I remember when I worked at K-Mart, a HUGELY embarassed man came into my line with a pack of tampons, which he depserately tried to hide from the eyes of the other shoppers, by laying his scarf across the box, and leaning over the conveyor belt. His face was red, his hands trembled, he couldn’t meet my eyes, and he dropped his money. He whispered to me that could I please put those in a paper bag? From the way he was acting, one would have thought he was buying hard-core porn, or something illegal.
Well, there’s nature and then there’s TMI. I don’t want to hear the details of how itchy your yeast infection is, or how bad your cramps are, or how you’re constipated. Buy the stuff, but don’t go into details.
Were you thinking specifically of that one where the man is leading the woman out into the woods–I think she’s blindfolded–and he leads her to this tree out in the middle of a snowy wilderness that’s been painstakingly decorated with Christmas lights. But, the kicker isn’t that the guy spent presumably hours out freezing his tushie off in the middle of nowhere, in winter, decorating this tree so it would look all beautiful (nor that he presumably schlepped a generator out there to power the whole set-up); no, the kicker is that he bought her some diamonds. Yeah, being able to use a credit card, that shows true devotion. I don’t even think he was proposing to her; it was just one of those “buy her more diamonds every anniversary and special occasion so she’ll know you really love her and aren’t actually a sociopath wife-killer” ads.
“I’m freezing my ass off out here! Why couldn’t you have slipped me the diamonds in the RESTAURANT?!”
I’d like to see a new version of that ad in which he presents her with a toaster oven.
MEBuckner, that’s exactly the one I’m talking about. I refuse to feel like I’ve slighted my GF by not buying her a big overpriced piece of carbon crystal.
Anyway, how’d the guy get electricity all the way out there anyway?
Jackmanii… yeah, no kidding!
Yes.
I got to go to India for a month last month, and I saw an ad for a womens mag in Bangalore. It was just…strange. it had an atractive woman, and then text next to her. it said “Fighting mom.
Fighting boyfriends.
Fighting mom’s boyfriends.”
I dont get it. its just stupid.there was another that was like this, but I dont remeber exactly, so its paraphrased
“marrage vs. dating
Many vs. monagoumus
test tubes vs. men”
(yea I know I spelled monago…yea whatever wrong. sue me.)
but it had another woman. these bilboards were all over bangalore.
Hah hah ha hah hah!
In the ads, the men are always bungling, outdoorsy, beer-swilling idiots. Women look after the family and cook and clean.
The 1950’s are alive and well.
Oh wait, men were competant in the 50’s.
The ads I hate are usually the ones of women playing tennis or skydiving and whatever, and the ad is for pads or tampons. I fail to see the connection. I’m going to take up tennis if I buy Tampax?
I must jump on the anti-jewelry bandwagon. The specific commercial that comes to mind is the narrative of the helpful and solicitous jeweler, who states.
“When I hear a person say that the gift of a diamond is only appropriate for an engagement or an anniversary, I tell that person, that a diamond is appropriate for any occasion that you’d like to remember.”
If they wanted to buy more diamonds, they wouldn’t be telling you that they didn’t want to buy diamonds, you pencil neck! ANGER…TAKING…OVER…
And any ad that makes the woman of the house seem as though she’s the only one with any type of a clue. This marketing trend that portray’s men in a desultory manner in order to make women feel more confident and capable is insulting to women, not to the men they lampoon. As if anybody will believe that someone else has to be an idiot in order for they themselves to be smart? GHAAAA!!!
As a slight hijack to stupidest ad period I nominate the current Hooked on Phonics ad where a young boy is deeply engrossed in some complex, action oriented Playstation game. His mother comes in and makes noises about him doing his reading homework and he whiningly says words to the effect of “It’s too hard…I don’t get it… My brain hurts” and not missing a beat goes right back to the game while mom states on looking anguished in the background.
The answer of course is to make read “a phonics game” so Playstation boy will condescend to give it a go.
Nowhere is there any suggestion that she might possibly (heaven forfend!) unplug her son from the Playstation and sit down and read with him. That would be too much like (shudder) “work” and PS boy probably wouldn’t groove on that.
Saturn wrote:
Speaking of which … have you seen those Carl’s Jr. commercials featuring a clueless guy in a grocery store, desperately trying to fathom what you’re supposed to do with potatoes or ground beef? Then the announcer comes on and says, “Carl’s Jr… Without us, some guys would starve.”
GOOD! LET 'EM STARVE!! IT’LL HELP CLEAN OUT THE SHALLOW END OF THE GENE POOL!!!
And why don’t the hygiene product commercials show how I REALLY feel when I get my period?
Just for once, I’d like to see some woman snapping at everyone around her, crying because she dropped her fork, and bending over, moaning in pain.
Cold medicine ad:
Announcer: “It’s a fact: The bigger the man, the bigger the baby.”
Sick man in bed: “Debbie! Debbiedebbiedebbiedebbie!”
:rolleyes:
Actually, I kinda like these commercials. But only because of the spooky “One Potato, Two Potato” music being played as the supermarket muzak.
Count me in on the anti-diamond bandwagon. Not only do they make all women out to be materialistic, they also think we have bad taste! Let’s face it, diamonds are not interesting stones. The ones in these commercials seem to be especially ugly.
Oh, and here in California, we’re having an energy crisis, and that commercial with the guy who lit up the tree in the middle of nowhere made me absolutely cringe with the wastefulness of it.
Love the TiVo commercial, though. “Boy howdy!” Hee hee.
And the De Beers diamond necklaces are soooo blah! I’d rather get some paste antique looking costume necklace he found at a flea market.
No, they’re thinking, “She must be able to suck a bowling ball through a straw!”.
Ahh but thats not an add for the “Itch Stopper” Thats an ad for TiVo which is for your TV not for umm where the itch stopper would be applied if it was really a product but I was laughing my arse off when I saw it.
How about the Best Buy (?) ad that shows a guy and a girl out on a date, and he’s scoring and losing points by what he says (“your eyes are so…blue!” “Dude. They’re brown.” <-1000 pts> )
This goes on until they’re at the front door: “I’d really like to kiss you…” <-350 pts.> “…but I’ll wait 'till we know each other better.” <+10,000 pts.>
And then it switches to the two inside Best Buy (again: ?) playing video games.
Not only is this a ridiculous gender-based commercial, it’s also fing POINTLESS!*
:::whew! I’ve wanted to bitch about that one for two months!:::
I’ve wanted to bitch about this one for ages! I’m tired of guys looking like idiots in commericals. And since when did anyone get time off for a simple cold? Damn, I’ve been to work for hours before I found out I had the flu! Sweating, aching, running parts everywhere, lifting auto batteries…
Fracking wimps.