This is pretty much for fun. I really feel sorry for my family because when I get it in my head I hate a commercial everyone hears about it.
Ad nauseam!
The current commercial driving my family nuts is that Hershey smores commercial. The one with the hipster daughter who drops a couple hundred for a cardboard cutout of her dad so he can skive off his meeting to have smores with her. Apparently he is so unimportant that the fact that he never moves is not noticed by the people in the meeting.
So here is the fun, I hope. Anyone else want to rant about a commercial that drives them nuts? Perhaps we can save our families this way.
Oh yeah, my favorite is any of the car commercials with the golden retrievers driving.
Oh my god, yes, Toyota Jen and Progressive, well the box and the chick! I will never use their products, ever! I swear progressive was like, oh, I don't feel like Flo is annoying people enough, lets introduce a talking box and make it narcissistic and perverted. That will bring the people in.
I can't stand any commercial that gives the impression any demographic is stupid.
I think my biggest problem with commercials is I took marketing classes to get my degree. When you know what they are trying to do, who they are trying to target, you realize how insulting most commercials are.
Oh Gidget, that is another commercial my family suffers through, the Phoenix one. I usually tell the TV if you only had a brain you would go to a real college.
I think it was Elaine, what they are trying to tell you is that your current suffering is due to lack of proper medical care and if you use their product you will be so much better you will live the life you always wanted. I have bad knees, I go to the hospital so I can keep functioning so it is kind of silly.
Political adds. This is going to be a long season. I hate the weight loss ones I think its Nutrisystem where a lady went for a size 10 to a size 6. Big deal. The sex commericials should be shown after 10 so you won't have explain male enhancement to a 9 year old or why you see fireworks after using KY jelly.
Pretty much all of them. Anything political, the magic weight loss ones, the "you have a lawyer" ones, the medical ones where the list of side effects is longer and worse than the disease, etc. I pretty much fast forward through them all.
Added: I also hate the college ones, as someone else mentioned. I obtained my B.S. and MBA from Southern New Hampshire University before it was a commercial college. I feel like that somehow cheapens my degrees. I hate it.
I rarely see ads on TV, so I have no opinion on those. But I HATE the radio spots for Rocket Mortgage.
Oh my, where to start??? But if it's to save our families, I'll weigh in!
Quicken Loans are "both simple and easy" - yeah, because if it's just simple and not easy as well, that's a deal breaker for me.
Toilet paper ad that discusses "going commando" as if it's more acceptable because she has a British accent and says "co-MAHN-do".
Lawyer commercials which ask if you or someone you know has died from XYZ. "Yes, I died from it - will you represent me?"
Drug commercials for pretty much everything. They tell patients to ask their doctors for drugs whether they are appropriate or not, then tell you the drugs cause death or suicidal thoughts or a long list of life-threatening conditions.
Locally produced ads where the bank president or car dealer does his own acting/voice part.
Almost every political ad, but especially those made by someone other than the candidate, i.e. those that supposedly support but are not approved by him/her.
Two: the worst offender is the Sono-Bello body-sculpting commercial, where they show before and after pics of people wearing the surgical paper bra and panties, looking so weird. Just these pics of bodies without heads and then women (no men) talking about how much their life improved by getting this service. If I don't mute it fast enough, Kiddo will 'do' the testimonials, word for word, in a sarcastic voice. We all hate it.
The other one, which is annoying but not nearly as bad: "Jen" from those Toyota commercials. Stop feeding that woman coffee! Get her some downers! She's way too perky and stupidly-accommodating to the 'clueless' customers. ugh.
Oh, and those Charmin commercials exhorting us to 'Enjoy the Go!" Um, we have one bathroom in our house, we don't even allow books in there. No enjoyment, folks. I didn't know that the toilet was another option for me to 'enjoy' in life (you know, vs. gardening, a good meal with friends, a funny movie.... now the bathroom offers delight as well? WTH?). ugh.
Oh gosh there is one that gets me all fired up when I see it but of course I can't think of it right now. It's so, so bad. And the current KFC adds are awful. I know they're supposed to be funny, but the new Colonel Sanders is just creepy.
Oh and those Sonic ads with the two guys in their car...hate them.
Any commercial, any commercial at all that uses a crappy version of a song I like, especially the Beatles. Is nothing sacred?
:)
Oh boy, I could do this all day.
1. The Eggo commercial where the family is tweeting/texting/instagramming their photos of their waffle while waiting for it to pop out of the toaster. The littlest kid takes the waffle at the end. You know what people? You're sitting in a huge luxury kitchen with a 6 burner professional-looking gas stove, everyone has the latest smart phones, you're apparently well-enough-off to just sit around and instagram the toaster, and you only have one frozen waffle? BUY ANOTHER FREAKING WAFFLE.
2. Any commercial that has ordinary people singing their jingle (Dairy Queen, I'm looking at you) with zero talent, zero ability to sing on any sort of key. It's not amusing. It's ear-splitting and horrid. I don't mind hearing a member of the public sing a jingle, but it should sort of match the tune. And the commercials where they think it's cute for their 2 year old to say something like "call my dad and get your carpet cleaned right" but it comes out more like "um...caw dada n get cuspet cwea bwight" while the kid looks terrified or bored or anything except cute.
3. On a more serious note - I do have a question that bothers me, about commercials. Specifically commercials for major specialty hospitals (usually private ones) and commercials for medications. In these commercials, the patient is often depicted, after treatment, in what I consider luxurious or upscale situations. One is for a med that is added to an anti-depressant. She comes home to a deck that is larger than most houses, her husband is merrily grilling Flintstone-sized steaks, she's bringing a tray of drinks to her children and everyone is all smiles. The others involve post-cancer patients returning to their sweeping mountainous estates with thousands of acres of pastures and fields, riding their horses. Or they go back to their spacious lake and their gorgeous boat. There's another one with 2 sisters and after the cancer treatment they're having a family meal under a beautiful old tree with charming lights hung from it, with a chic wooden table and chairs set for about a dozen people, and they're dumping an enormous amount of food on the table, ocean-side style. There are lobsters, tons of crawfish, clams, etc. Other commercials seem to show every recovered person returning home to luxurious surroundings. They seem to have no jobs, no worries, and now they can get back to trail riding, yachting, and feasting, all in the most glorious settings.
My question: am I out of touch? Do most people live like that? Are the medication/hospitals trying to send some kind of message, like "your life will be like this if you take our pills/become our patient?" or are they trying to project something? Do no cancer patients return to ordinary apartments and eat pizza? Are the commercials targeted to the people who live like that and who happen to have a disease? It really bugs me. Glad I got to ask this question.
when we first signed up for hulu there was this one with oprah and was talking about how she loved bread, ans with the diet plan she gets to eat bread every day... so annoying hearing her go on and on about loving bread.
Not sure they play these as ad nauseam as they used to since we don't watch the kids channels so much anymore, but the ABC Mouse ads used to drive me completely nuts. The worst was the one where the mother or grandmother was lamenting that their 2-year old couldn't read yet and, miracle of miracle, could read beautifully now that she had played on ABC Mouse. Seriously? As if parents don't feel enough pressure just to get their kids school-ready by 5 or 6. The majority of toddlers and preschoolers aren't developmentally ready to read yet - no computer program is going to fix that. Stop selling guilt!
What fun J.,
I can't think of one I hate off the top of my head...as I hate most of them. But!!! My most favorite one currently is the Subaru add where the dad asks the son if he's ready and tries to hand him the keys and what follows is a vignette of all the challenges that come along with driving...like getting a parking ticket and getting stuck in traffic and dropping his dad off for work in his pajamas.... "come on....you're killing me..." It makes me laugh every time....Wisely, he says...."I'm good." That entire campaign is exceptional.
oh!!!! I know which ones I hate.......candy bar commercials where people's pupils constrict and they get goose bumps and the kit kat bar is engineered to be so loud you can hear it break from the kitchen........give me a break indeed.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is one I LOVE:
Little man, little man. Need I say more?
Elena posted--My question: am I out of touch? Do most people live like that? Are the medication/hospitals trying to send some kind of message, like "your life will be like this if you take our pills/become our patient?"
What you are seeing on those commercials is how the folks in the medical industry will live once everybody buys all their stuff! ;)
Any "smell better down there" commercial - because if it smells bad down there, you need to see a doctor! LOL
I'll try to add more if I remember them.
So I don't watch broadcast TV anymore, just Netflix (no commercials). But my professor lectured on ED (erectile dysfunction) last week & showed the Viagra sailboat commercial.
Elena B - this plays right into what you've noticed - the ad execs TOTALLY play to your emotions & subliminal messages with commercials. Who wouldn't want to take an antidepressant, if it can make your life SO wonderful, right? All the images are meant to portray abundance, health, prosperity - all the things we want in life, so if you can fix your disease, the rest just comes with. Sneaky.
The Viagra commercial (link below) has a middle-aged rugged man - who I personally think looks a bit young to be the target demographic for Viagra - on a sailboat. Every shot has something very big, very tall, VERY upright & erect. Subliminal, anyone? *grin* T.
The Quilted Northern toilet paper commercials with the objects not being able to 'forget their bathroom experiences'.
YUK
The Progressive insurance box commercials make me NUTS. The puppy monkey baby commercial still wierds me out.
I like the "Let's go places!" slogan for Toyota when it's said with excitement, but I cannot stand the first version I heard where the female says, "Let's go (pause) places," like "places" is a person. Weird!
The "If I Only Had a Brain" ads by the University of Phoenix. Why do you feel the need to tell me that you have a brain? Why would I think you didn't? Are they trying to say that they really are a good school and not a blow off school? Not sure, but I do find it odd.
I find myself hating commercials more and more. They seem to want to find the most annoying non-melodious nonsense lyric songs for so many of them now. I really hate how much Oprah loves bread, the intestine running around, the girl with a brain (so she says), and the blond lawyer non lawyer spokesperson who talks about everything now causing cancer and she drones on and on in that super fast voice. I think all the drug ones have really gotten out of hand and it seems those are half the commercials on the air anymore. The magnum ice cream bars commercials are just gross. I could go on and on but those are my current hated ones. I DO like the one with Cookie Monster using siri while he bakes cookies, and the dogs driving their pups around to get them to sleep only to have to drive back out again when they get home because the pups woke when they stopped the car.
We don't watch a lot of live tv - we mostly watch dvds.
But every so often live tv happens - and then we saw this local guys car sales ad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=601X8VPcFh4
First time I saw it, I was just, I don't know - shocked isn't the right word.
I'm not sure there IS a word to describe my initial reaction to it.
It's corny in the extreme.
But if you see it a few times, it sort of grows on you - and before you know it the kids are dancing to it.
It's not exactly a 'plop plop fizz fizz oh what a relief it is' commercial (old Alka Seltzer commercial) but it's catchy in it's way.
And it gets attention - which is what the commercial sets out to do.
The diet pill ones that go on and on ...
ETA: OK, I will confirm that box commercial is just plain stupid. I think I have seen 2 versions of it. Seriously annoying. I don't; mind Flo though--when she is alone with out the extras "helping" her out. There is a radio commercial though for Jimmy John's though that gets on my nerves a bit. A house is burning and the guys calls for a bunch of Jimmy John's sandwiches because they are fast. Each time he answers the door, the delivery person says "sir ,do you know your house is on fire?" Yes I do, grab a bucket, com'on in". Then finally the fire dept shows up and asks why he didn't call them first. he says he did. Point being JJ is fast. BUT, people, the house is on fire. WHY WOULD YOU GO IN?
We recently cancelled our TV package and now only watch free TV (until I get Roku that is). I don't really watch TV but when I have, it seems like commercials are really dumbed down now. There are a lot that make me roll my eyes. Especially the as seen on TV ones. I remember when I took a marketing class. My instructor told us that when commercial appears annoying (like those Wisk "ring around the collar"), you are more likely to remember them.
I hate the commercial where people's head blows up and purple dust flies out.
My favorite commercial is the DriveTime car dealer one where the guy says he's been turned down and then the "Turn Down for what" song starts playing...cracks me up!!!! My granddaughter's favorite is the Arby's with the man with the deep voice saying "we have the meats".
