If I was to Pit every commercial that grates, I’d have to drop out of school.
Sometimes it’s the sheer repitition of an ad that causes me to hate it. Other times it’s just a reprehensible concept. And some just have stupid-ass tag lines.
Here’s the top of my shit list:
“Tell someone” ad for HPV and cervical cancer awareness. I have seen this commercial once or twice and it instantly triggered my gag/retch reflex. I think it’s awesome that they’ve discovered that HPV can cause cancer. This commercial, however, through a combination of annoying spokeswomen and repetition: “I just had to tell someone.” “I had to tell someone I love.” Etc. Etc. Etc. for the entire 30 seconds.
TAG deodorant/gross spray-on cologne: the ones that have hot women attacking losers who slather themselves with this gunk. Fucking stupid concept to begin with. The sexism in the commercial offends men and women both. The sexual grunt at the end is possibly the worst thing about it. Fucking fuck you, TAG. Axe started the same way but have the awesome “Gamekillers” ads now, so I actually bought their shower gel. I’ll never buy a TAG product.
Some pharmaceutical ad where a series of medical-fuckers talk to the camera, telling us we should “ask them” about the medicine, before we lose any more “bone.” I’d rather amputate my gangreneous pinkie toe than enter a room with any of these gabby mouthbreathing future malpractice defendants.
Some Toyota commercial with some asshole warbling in the background, asking me to “smile… just smile… think about the savings.” How 'bout you think about shutting the fuck up?
My Uncle Norman, RIP, used to “exercise” by getting up and walking out the room during the commercial breaks. I have started to do the same thing.
There’s more, so many more, but I think you also have some winners to nominate.
I don’t favor any particular commercial. They are commercials. They are product placement that tries to make me buy things I don’t want or need. I disregard them all.
Commercials are okay in some areas, e.g. with papers that are funded by commercials, so that they are free. Whenever I get commercials in a product I’ve bought, I feel cheated.
How about the series Hallmark is running where at Christmas, dinner sat on the table getting cold because all the grownups were in the other room singing along to a stupid $12.95 musical toy, and at Easter the kids refused to go on their Easter egg hunt because they were all sitting around singing along to a stupid $12.95 musical toy. It’s a cheap-ass version of Billy Bass, you idiots! I can’t wait to see what they come up with for Fourth of July. :rolleyes:
Those commercials make me want to hurl large, heavy objects through my TV screen, and then dive through it and choke the ever-loving life out of everyone in the stupid commercial.
Oooh, good one, Hippy. I am very offended by those commercials.
I’m currently deeply sick of the “This night’s sleep brought to you by Lunesta” ads, you know, with the glowing green butterflies that symbolize sleep. The woman who narrates those has a really irritating voice.
I love complaining about commercials. It’s so easy.
I haven’t liked the Geico commercials for quite a long time. A few of them were good, back in the day, but now it’s just that stupid gecko all the time, or the “I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico” crap
I hate the bodyspray ads. I forget which is Tag and which is Axe, but they’re both annoying and the products smell awful anyway.
I’ll nominate the new Dasani ads with people dressing up in animal costumes. Ads that “intentionally” suck are usually the worst - not only are they lame, the ‘camp’ route is lazy.
I’m not nuts about the Diet Pepsi commercials with Jackie Chan – the ones where Diet Coke is a stand-in for Diet Pepsi and gets smashed. We’re supposed to believe a can of soda is acting in a movie?
There’s an Old Navy ad for a line of clothes called Naturals. Young folks dancing on a rooftop. Except the music sucks and none of them can dance.
I still like the Geico gekko ads, but I don’t see them very often.
There’s one for a Dymo labelling machine at the moment; goes like this:
Japanese man sits up in the dark, in pyjamas, answers phone.
Subtitles to effect he is annoyed at being awoken in the middle of the night.
Last subtitle: “London? LONDON?!? This is TOKYO!”
Cut to sheepish looking man in a well-lit office, looking at a row of international-time wall clocks.
Cut to scene of him sticking a new, big, bold Dymo label that reads ‘Tokyo’, over the top of the old, small, illegible one.
-Ha Ha! He called the wrong office because he couldn’t read the label under the clock, right?
Yeah, but think about it. He wanted to call London (as evidenced by the cries of the irate Japanese man), but because the label beneath the Tokyo clock on his wall was too small to read, he accidentally called Tokyo. Doesn’t make any frigging sense at all.
The Cingular (I think) cellphone commercials where people complain directly to the camera about their signal cutting out with subtitles under their suddenly muted rantings.
Especially the one with the ugly heavy-lidded college chick who finds it SO FUCKING IMPORTANT to let a friend know that so and so is sucking face with so and so in the library and OH MY GAWD, SUCH JUICY GOSSIP!!!
Two words: Ti-freakin-Vo (especially with the 30 second skip hack). I have seen some of these commercials, but only due to my girlfriend not having TiVo.
I don’t have to watch commercials anymore because I got rid of TV, but I DO listen to the Indians games on the radio every night.
You get to hear the same 3-4 commercials at least 17 times a night (add one for each pitching change and extra inning!) and now a month and a half into the season I am about to shoot the radio every time I hear John Lovitz come on pitching Subway, doing a poor version of “The ACTOR!”
Not to mention the other shitty commercials they have, which are probably regional so I won’t go over them. But I happened to see a TV version of the Subway commercials so I know you’ve seen them too.
I hate, hate, hate their new commercials, but I loved the really old ones with Joan Collins, Carrie Donavan, Morgan Fairchild, etc. I couldn’t believe they’d get these famous people to advertise their cheapo clothes.
You’ve all named some real losers, but let me give you one that deserves its own Pit thread:
Kay’s Jeweler’s latest ad with the precocious kids playing the “you’re the most beautiful mom in the world” shitty song. The song is horrendous and so obviously penned by some ad hacks to tug at the heartstrings of Mr and Ms Ignorant Ass Average American. These people scare the hell out of me. Right now they are planning trips to Kay’s.
OMD - I hate those commercials as well, all of them.
ZipperJJ, radio has some horrifyingly bad commercials. I listen to the Jim Rome Show most weekdays and without fail, there’s an ad pushing a “free” trip to Vegas with some carbon-based lifeform who demands to know where I’m going for vacation this year, and drops this line “can you say high roller treatment, baby?” in. I want to jump into the radio and kick her ass around the transistors.
The one with the three bears coming home after a break-in and the smug-looking (fake?) blonde driving away in Little Bear’s tank-like SUV. I always thought Goldilocks needed to spend several hundred hours doing community service anyway, but having her a) steal something that’s b) stupid and tacky and c) even an anthromorphic storybook bear wouldn’t be caught dead in…? Grr. Just grr.
