I also hate the commercials about the women who have the big O in public places when they think about using Clairol products.
Have y’all ever seen the commercial for the Omelette Maker? It’s a piece o’ plastic that lets you make an omelette in the microwave, and the guy in the commercial is an incredibly loud, annoying Australian.
Naturally, for a limited time only (or for the first 2,700 callers or something) Omelette maker comes with several other plastic appliances. I almost fell out of my chair when the Australian guy said, “That’s a $79 value - for only $29.95!” I’m not sure if those numbers are correct, but the so-called retail value of this crap was truly insulting.
Another in the Washington, DC area: this year’s mega ad campaign push from Giant Foods is the most annoying ever. It features the Ugly But Perky Dweeb Teenager From Hell with a squeaky nasal voice compared to which nails on a chalkboard sound like a Brandenburg Concerto. They ram this loathesome kid into your face at every opportunity, and worse, have plastered his oversized smarmy image throughout the whole store.
Result: I avoid ever going in there.
If this was a mass social psychology experiment in aversion techniques, it has succeeded already, you are driving customers out of your store in droves, you can can it already.
You all wouldn’t believe the incredibly offensive radio ad a local pawnshop :rolleyes: is airing right now (yeah, it’s all class down here in South Carolina). It features a man from India calling the pawnshop saying his wife lost her “red dot.” The guy who’s supposed to be the pawnshop employee says they don’t have it, they’re just having a red dot 50% Christmas special. Of course, the Indian gentleman is too stupid to understand what the pawnshop employee :rolleyes: is saying and wails “Oh, no, you can’t have my wife for 50% off…she’s the only one I have!” I really can’t fit enough rolleyes emoticons in here to suffice.
I can’t believe the radio stations are airing it. I tried changing stations, but I can’t seem to escape it. What gets me, besides of course the blatant racism, is that it’s stuck in amongst all the jesus-is-he-reason-for-the-season tripe that they keep spewing.
Becky’s Carpet and Tile Factory Outlet. Heinous. As with the fabled Medusa, looking directly at it will drive you mad, kill you, or both.
The eponymous Becky is a morbidly obese woman (hey, I can stand to lose some weight myself, but I’m not starring in any commercials) with an incredibly shiny and heavy makeup job, wearing an evening gown and a tiara (!), standing on a “magic carpet” flying over the skyline of the city of St. Louis and extolling the virtues of her carpet. Did I mention she also has the most grating and loud voice in the world? Did I mention the one where she pushed her sister (?–I don’t follow the plots of the commercials that closely) off an adjacent magic carpet to her death on the cruel streets of St. Louis(sister looked a lot like a skinny version of Becky–same shiny makeup job, evening gown, and tiara, but blonde)?
The Tic-Toc Clock Shop and Dirt Cheap Cigarettes and Beer (cheap cheap fun fun) come in only a distant second and third (boy, local ads are always the worst).
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Anything involving “Eagle Man”, “Eagle Woman”, Luna Carpet (the jingle makes my skin crawl) and the one Cranky brought up. Oh, and no, I don’t want to “do like Stu and you’ll save too - push it, pull it, tow it to Golf Mill Ford.”
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Ugggh, don’t get me started on those commercials. I also can’t stand Empire Carpet either. That old guy is just…old! For as long as I can remember he’s been doing those commercials. The part that bugs me is that EVERY commercial ends with a cartoon of him showing up and throwing a new carpet down over the old one…That’s just not right!
One I really hate is the one for a big name computer company, with the smarmy teenager sitting in front of a perfectly good computer, begging his parents in a home-video(probably made with the assistance of the super-computer on his desk) for another computer “for only $895!!”.
I think that any teenager who uses the words “only” and “$895” in the same sentence should be sent to military school. Or made to get a job.:rolleyes:
In Buffalo, there are commercials for Pat Gambino Ford, or if you pronounced it like they do, “Pe-YAT Gaahm-NEE-no FORT,” in a nasal, loud Buffalo Italian accent. The whole commercial is like that – various salespeople, all with pronounced Buffalo Italian accents, point at cars and say that they’re “Neiy-ey nyan dahn, neiy-ey bichs uh munt.” At the end, it’s “HI MAHM!” I have no idea who would buy a car from them. Oh, a URL - http://www.hi-mom.com . Seriously.
Here in Denver, there’s Dealin’ Doug, a loud, middle-aged man who wears a lot of jewelery, with a ring on every finger. Same approach – loud, old-school. Never met anyone who bought a car at any Dealin’ Doug dealerships, but you see enough with dealer license plate frames around here.
Radio commercials in Denver – about half of 'em have smooth jazz playing in the background. Why? I think it’s because the area is affluent, and the business is attempting to go after some of that disposable income that the Denver area has so much of. “Oh, they’re playing smooth jazz – the business must be upscale, so let’s patronize them!”, the audience thinks.
I usually have a pretty thick skin when it comes to commercials (ok, ok, I laughed my ass off when Pets.com went under – stupid puppet!), but I saw a billboard the other day that nearly made me drive off the road in outrage. It was for DeBeers (who are utter bastards to begin with) and they had a big-ass picture of a pair of diamond earrings and next to them the words “Hey Buddy, could you come up and get your wife off this sign?” EXCUSE ME???!?! I’m supposed to be so simpleminded and materialistic I can’t keep from coveting your shitty, overpriced, impractical diamonds that my husband (who obviously wears the pants in the family, since I most likely married him for his money and all, what with my being a moneygrubbing golddigger) has to show up and pull me slobbering off a freaking highway sign???!? Well, screw you, assholes! And stick your earrings up your ass SIDEWAYS, you smug sexist boneheads!
I have to admit, though. That seems like small potatoes compared to the “red dot sale” one. Glad I never had to hear THAT!
I moved away from St. Louis 5 years ago, and had completely forgotten (repressed) all memories of Becky’s commercials. Therefore I must curse your name and send you the therapy bill for bringing these traumatic experiences back to my consciousness.
I hate all the jewelry commercials. Because every single one of them are the same, and they all imply that if the man buys his woman jewelry, he’ll get some action.
Look, I don’t owe my SO ANYTHING if he buys me a gift. That’s what a gift is.
I hate those commercials in which major life decisions are decided on the basis of whether you have AT&T Digital Cable (right answer) or a satellite dish (you poor, misguided fool!). Anytime I notice one coming on, I grab the remote and change the channel until it passes.
The other commercials that come to mind are the ones for Eastwood Insurance. That goofy girl must be the owner’s daughter or something, because it’s not like she has any real screen presence.
There’s an (apparently) local commercial running now – showing a huge closeup of an ear as they play three incredibly shrill tones. Then the announcer says “Listen again”, they play them again, and the owner of the incredibly huge ear pulls out a tiny “hearing instrument” – we’d call it a hearing aid. We’re told this incredibly tiny “hearing instrument” doesn’t need a volume control, that it can adjust to any background noise. BUT THEY NEVER GIVE A FREAKING BRAND NAME! Just a phone number to call for “more information”!
Reminds me of the first Infiniti ads when they came out – shots of sky, water, birds flying – BUT THEY NEVER SHOWED THE STUPID CAR!! I say, if you’re trying to sell me something, let me at least SEE what it is you’re selling me!
How about this for an entire product line? Those infernal collect-call commercials. Look, imbeciles. Sure, I’m “saving my parents at least a buck or two” by calling 1-800-Man I’m Cheap… but guess what? I could save them MORE by paying for the #@%@# call. I can’t believe they are selling this as you’re doing the call recipients such a major favor when you’re charging them for the call. What kind of sick bastard calls his parents collect that often, anyway? I mean I can see doing it when you’ve got the occasional emergency, but they make it seem like you should never, ever, ever put money into a phone booth or pay for the call yourself.
Hellooooooooo!!! It’s NOT saving money! It’s COSTING people money! People who don’t need to be spending the money! Why the hell can’t they just make the calls cheaper in the first place? Oh, that would be too easy for us. No, it’s better to try to make us think we’re saving money and being good citizens to boot – when in fact we (the consumers as a whole, not me) are now spending more money on collect calls than we ever have before, all due to a masterful set of marketing schemes… :mad:
True, Dealin’ Doug is pretty bad, but “Roll-eey” Peerfoy of the Peerfoy Chevrolet who talksh in shullrudsyllablshe an [sub]unfrtnate tendency to mbbl[/sub] is more annoying to me.
Or the Screechy-voiced O’Mera Ford chick, who’s voice is less preferable than a dental exam.
But the worst is Medved, who A) can’t pronounce the name of the brand of car he’s selling (it’s pronounced “Shev-ro-lay” not “Shef-uuh-lehhh” and B) keeps recycling the same commercials over and over, year after year.
Also the jewelry commercials that are targeted (IMO) more to the women that imply if your husband REALLY loved you, he’d buy you that $20,000 ring or bracelet.
Grrrrr!
I thought of another one. It’s for a certain brand of pantyhose…it starts with a man and woman at a company cocktail party, and they meet the man’s new young, skinny, pretty associate, and listen to the three of them converse, while sub-titled below are the wife’s catty thoughts about the other woman. I really hate that one, too.
I hate any commercials that they play just before the previews in a movie theatre. I don’t come to the theatre and pay 12 friekin bucks (yes, for one ticket, 12 bucks!!) to see commercials. If they play commercials in a theatre, that means that they are getting paid, and that means that ticket prices should be lower, not higher. But no, thay just keep going up. Video rentals too. Soon it will almost be cheaper to but the tape than rent it. How long til commercials are added to videotapes, for pointless products?
OH! And those assnine, vile, contemptable commercials for various board games, the worst of which is “Mad Gabs” with the guy getting tricked into proposing, and the vacuum salesman. And then, as if it wasn’t bad enough all of last year, they run the exact same Friekin two this year.
And then therre’s the commercials for toys that are expensive, feature one un-clever novelty, and have almost zero replay value to them.
And that car commercial with that loathsome “Who let the dogs out?” song in the background.