# Really stupid things that annoy you in commercials **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 19, 2012, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961 "2012-01-19T00:54:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ShelliBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961/41 "2012-01-19T18:50:46Z")
My children find that commercial just hilarious. And repeat it over and over to me. Oh yeah, it’s just hilarious alright. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961/42 "2012-01-19T18:50:46Z")
> [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > I don’t like the one where the guy is on the phone with Allstate in the middle of the night and his wife gets jealous. First off, why is he on the phone apparently just making changes to his plan in the middle of the night, why can’t she tell it’s a guy even after he tells her his name is Jake, and then I feel bad for the poor Allstate guy who is working in the middle of the night and dealing with idiots calling. This is my favorite commercial ever. I have created an entire backstory between the couple and what will happen immediately after the commercial and believe me, the husband only gets to celebrate his victory for a moment. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961/43 "2012-01-19T18:56:17Z")
> [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > I don’t like the one where the guy is on the phone with Allstate in the middle of the night and his wife gets jealous. First off, why is he on the phone apparently just making changes to his plan in the middle of the night, why can’t she tell it’s a guy even after he tells her his name is Jake, and then I feel bad for the poor Allstate guy who is working in the middle of the night and dealing with idiots calling. It’s for State Farm, not Allstate. Allstate is now running the strange one where everyone talks like Dennis Haysbert when mentioning anything Allstate will do. ---
**Author:** ![Shark\_Sandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Shark\_Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shark_Sandwich)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961/44 "2012-01-19T19:02:49Z")
- Super-genius kids that have to explain the internet (or something else) to their parents. - Free catheters! ---
**Author:** ![Cell\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@Cell\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cell_Guy)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961/45 "2012-01-19T19:10:25Z")
Joe (or Joan) Consumer enjoying a nice cup of coffee that is obviously empty! It just looks so fake. Couldn’t they at least put some water in the cup? McDonald’s puts the whipped cream and everything on top of the empty cup and my mind sees the cup falling over between takes because it’s top heavy since there’s no liquid inside. Goes for TV shows as well. ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961/46 "2012-01-19T19:21:55Z")
Ads for newly released movies that go to convoluted lengths to describe the movie with _some_ superlative: “The #1 family comedy in the country!” Because on its opening weekend the latest Chipmunk movie out-earned any other PG-rated comedies for that one week, but still only came in 5th at the box office. Movies ads that quote “critics” that turn out to be some guy you never heard of from some blog that nobody reads, but they show that information for about a nanosecond in teeny-tiny type. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961/47 "2012-01-19T19:25:13Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > You’d prefer “Uhh place to dine. Uhhh place to meet…”? Uhhh, I don’t know what it is. > > Unless they’re leaning on the ‘a’ like Fonzie and saying “Aayy place…” which would be silly. Part of the problem is the voice-over person gives “a” as much weight in the phrase as “place.” So it’s not quite Fonzie-esque, but it is far from a normal speech cadence. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961/48 "2012-01-19T19:56:50Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Oh dear god, look what I found when I googled it:[Paste your face onto one of the can-can girls.](http://www.shoprite.com/cnt/cancan.html) I’d rather paste the can-can girls on my face. (Someone had to say it.) > [@freckafree](#): > > We have a local establishment that has an annoying commercial. To a bombastic orchestral soundtrack, we hear a female narrator ponderously intoning, “The Wooster Inn: A place…to dine. A place…to meet. A place…for friends.” And so on. The thing that annoys me is that the narrator pronounces “a” not as a schwa but as the first letter of the alphabet. When the commercial comes on, my son and I always say, “A place…to mispronounce the indefinite article.” That’s a totally acceptable alternate for the indefinite article. Especially at the start of a sentence. > [@Eve](#): > > (Picturing the little Toulouse-Lautrec cartoon, and noting that they \*always \*have one black can-can cartoon dancer, as 1890s Parisian cabarets were \*so \*well integrated.) That pic has 2, plus a third chick of indeterminate ethnicity, perhaps Indian or maybe Middle Eastern. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961/49 "2012-01-19T20:01:29Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > I’d rather paste the can-can girls on my face. (Someone had to say it.) In Soviet Russia, can-cans can can-can YOU! ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961/50 "2012-01-19T20:13:36Z")
Coupon Suzy. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961/51 "2012-01-19T20:14:32Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Car commercials in general. Like they just throw them out there and see if anyone is sitting home watching and suddenly thinks, ‘I think I’ll run out get a new car, that Ford Focus looks pretty good’. And they show commercials for cars and trucks over and over and OVER! I get it. There are cars and trucks being made and that are for sale. I don’t need to see a dozen commercials an hour for random vehicles, it’s not like I have NO IDEA of what kind of car or truck I want, like I need to see endless examples of the newest and the bestest. Lexus? Nice. Grand Cherokee? Nice. So? I will need in the next ten years something along the lines of my present day Camaro. And then they show an aerial shot of their vehicle (professional driver on closed course, do not attempt at home) whipping along a totally empty scenic highway, king of the road, no obstacles. How often do city and suburban drivers take a road trip through the Rockies, anyway? I actually sort of appreciate the new Ford commercials that I think are local to the Cleveland area. They feature what appear to be real people (who may or may not be actors, doesn’t matter) standing next to their parked car (parked near a Cleveland landmark of course) talking about how they like the gas mileage and the fact that they can plug their iPod in or talk to their GPS. There’s no happy families or mountainsides or vast deserts. Just people talking about features of a car that a normal person would actually highlight if someone asked them how they liked their car. As for the commercials **salinqmind** describes, yeah those fucking suck. And they always seem to be repeated ad nauseum whenever they are shown. Probably because they cost so much to make, they need to get the most bang out of their buck. For my own contribution - along with ringing phones and doorbells, I am also starting to notice default smartphone sounds (like the iPhone notification noise) in commercials and they are just as bad. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961/52 "2012-01-19T21:13:04Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > It’s for State Farm, not Allstate. Allstate is now running the strange one where everyone talks like Dennis Haysbert when mentioning anything Allstate will do. Well that shows how well their advertising is doing if I don’t even know what it’s for. 😛 The State Farm I remember is the “Is your car up a pole again?” which I actually kind of like. If it’s even for State farm…:dubious: I can’t look at the Allstate ones with Haysbert without thinking of his character in Major League. And I quote this line every time: “F\*\*\* you Jobu, I do it myself.” ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961/53 "2012-01-19T21:38:44Z")
Meaningless numbers and statistics, usually touted for “miracle” diet nostrums and face creams and such: “absorb up to 26% fewer\* calories!” or “women saw 2 times fewer fine lines!” First off, “up to x%” is just weasel-y, since zero percent would technically fall within those parameters. Second, what is “2x less?” I counted 100 fine lines before, and now I have negative 200? I have a feeling that I’m not the target audience for these advertisers. \*Bonus for ad copy that gets less/fewer wrong. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961/54 "2012-01-19T21:50:22Z")
> [@Lacunae\_Matata](#): > > \*Bonus for ad copy that gets less/fewer wrong. See my post #29 ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961/55 "2012-01-19T21:59:09Z")
> [@Lacunae\_Matata](#): > > Meaningless numbers and statistics, usually touted for “miracle” diet nostrums and face creams and such: “absorb up to 26% fewer\* calories!” or “women saw 2 times fewer fine lines!” Similarly, “Save up to x% or more!” Which is it? Up to, or more? _It can’t be both!_ ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961/56 "2012-01-19T22:03:51Z")
> [@Lacunae\_Matata](#): > > First off, “up to x%” is just weasel-y, since zero percent would technically fall within those parameters. I just saw an ad yesterday that had this; “up to 50% off - guaranteed!” I almost threatened them with false advertising for the 60% off sale items in the store. Mind you, they also had signs up everywhere saying that the %off was based on the original price in one other store in some other city - like a New York Bargain Store basing it’s sales discount on the prices in Super Cost, Michigan. Price check _that_, sucker! ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961/57 "2012-01-19T22:44:57Z")
> [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > I can’t look at the Allstate ones with Haysbert without thinking of his character in Major League. And I quote this line every time: “F\*\*\* you Jobu, I do it myself.” I automatically think of the exact same line! ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Jocko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncle_jocko/32/2932_2.png) [@Uncle\_Jocko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Jocko)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961/58 "2012-01-19T22:51:53Z")
> [@ShelliBean](#): > > I hate that as well. Tide is running a commercial now with a normal stay-at-home dad that is coping well and running the house (well, the laundry anyway). Made me happy. Well, except for the last part, where the wife tells him he can’t fold clothes (unless I’m thinking of a different commercial than the one you mean). Really, though, that commercial is pretty good, and it feels almost like that’s a real couple, not the typical TV goofballs. > [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > I’m irritated by improper use of game controllers…seeing people just randomly jamming the buttons is the most common thing, but lately I’ve seen a few where a standard controller is being moved around like a Wii remote. The controller thing bothers me, too. I just recently got an Xbox Kinect, so I know how those work … your body actually controls the action of the game. With the Wii, yeah, it’s the Wiimote you move around. So why, in this commercial for some life-changing muscle supplement, do they show a mom and daughter \*standing \*in front of their video game, moving around as if it’s a Kinect … using the regular old Xbox controllers? Why aren’t they sitting, or even standing still? Moving around doesn’t change anything with your game if you’re playing with a regular controller. You just look really stupid. Yup. I’m a total nerd. ---
**Author:** ![Tess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@Tess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tess)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961/59 "2012-01-20T02:30:06Z")
Any commercial that suggests using their product means I’ll have to constantly justify my choice to co-workers and strangers with no sense of boundaries. I don’t want to eat anything that prompts fellow office workers to snidely remark, “Guess _soomebody_ isn’t sticking to her diet,” til I explain it’s low-fat. I don’t want to be blocked by strangers demanding I explain why I’m driving a particular car. ---
**Author:** ![Landshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/77aa72/32.png) [@Landshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Landshark)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961/60 "2012-01-20T03:02:55Z")
Joseph A. Bank clothing stores commercials. Specifically, how the announcer uses very brief pauses while saying “Joseph A. Bank.” Does anyone else notice those pauses? I perceive them like this: “Joseph (pauses a fraction of a second) A. (pauses a fraction of second) Bank” Something about that just rubs me the wrong way, and really irritates me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-stupid-things-that-annoy-you-in-commercials/609961.md?page=4)