Is it time for another stupid commercials thread? Probably not. But there’re a couple out there that have me scratching my head.
I’m watching Ice Road Truckers Deadliest Roads (and those roads are truly terrifying) and they break for a Viagra commercial whose them is “This is the age of knowing how to get things done.” Some grizzled dude is driving down a desert highway in his mid-life crisis muscle car when it starts overheating. Well, he’s a mature dude who knows how to get things done so he pulls into a garage/convenience store, nods to the old geezer garage proprietor who would have been happy to top off the radiator for him, buys a tall bottle of water, and pours it into the radiator. So you could probably have gotten the water free, or had the mechanic check your thermostat but instead you pissed away a couple of bucks on expensive bottled water to pour in your radiator. Which, if the thermostat is foobared, will just mean that you’ll overheat a few more miles down the highway. I’m thinking “This is the age of being a dumbass.” What I’m taking away from this commercial is that this guy’s erectile dysfunction came sadly too late to prevent him from diluting the gene pool.
Microsoft is advertising their new Windows Phone 7 as an operating system that will let you get the important stuff done on your phone and get back to your life. Which indicates that they Just Don’t Get It. People aren’t spending their time checking Twitter, answering text messages , and emailing because it’s a painful necessity that’s dragging them away from the current social situation. They’re doing it because the phone, for better or worse, * is * their life. Now from what I understand, Windows 7 is a perfectly good operating system for a phone, but advertising its main virtue is that it lets you spend less time playing with the phone is like trying to sell marijuana based on its low THC content.
I had pretty similar thoughts on that Viagra commercial. “This is a guy who knows how to get things done? So how come he’s driving an old beater that will overheat? How come he didn’t figure out how to maintain his car so that wouldn’t happen? Who’s going to fuck a clueless old man?”
Well, sadly, I guess I have to retract that last question. But it has to be a girlfriend, not a wife. Obviously, his ex-wife got, like, everything.
And doesn’t he know that a good way to crack your engine block is to pour cold water into it without keeping the engine running or shutting it down and letting it cool off for an hour or so? Didn’t he ever take auto shop in high school?
And of course he would probably buy the most expensiveand pretentious bottled water he could find in a disreputable-looking gas station in Vulture’s Spleen, Nevada.
This one baffles me too. The first two-thirds of the commercial depicts people essentially missing out on life because they’re buried in their phones. So you think the ad will be for something that’s the antithesis of that (I dunno, maybe one of those cruise lines where people climb rock walls or something). But no, in the last ten seconds you realize they’re trying to sell you the very thing they just spent most of the commercial mocking. Huh??
I find the current Jiffy Lube radio ads annoying like get-all. They set up a complete non-sequitor situation culminating in “Jiffy Lube!” And the rest of the in-ad people are all “Yaaaay!”
This ad campaign is the third time-based entry on my list of Ads For Which I Change the Station.
The most puzzling commercials I’ve seen lately are for Bayer aspirin. In this series they have a fugly “real person” sitting in front of a cheap fabric backdrop, and, as they’re being filmed testifying as to their love of Bayer, a second camera films the first camera and the guy holding up the boom microphone. Don’t get it.
Who thought that having this kid advertise your Toyota Highlander was a good idea? Empower your annoying little shit of a kid by letting him tell you what kind of car to drive. Oh that’s a good plan.
The thing that annoys me about this commercial is they skip right over the part where he writhes on the ground in agony - his face and arms covered in second degree burns because he uncapped a hot radiator.
How about Hulu and their interactive commercials? I don’t mean the ones where you get a choice between one long commercial or several breaks. There’s some that say type your name here, or there’s others - I think for Lowe’s Hardware - that is just a static screen with different items to click on. Why would I still be in that tab, Hulu? Or I’m using the Windows snap feature, and I’m browsing or playing a game whilst doing a mental countdown from 30 or 90. I mean, if I’m watching Hulu, I’ve also got the entire web at my disposal - or I could passively watch their commercials. I usually kill the volume too.
Actually, while the WIndows 7 ad might still be bad for other reasons, I can think of a lot of people it will appeal to. I would also submit that the kind of people who complain about it on a message board are prolly not the ones it’s aimed towards. Microsoft has always aimed at the mass market, and this is no different; they aren’t going after the early-adopter tech-lover who loves the tech itself, but the guy who doesn’t care about the tech and just wants to get things done and get off the phone.
It’s just a different segment, not a bad ad in that sense.
Some commercial for a Vegas resort (?) which depicts a bunch of supposedly kinky stuff going on, then a bunch of fuzzy baby animals get off an elevator and frolic among the bon vivant, then some scantily clad chick releases a single rabbit outside.
I’m not sure what the hell they’re supposed to be selling, but I’m not buying it.
My current loathing is for that ‘stupid face’ car commercial, where they keep showing this dipshit with different expressions while he’s driving some POS.
I did that one, actually. Teller visits can be a pain, especially now that all the quick, routine stuff is automated and a teller visit usually means you are troubled in some way. If a bank says they can do them quicker, that’s a point for their side.
Progressive’s Flo saying “Go big money.” What does that mean?
Or the commericial with a 7 year old kid and a Minivan or something. Is a parent really gonna spend $30,000+ on a miniwan so his kid won’t be embarrassed?
Yeah, that’s the one I came in here to say. Your kid’s embarrassed to get in the wood paneled station wagon. Fine, he can walk home. Really, who’s this commercial geared toward?
And to tell you the truth, when I was kid I would have happily hopped into a wood paneled station wagon if it meant not having to ride the bus.
Coming from a guy who drove a beat up station wagon (albeit not a wood paneled one) in high school.
Totally agree with the two in the OP and while we’re talking ED, what’s up with the separate bathtubs in the Cialis ads? And why are the guys in these ads always leering? Leering isn’t a turn-on.
I also don’t get the ads about a “belief project” – can’t remember what they’re for, maybe a phone?
I do like the ad with the confident kid – the one who tosses a toy onto a box of baking soda that puts out mom’s fire, and then he saves a busload of cheerleaders from a tornado. Something to do with buying a car.
Don’t quite get the ad with the woman who’s buying a car, and her first criteria is new or used – WTF? Don’t you know new or used before you start the search? Second criteria is color – especially since her preferred color is black – black is the worst, unless you own a car wash.
“To the cloud” – not bad ads but they’re overplayed.