The Herbal Essences commercial where the guy and gal pull into the parking lot, and he hops out with the list and asks what else she needs; her response is “Tampons.” The guy gets an anguished look on his face, but then she - aha! - tosses her beautiful, Herbal Essences-enhanced hair around in the convertible. The guy is overcome by this display of grace and sensuality - “Regular or super-absorbent?”
Bleh.
as far as im concerned that tampax comercial is kinda stupid (definately not the worst though). most women bring their purses everywhere w/ them. its like a limb or something, i know i do. besides, not many people really give a crap if your having your period or not.
hey, at least this one tells you what they are selling.
Those “Dr. Mom” Robitussin cough syrup commercials. The latest one depicts the “soccer mom” who is too stupid to put antifreeze in her car, incapable of running a computer, etc., yet she is somehow capable of buying the “right” cough syrup for her family.
or for that matter, any Herbal Essences commercial…
I’ll second the Phonics Game commercial. I don’t care how effective The Phonics Game is, that commercial was horrible. The first time I saw that commercial, I thought “My god, what bad acting.” The second time, I was able to see past the bad acting, and I thought “What the **** is this woman doing!? She’s just letting her son play the video game? What the hell happened to parent competence!?”
And, for the record, I am neither female nor a parent. But I know bad parenting when I see it.
Speaking of Herbal Essences ads, don’t it bug anyone else that the ads always feature women having prolonged, orgasmic experiences with their shampoo, and the first time a male uses it, he gets one quick “YES!”, the woman looks all smug, and the ad ends? Are they trying to say that all males are Quick Draw McGraw or something?
And I’ve mentioned this one before, but it bears repeating: the ads that show some activity (like, say, the Grambling State dance team doing their show) and conclude with “Tampax Was There”. My reaction upon seeing these ads: what is this, Where’s Waldo? I guess I wasn’t looking hard enough…
Yes, but geez, after 50,000,000,000,000 ads where a woman has a friendly discussion with a friend about “a feminine problem”, someone had to point out how offensive those ads were. I say TiVo came to the rescue (FWIW, Ms. cornflakes agrees and is more emphatic about it than I am.)
And don’t get me started on the Gold Bond Medicated Powder ad. Having an old guy say “I got the male itch!” isn’t offensive, it’s sad. I feel sorry for the actor whose career had sunk so low that he had to do that.
The ad I hate most is the British ad for a laundry detergent. The one where a woman pulls a white sheet from her washer, holds it up to the light and almost has an orgasm because it’s so clean. Yeah, right. I just throw it straight in the dryer, mildly pleased that those suspicious stains from the night before have finally gone.
I do like the one where the guy is sniffing the laundry as he takes it out of the washer, getting excited about how fresh it is. But only because it shows him being caught sniffing a pair of knickers as his daughter walks into the laundry room.
**
See, I love this commercial!! And not because it has anything to do with diamonds! All I can think is “Awww, how sweet of him to go through all that for her! That’s so beautiful! gush” - Then the end of the commercial comes and I have to roll my eyes and gag a little. Me? I don’t even want a diamond. Ever. There are prettier gemstones out there than a colorless, see-through one! What about emeralds or aquamarines or amethysts?! Who cares if they aren’t “as valuable” - they’re a damned sight more attractive! IMHO, of course. 
There is an ad similar to this, promoting meds for the new PMDD bit for women. It’s essentially PMS. The woman is trying desperately to pull a shopping cart out of a row of carts and she can’t get the damned thing out. All these other women are coming along and pulling them out with ease. By the time the woman gets the cart out and walks away, she doesn’t realize that it has a squeaky-sticky wheel. As a woman who knows that level of frustration and aggravation, I empathize.
I loathe the Swiffer* commercials that have a woman on her knees in the kitchen, scrubbing the floor. As she scrubs, her surroundings change to reflect different historical eras, from cave people to castles to 1700s to 1890s to 1950s to 1960s to now… and it’s always the same woman, scrubbing on her knees. Until the last phase, when she miraculously gets a Swiffer floor-mop and suddenly poof! the job’s so easy that a guy can handle it!
Technically, the commercial is very well done–the surroundings and the costumes morph seamlessley from era to era without breaking the motion.
BUT. It manages to insult both women and men in one go.
Oh yes. First, it implies that the woman’s place is only in the kitchen cleaning. That’s only a couple of steps from “barefoot and pregnant”. Then, it implies that men are stupid and weak enough that they can’t handle normal cleaning without it being made easy by some miraculous deus ex machina.
Sheesh. What a WOMBAT**. I know I won’t be buying that product.
*Swiffer: a kind of floor mop with exchangeable throw-away pads instead of an actual mop-head.
**WOMBAT: waste of money, brains and time.
“stereotyping… the 21st century way!”
Melpomene wrote:
Yeah, but get a load of that index of refraction! Grrrwwwrrrl!