# Yet more puzzling commercials **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 15, 2010, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-puzzling-commercials/560709 "2010-11-15T05:58:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-puzzling-commercials/560709/101 "2010-11-19T17:26:37Z")
I feel like Kramer when he had seizures everytime he heard Mary Hart’s voice in “The Good Samaritan” episode of Seinfeld. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-puzzling-commercials/560709/102 "2010-11-19T17:47:08Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Look, you marketing hacks, the tile interface and the dynamic updating of status is mildly cool (although possibly expensive in terms of having to poll a million sites every couple of minutes?) It’s hard to get a smartphone nowadays without a mandatory unlimited data plan…even the providers that offer a “limited” one still have enough data so that this minor updating wouldn’t cost you anything extra. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-puzzling-commercials/560709/103 "2010-11-19T23:21:50Z")
> [@lawoot](#): > > That’ll show those bastards at Mars, Incorporated! Good thing your money went to the makers of Snickers, which is, ummm… Mars, Incorporated. I doubt they’d be bothered by my 42p anyway, but if lots of people were put off then the staff at the M&M \*department \*of Mars certainly would be bothered. I’m not boycotting the entire company out of principle; I’m put off one of its products because of a stupid ad. ---
**Author:** ![JimmyFlair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce7236/32.png) [@JimmyFlair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimmyFlair)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-puzzling-commercials/560709/104 "2010-11-20T01:45:57Z")
> [@Angel\_of\_Doubt](#): > > The Gotomeeting ad actually, was a winning contest entry. The first few (meaning many) times I saw it, I thought the company’s marketing department had lost their collective minds, especially with the pron film music, but it does grow on you. OK then. Now that I know it was made by amateurs, I will give it a pass. And it is no longer puzzling!🙂 The Highlander kid still sucks, though! ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-puzzling-commercials/560709/105 "2010-11-20T02:35:08Z")
I wrote about that disturbing Parker commercial when it first came out on the SDMB. I’m too lazy to look up the thread, but I’m glad to see it still bothers people. It still bothers me. I hate that little mop haired bastard in the highlander. I loath Flo so badly. That the tough guy talker is a welcome relief. I love the woodchucks chucking wood. I also love the little piggie crying “wee” all the way home, with the little pig leaning out the car window with two pinwheels. Flo needs to stop. If Flo would just… stop. Then, I might stop twitching. One thing about the cialis commercials. It DOES make the viewer remember the product and the product name. It is stupid, but they’ve used that campaign for years, so they must think it works for them. Quite frankly, there are only so many ways to sell boner pills, so they all start to blur together to me. After viagara, Cialis is the only one I can remember. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-puzzling-commercials/560709/106 "2010-11-20T05:26:27Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > … Quite frankly, there are only so many ways to sell boner pills, so they all start to blur together to me… So maybe the people of America should rise up and all scream **“No! More! Boner! Pill! Ads!”** ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-puzzling-commercials/560709/107 "2010-11-20T06:58:14Z")
Old Spice commercials have gotten so over-the-top they are becoming rather incomprehensible. The one with the football player guy being gigantic, it was just so random and weird. My favorite Old Spice commercial was the one with Bruce Cambell explaining “If you’ve got it”. In the background is a sailing ship, and as the camera pans it reveals that the painting is rediculously long, the ship has something like 17 masts. I always thought that was pretty funny. The commercial for Call of Duty Black Ops is a little strange. _Nobody_ gets hit (I know its a commercial, but come on!). The only apparent casualties are the two guys in the helicopter that get blowed up by an RPG. I’d like to imagine a more realistic version of that commercial involving a guy twitching in place because he has a bad internet connection and is lagging, a guy shooting two of his teammates in the back of the head so he can be the one to fly the helicopter, only to be stabbed in the neck mid-flight by a passenger who wants his turn behind the stick, only to have it go into a building like a lawn dart because he doesn’t understand the controls. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-puzzling-commercials/560709/108 "2010-11-30T22:29:12Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > There’s a new [commercial](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX5rwqgIcAo) for the Nissan Juke where the businessman has to get donuts for the meeting. He jumps through the donut store window, drives recklessly towards the office, etc. > > It all makes a certain amount of sense, except that he’s inexplicably wearing what looks like orange women’s shoes with no socks with his suit. 😕 They’re color coordinated with his gaudy tie. Just saw a Pepto Bismol commercial. Group of people at a party eating, guy in pink shows up, “Look at these people, under-indulgers”. He proceeds to change the food to a much larger supply, and encourage everybody to indulge, and if you over do it, Pepto Bismol will be there. So what you’re saying is go ahead and be a fat pig and make yourself sick? ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-puzzling-commercials/560709/109 "2010-11-30T22:48:07Z")
The problem with the kid in the Highlander commercial is that idiots think kids are cute. Period. Kids doing and saying adult things are endearing to the middle-amercan mindset. Not the people living in the middle part of America, but the average, middle of the bel curve American. Here, at the SDMB, I think people ar different. Me, I wanna smack that shit in the 9-year-old size emo jeans like Ike Turner. But most people _shudder_ think he’s cute. Joe ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-puzzling-commercials/560709/110 "2010-11-30T22:56:46Z")
> [@Angel\_of\_Doubt](#): > > The Gotomeeting ad actually, was a winning contest entry. The first few (meaning many) times I saw it, I thought the company’s marketing department had lost their collective minds, especially with the pron film music, but it does grow on you. That’s such a terrible ad that your explanation makes complete sense. Almost as amateurish as those first few [hotels.com](http://hotels.com) ads… Joe ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-puzzling-commercials/560709/111 "2010-11-30T22:59:50Z")
> [@scifisam2009](#): > > Almost all of the food ads I’ve seen in the last couple of years have advocated cannibalism by making the food sentient and anthropomorphic, but at least they generally _want_ to be eaten. > > The current M&M ads, however, have M&Ms the size of a six-month old baby being dragged kicking and screaming out of the cupboard. The woman who’s about to eat them starts the commercial by demanding that her BF get her a snack, and then rolls her eyes at him for not being able to fit the enormous snack in the bowl. Rude lazy people murdering sentient beings who are fighting for their lives? Yeah, they’re just what I want to be like. > > The other day I saw some M&Ms in the shop and considered getting them, remembered that ad and got a Snickers bar instead. And what about the ads involving sticking a pretzel up the M&M’s ass? Seriously? Joe ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-puzzling-commercials/560709/112 "2010-12-01T00:20:15Z")
The worst part about horrible commercials like these is that as someone who is trying to break into ad copywriting I hear from person after person how absolutely perfect my ads have to be. I had a professor who would purposely tear everyone’s copy to shreds (not maliciously but in a “this is how the industry works” kind of way) and he would still shred the really great ads (not just the ones done by me). Yet I have to continually sit back and watch these horrible commercials roll out and pretend that copywriting is this really hard science? I have to watch things like… The Taco Bell ad where they have the guy who sounds exactly like the Lexus VO guy, talking about the taco as if it’s a car. Good commercial and all…until the end. The dude is impressing the hot Taco Bell girl (yeah right…hot TB girl…) and his car alarm goes off? Really? While the car is running? and for no apparent reason? Are you effing kidding me? You’re telling me NO ONE noticed this? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-puzzling-commercials/560709/113 "2010-12-01T01:29:40Z")
> [@digs](#): > > So maybe the people of America should rise up and all scream **“No! More! Boner! Pill! Ads!”** Anyone remember the old “There’s something different about Dave” commercials? You had this guy cheerfully going about his business while his coworkers tried to figure out what changed. Was it a new suit? A haircut? Gotta be the shoes, right? Nope, He took Viagra. I can see why his friends would go out of their way to avoid mentioning his raging Johnson, no? ---
**Author:** ![Tess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@Tess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tess)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-puzzling-commercials/560709/114 "2010-12-02T04:03:14Z")
There’s a commercial that runs on local channels around here for some website that’s supposed to give information and listings on local businesses. They keep emphasizing the word “local” but the voiceover is in a phony Aussie accent and there’s a cartoon kangaroo bouncing around. 😕 Not things I associate with the Midwest. Or any part of the US for that matter. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-puzzling-commercials/560709.md?page=5)