levi’s logo.

10

I don’t like most commercials either, and I also particularly despise the WSJ ones. But what’s the pint of ranting about them? Why do you think channel surfing was invented. Yes, so most commercials are promoting totally false claims and trying to confuse you with visual tricks so that you don’t think reasonably about the product, you just run out and buy it. If people are dumb enough to fall for such crap, why do they even deserve to keep their money?

11

I was always under the impression that the purpose of a commercial was to get the products name embedded in a viewers mind, thus the catchy jingles and repetitiveness, among other techniques.

In the case of the annoying Levi’s ads, the commercial itself may not make you want to buy the product (how many commercials do you see that do?), but the product is now etched into your memory. The next time your shopping for jeans, Levi’s is in the forefront regardless of thier association with annoyance and disdain.

I’m not trying to justify the use of crappy commercials, and I do not think that they work as intended on a free thinking intelligent person, but if they didn’t work they wouldn’t use them.

To answer the OP, I think the best way to stop commercials that suck is to show them that that particular technique of selling their product doesn’t work. Organize a boycott, write the company. Talking about a commercial that you don’t like is counter-productive because you’re bringing attention to it and further passing along it’s message, namely the product’s name.

12

You want a way to stop the commercails? There’s 2 magic little buttons, and they’re right on your remote! Mute, and Power. Push them. Repeat as needed. Follow the pushing of those buttons by not buying the product, and you’re golden.

Just a helpful suggestion…

13

Does anyone else think the Target ads with the Devo song Beautiful World are really stupid? I mean anyone who remembers the song would know that the song is an inditment of the crass Beautiful World. I mean they cut the song just befor the line 'BUT NOT FOR ME!'

The new Pepsi and Coke ads with Brit and Cristina are interesting. I think the Pepsi ads insult their buyers. “look at the fat woman try to imitated Brit or the slack jaw pimply guy who would never stand a chance with Brit worship her from afar” while the Coke ads put Christina in touch with her fans who are regular people.
Any thoughts?

14

I’m with Pammipoo on this one. I use the mute button religiously while watching TV. The second the commercials start, I mute the TV and pay attention to something else. I’ll occasionally glance at the TV to see if the show I’m watching is back on and unmute it if it is. My entire family does this, actually. One of my friends actually adopted this behavior after being exposed to it, but in general, it tends to annoy people. My sister’s husband and my girlfriend are both annoyed by it. I’m always so smugly proud, too, when someone starts a conversation with, “You know that commercial where…” and I get to say, “No, I don’t.” This almost freaks people out sometimes? “You don’t?? But it’s on, like, all the time!” Because I don’t watch commercials." “What???” It just goes downhill from there, but at least I know how much better I am than everyone else. :slight_smile: