# The New and Improved Commercials We Hate! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 25, 2008, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684 "2008-03-25T15:07:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2008, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684/161 "2008-04-11T19:19:11Z")
Just saw one this morning, for Nationwide insurance, I think, that really cheesed me off. Woman is standing at the window of her apartment, idly sipping coffee and asking her (presumably) roommate what’s covered on her car insurance. Why? Because, across the street, an angry woman in another apartment is doing the ‘throwing the boyfriend’s things out’ scenario, starting with clothes, but escalating to lamps, end tables, an overstuffed chair, a sofa, and a big-screen TV, all of which are dropping directly onto, and smashing, boyfriend’s (or is it roommate’s?) car, not to mention any hapless pedestrians who might happen to be wandering by. Meanwhile, idle woman gazes down on the scene, sipping her coffee and doing nothing whatsoever, like maybe, you know, calling the cops or something. Yeah, right, and if it was Kitty Genovese being stabbed to death down below, I guess she’d be asking her roommate about what their life insurance covers. Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2008, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684/162 "2008-04-11T19:37:28Z")
[QUOTE=shy guy] At the end of the commercial, he gets to his hotel, opens up his mini-fridge, pulls out a Bud Light and says, “Dude!” I was totally confused for a minute. “Well, yeah, the Bud Light is just one more bad thing to happen to him on his trip, but why would… ohhhhhhh, it’s supposed to be a _good_ thing.” [/QUOTE] Quality of the beer aside, it’s going to turn out to be a bad thing because that hotel mini-bar bottle of Bud Light probably costs $6. ---
**Author:** ![Kalibakthegreat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@Kalibakthegreat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalibakthegreat)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2008, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684/163 "2008-04-11T23:14:08Z")
There’s one out there for a car website with a montage of people explaining, in near dumbstruck awe, that the website “literally allows you to test drive the car.” The website does this by…showing you videos of someone else driving the car!!! The entire premise is so STUPID that I can’t even respect the actors as human beings for appearing in it. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2008, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684/164 "2008-04-12T18:33:56Z")
That ‘we’ energy commercial. “We didn’t wait for anyone else to storm the beaches of Normandy” - yeah, cause those cowardly Canadians and British decided to stay home. “We didn’t wait for another country to grant Civil Rights.” - granting a race of people equal rights to others is hardly something we as a nation can hang our hat on. ---
**Author:** ![Electrical\_Storm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac8455/32.png) [@Electrical\_Storm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electrical_Storm)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2008, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684/165 "2008-04-12T22:31:18Z")
[QUOTE=Mongo Ponton] I heard an ad for Washington Mutual on my way into work this morning. Some one singing “You can feel the WAMU in you” I think not. [/QUOTE] Blech. I thought the laxatives took care of that? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684/166 "2008-04-13T04:35:40Z")
[QUOTE=Sitnam] That ‘we’ energy commercial. “We didn’t wait for anyone else to storm the beaches of Normandy” - yeah, cause those cowardly Canadians and British decided to stay home. “We didn’t wait for another country to grant Civil Rights.” - granting a race of people equal rights to others is hardly something we as a nation can hang our hat on. [/QUOTE] Yeah, it only took about 100 years for the US to acknowledge that people who aren’t Caucasian are actually people. If the ad company doesn’t think that’s not waiting, I’d hate to see what they do think is. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684/167 "2008-04-13T08:01:57Z")
[QUOTE=Sitnam] “We didn’t wait for another country to grant Civil Rights.” - [/QUOTE] Apparently New Zealand isn’t “Another Country”? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684/168 "2008-04-13T14:13:26Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield] Apparently New Zealand isn’t “Another Country”? 😕 [/QUOTE] Well, you know. They meant countries where there are actual \*civilized \*people living. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684/169 "2008-04-13T14:20:41Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield] Apparently New Zealand isn’t “Another Country”? 😕 [/QUOTE] The Maori don’t count…they’re not OUR oppressed minority… ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684/170 "2008-04-13T16:04:10Z")
[QUOTE=Morgyn] Yeah, it only took about 100 years for the US to acknowledge that people who aren’t Caucasian are actually people. If the ad company doesn’t think that’s not waiting, I’d hate to see what they do think is. [/QUOTE] Well, while we may be second to another (every?) country in granting Civil Rights, we definitely lead the world in unnecessary capitalization of vague phrases to do with Freedom and Liberty and such. ---
**Author:** ![Lazlo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lazlo/32/9678_2.png) [@Lazlo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lazlo)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684/171 "2008-04-13T17:18:28Z")
[QUOTE=Justin Credible] Oh, also, I’d like to bang that Felicia chick from the cheetos commercial. [/QUOTE] Hey! That’s Felicia Day from [The Guild.](http://www.youtube.com/watchtheguild) ---
**Author:** ![Intravenus\_De\_Milo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Intravenus\_De\_Milo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intravenus_De_Milo)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684/172 "2008-04-14T14:59:56Z")
I just remember this commercial I saw a couple of months ago that confused the hell out of me at first, but later on just seemed pretty stupid (it may have been a Super Bowl ad, I’m not 100% sure). Okay, so a spot for that movie _Jumpers_ starts up. I had seen an ad for this movie before, so I was thinking, “yeah, yeah, Sam Jackson or whoever is gonna come out and start yelling about God in a second, blah blah.” Inexplicably, halfway through the ad, the main “jumper” teleporting guy jumps _into_ a TV right at the start of an HP ad (the one with Serena Williams). The HP ad then ran at length, so I thought, well maybe I missed something and the _Jumpers_ ad had ended before then. But as the HP ad wrapped up, the “jumper” guy _reappeared and jumped out of the TV_, and the ad for the movie continued. Yeah. Our movie’s so cool that we will assault you with product placement _before you even get to see the actual movie._ :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684/173 "2008-04-14T15:40:24Z")
My wife and I watch a lot of TNT for some reason or another: Law & Order reruns, another nillionth repeat of the LOTR movies, something. So my complaints have to deal with this network in particular: 1. Never in a million years will I watch _The Closer_, even if it’s the greatest show in the history of serial entertainment. I am SO FUGGIN’ SICK of seeing the constantly-aired spots for the thing that, if I’m in “real time” on the tivo, I will rewind to two commercials prior, watch them again, all so I can fast forward through the _The Closer_ ad. What’s particulary hate-worthy is the fact that they’ve been heavily promoting the new season for nearly a month now… the new season which starts in _July_. Jesus wept. And so did I. 1. Ditto for _Saving Grace_. I don’t even have the slightest idea what this show is _about_, but I hate it with a passion. 2. But the worst thing they do are those damned graphics at the bottom of the screen that promote whatever show they feel like promoting… Yes, _The Closer_ and _Saving Grace_ are featured predominately in these, but also whatever movie which is coming up that they want to show in their Near-Infinite Loop Weekends - “_Titanic_ on Friday, Saturday, and three showings on Sunday!”. It’s even worse when they put in a graphic that represents the movie like they did for the _King Kong_ airings this past weekend. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684/174 "2008-04-14T16:05:10Z")
[QUOTE=JohnT] It’s even worse when they put in a graphic that represents the movie like they did for the _King Kong_ airings this past weekend. [/QUOTE] Yeah, I kept wondering where Sauron was getting those little planes that were buzzing Middle Earth… SciFi channel is the worst I’ve seen for this. I swear that sometimes the entire lower third of the screen was taken up with animated graphics advertising some other show. ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684/175 "2008-04-14T16:19:10Z")
I don’t watch a lot of FX anymore, but back when they showed Buffy the Vampire Slayer reruns, they were _horrible_ with the bottom-of-the-screen graphics during shows. I have terrible memories of trying to watch Buffy the summer that Nip/Tuck premired, and _every thirty seconds_ you’d hear that _Shing! Shing!_ noise of knifes accompanied by a graphic that took up what felt like a quarter of the screen. And does anyone watch that [Fear.net](http://Fear.net) “On Demand” channel? I occasionally watch it when I’m at my parents’ house, and that has the worst graphic I’ve ever seen. You’ll be watching some horror movie, and inevitably during some suspenseful or otherwise engrossing scene, this really loud chainsaw noise comes out of nowhere while the chainsaw proceeds to cut the bottom quarter of the screen away to display a graphic that I’m pretty sure is just an ad for their website or something. I realize they don’t show commercials during “On Demand” stuff, but sheesh! ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684/176 "2008-04-14T16:58:58Z")
**Shy guy** , that also happened when F/X ran endless, endless commercials and screen-caps trumpeting the premiere of _The Shield_. Endless. ---
**Author:** ![tds1273](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/df705f/32.png) [@tds1273](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tds1273)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684/177 "2008-04-14T19:28:59Z")
I got a new one to aaadd: the new promos on NBCeee. I don’t know what kind of accent it isss, but the announcer stretches out the end of every lineee; sometimes more than thaaat. There is also a commercialll on 950 KJRrrr here in Seattleee that uses the same kind of speech patterrrn. If you still don’t know what I’m talking about yeeet, try looking for video of Congressman Joe Sestaaak(D-PAaa). I could tolerate it by hiiim because I generally like his politiiics, but now it seems to be speadinnng and it is just pisses me offfffffff. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684/178 "2008-04-14T21:29:12Z")
[QUOTE=LurkMeister] Yeah, I kept wondering where Sauron was getting those little planes that were buzzing Middle Earth… SciFi channel is the worst I’ve seen for this. I swear that sometimes the entire lower third of the screen was taken up with animated graphics advertising some other show. [/QUOTE] I hate when this happens and it takes me a moment or two to figure out this is not part of the show I’m watching and/or it distracts me from something that I’m trying to focus on in the scene that’s onscreen. I also mega-hate (is that a word?) when television networks do this while the credits roll. Then they squeeze the credits to one side or up to one corner. What, you don’t already do enough advertising or promoting in the time already allotted or across the bottom of the screen during the show? It always seems to happen when there is information I specifically want to see that’s in the credits. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684/179 "2008-04-18T11:32:50Z")
The one for surface sanitizer than depicts “germs” as green maggots. There’s one for Zyrtec that claims it starts working 2 hours before Clartin. Pills, no matter what kind, take about 45 minutes to enter the blood stream. So, Zyrtec starts to work an hour and fifteen minutes before it’s swallowed. ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684/180 "2008-04-18T12:07:49Z")
[QUOTE=Cisco] [The most explicitly sleazy advertisement of any kind I have ever seen.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbqvL5ncNzo) [/QUOTE] Yeah, that was the only time i’ve seen that commercial and already I want it banned from the airwaves. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-and-improved-commercials-we-hate/442684.md?page=10)