(my favorite, for what it's worth, is the Dow Human Element campaign)
― remy bean, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 01:54 (sixteen years ago) link
yaz birth control
― chaki, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 02:05 (sixteen years ago) link
It's a goddamn good thing I hardly watch tv anymore, because I hate commercials so much I want to mutilate them all with boxcutters. Why, I even started a thread once about a spot that made me particularly furious.
So.
1. All of them.
― Oilyrags, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 02:21 (sixteen years ago) link
There are so many bad ones but this one while old still makes me smile:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DRucm2UREU
― ENBB, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 02:33 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh and this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NRNQmtUAUg
It's bad because you can just picture the meeting where they came up with the rap idea, you know, to really reach the youth of today.
― ENBB, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 02:45 (sixteen years ago) link
No time to quit making awful misleading political advertisements.
― Pleasant Plains, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 04:26 (sixteen years ago) link
this thread reminded me to upload this to youtube: i nearly gagged when i first saw it but had the wherewithall to hit 'record' on the ol' tivo. check it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSvKYwy9kJo
― BATTAGS, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 04:35 (sixteen years ago) link
Ha, speaking of "rapping" in commercials, the rap part was always my favorite part of this classic one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeffKUWZIng
― dell, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 04:41 (sixteen years ago) link
Hands down, this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgxxAwue7Fs
So bad it's bad.
― moley, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 04:48 (sixteen years ago) link
YES Moley!
I was looking for that the other day, I was describing it to my gf, and she wouldn't believe me.
― W4LTER, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 04:50 (sixteen years ago) link
My girlfriend worked on something to do with that one. She's going STRAIGHT TO HELL.
'Advanced Hair? Yeah yeah' - so bad a catchphrase it entered the Australian vernacular immediately:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqMemogg4kI
― moley, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 04:51 (sixteen years ago) link
It's funny. I was asking my friend from Kansas what sticks out and is different about Australia (coz she was saying how Aus is pretty much the same as the US in most respects) and she said the main thing she noticed was how tv commercials are so much worse over here.
― W4LTER, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 04:54 (sixteen years ago) link
The ads here are so very shitty, but that bom-chicka ad appears to have originated in the states so we can't be blamed for it. It's just being rolled out here, with a lame local version.
One yank told me it was weird that so many ads here have crap music jingles - even cheap ads for Paul's Warehouse etc. Apparently that's unusual.
― moley, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 04:59 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ANn6Z1iKxc&mode=related&search=
This needs to be seen to be believed.
― HI DERE, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 05:02 (sixteen years ago) link
I am also shocked to find out that the Advanced Hair company is under investigation for false advertising:
http://www.belgraviacentre.com/advancedhairstudio.htm
"...Advanced Hair Studio doesn't make it clear exactly what its amazing 'Strand-by-Strand' procedure is - or what you'll get for your money. And at a cost of at least £2,000 for treatment, it's a significant investment.
Paolo Beggio and Ross Trowsdale were both sold the 'Strand-by-Strand' procedure. After watching a sales video, they were convinced Advanced Hair Studio could solve their problems. That's until they went for their fittings. The amazing non-surgical skin graft they'd been sold was actually a toupee that was glued to their heads."
― moley, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 05:07 (sixteen years ago) link
HI DERE, that ad is kooky but great. It looks like something that John Kricfalusi would've plundered for Ren and Stimpy.
― moley, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 05:09 (sixteen years ago) link
xpost
Well, thing is, back in mid-to-late eighties in the states, programs were run pretty regularly which consisted in large part or even exclusively of showcasing ostensibly humorous commercials from other countries (mainly European)...I'm thinking that at some point, the U.S. ad industry must have seen how lame their commercials came off in comparison to the Germans or the Swedes or the French or whomever, and so there was a paradigm shift of sorts as far as attempting to make commercials more "edgy" or humorous or whatever.
Prior to that, many American commercials did, for the most part, involve lame jingles (with the odd exception of innovative standouts such as, say, the Wendy's "Where's the Beef?", or Apple "1984" commercials). Nowadays, jingles don't turn up much anymore, except in local ads for used car dealerships and such.
As someone living in the U.S., the "Advanced Hair" one is definitely striking in its cheesiness. The nonstop repetition of the jingle is singularly bizarre.
― dell, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 05:13 (sixteen years ago) link
In LA in January, I sawe this Burger King ad repeatedly:
http://blog.shrub.com/archives/tekanji/2006-05-09_235
I remember thinking, 'Thank God - they have ads as bad as back home in Australia'. It was almost a relief.
― moley, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 05:27 (sixteen years ago) link
Sadly, I don't think the video will load, although the analysis at the link pretty much describes the whole horrible thing. Stand out phrase: "I will eat / This meat" (To Helen Reddy's 'I am Woman', at the point where the lyrics go, 'I am strong / I am invincible').
― moley, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 05:30 (sixteen years ago) link
OK I found a working link to the ad:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3861974550027138294
Note the 'chick food' vs 'man food' dichotomy.
― moley, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 05:39 (sixteen years ago) link
There's so much stereotyping in this ad, it is almost impossible to keep up with it.
― moley, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 05:42 (sixteen years ago) link
VIVA VIAGRA
― joygoat, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 05:50 (sixteen years ago) link
i like quiche
― remy bean, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 05:50 (sixteen years ago) link
No doubt you were forced to eat it by your girlfriend?
― moley, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 05:52 (sixteen years ago) link
If I ever have a son and I catch him eating quiche, he's in for a whoopin'. Guaranteed.
― dell, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 06:13 (sixteen years ago) link
Sometimes it seems like the only thing I remember from browsing in bookstores as a kid in the eighties is "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche", "Real Women Don't Pump Gas", "The Preppy Handbook", and "Buns".
Does anybody remember "Buns"??
― dell, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 06:15 (sixteen years ago) link
I like most of these commercials.
― Spencer Chow, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 06:19 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.amazon.com/Buns-Woman-Looks-at-Mens/dp/0399505008/ref=sr_1_39/103-0576075-8470233?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189578016&sr=1-39
― dell, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 06:22 (sixteen years ago) link
Urine Gone - with enzymes!
(srsly this ad - the 15 minute infomercial I sat through while watching British Eurosport at half midnight last night - suggested that, if your pet or child pees on your countertops you don't wipe it up, you just spray it with Urine Gone. Piss on your walls? Just spray and it's neutralised!)
― Mark C, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 10:35 (sixteen years ago) link
DO-ING THINGS IS WHAT I LIKE TO DO! YES!! DO-ING THINGS IS WHAT I LIKE TO DO!
― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Sunday, 3 February 2008 13:08 (sixteen years ago) link
^^^ turf war
― DG, Sunday, 3 February 2008 13:08 (sixteen years ago) link
I love that commercial. YES!!
― kate78, Sunday, 3 February 2008 17:08 (sixteen years ago) link
we've seen just the tip of the iceberg with the boomer-retirement-years commercials, rite?
― gabbneb, Wednesday, 14 May 2008 22:46 (fifteen years ago) link
that bk commercial made me laugh. surely they are totally making fun of the whole macho thing... right?
― rockapads, Thursday, 15 May 2008 02:32 (fifteen years ago) link
like the carl's jr / hardees commercials? taking it to an extreme for lolz? i mean they throw a mini-van over a bridge!
― rockapads, Thursday, 15 May 2008 02:33 (fifteen years ago) link
yes, the bk commercials are the worst commercials on television
― gabbneb, Thursday, 15 May 2008 02:33 (fifteen years ago) link
worst commercials are EASILY THE MAC COMMERCIALS. absolutely no personality and it just reeks of airs. UGH i hate that campaign.
― Surmounter, Saturday, 25 October 2008 23:33 (fifteen years ago) link
like, i can't imagine anyone actually laughing at them. that's really unfortunate.
I didn't this ad:
There was just something really creepy about the animals (not just all the sexual shenanigans)
― Autobot Lover (jel --), Sunday, 26 October 2008 09:13 (fifteen years ago) link
"like"
Wasting your extra hour on ILX: classic or dud?
lol i find tht ad kind of funny :/
― Surmounter, Sunday, 26 October 2008 14:14 (fifteen years ago) link
i don't know what's wrong with me tho, i'm generally a fan of animal ads
Burger King's sissy troubadours singing about the steakhouse shroom & swiss -- what the FUCK.
― Joe the C.R.E.E.P. Operative (Rock Hardy), Monday, 27 October 2008 01:42 (fifteen years ago) link
Hot Zebras, never thought i'd see that :-/
― not_goodwin, Monday, 27 October 2008 01:53 (fifteen years ago) link
ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww at the orangina ad
― max, Monday, 27 October 2008 01:55 (fifteen years ago) link
Holland & Barrett ad totally absurd
― Ant Attack |=| (Ste), Monday, 27 October 2008 09:18 (fifteen years ago) link
and mention must go to that awful awful AWFUL whatever the fuck 'more minutes / seance' advert. fuck a shit catchphrase.
― Ant Attack |=| (Ste), Monday, 27 October 2008 11:30 (fifteen years ago) link
This commercial makes me want to punch something/one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bocuvU1ve5Q
― ENBB, Thursday, 30 July 2009 02:13 (fourteen years ago) link
The BMW commercial with Brian Unger (love him) has got to go.
"Americans are always finding ways to be... more responsible".
I keep waiting for the punchline or any clue that he's joking, but it never shows up.
― Spinspin Sugah, Friday, 18 September 2009 00:00 (fourteen years ago) link
how did Brian Unger go from being the best correspondent on the Daily Show to randomly doing voice overs and commercials?
Anyway, the worst ads right now are the Coors Light ads with the standup comic that are on TBS.
― Matt Armstrong, Friday, 18 September 2009 00:12 (fourteen years ago) link
dilly dilly
― mookieproof, Sunday, 25 March 2018 18:18 (six years ago) link
where did that shit come from, that's not even real, you'd be kicked out of the ren faire for that shit
― my dreams in the hell-pits (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Saturday, 31 March 2018 21:41 (six years ago) link
tbf i'd probably think it was really funny if i were 8yo
― mookieproof, Saturday, 31 March 2018 22:11 (six years ago) link
https://i.stack.imgur.com/ADPFV.png
fuck you
also the real spokesperson's actual name is 'potsch boyd'
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 29 May 2019 02:37 (four years ago) link
this is undoubtedly the worst thing i've ever watched pic.twitter.com/G08EvRQ6du— Florb Netterson (@comicpanopticon) May 28, 2019
― Simon H., Wednesday, 29 May 2019 02:51 (four years ago) link
war criminal slidin into home
nobody's said it for many years now but fuck Wolfmother for that shit-ass T. Rex song about livin' free that's in a commercial every ten seconds.
― blood, loud screaming and nudity (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Wednesday, 29 May 2019 05:53 (four years ago) link
fake T. Rex song obv
i fuckin hate potsch boyd
― na (NA), Wednesday, 29 May 2019 21:51 (four years ago) link
That smarmy bearded TD Ameritrade financial advisor who sits back, legs crossed (always in a dark green room) and wheedles his newly affluent marks. Sit up straight, dork! And wear a tie.
― punning display, Thursday, 30 May 2019 13:22 (four years ago) link
any commercial that uses a version of "go your own way"
there are THREE right now. one drug ad, one for a kids movie, one for a pickup truck.
― blood, loud screaming and nudity (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Thursday, 30 May 2019 21:38 (four years ago) link
also hard agree on the Ameritrade guy
yes FUCK THIS GUY
― d'ILM for Murder (Hadrian VIII), Friday, 31 May 2019 14:29 (four years ago) link
that Peloton ad is causing a hell of a shitstorm online
I don't really buy the idea that it's necessarily sexist or problematic but it is deeply weird, it kinda reminds me of the commercials I grew up with in the 90s that had bad actors and told bizarre stories that clearly weren't focus grouped at all
― frogbs, Friday, 6 December 2019 00:01 (four years ago) link
what's up with the walmart ready player one thing?
― wasdnuos (abanana), Saturday, 1 February 2020 08:21 (four years ago) link
i think i figured out the theme: they all have some sort of sci-fi ship. they are trying to make the fact that you have to drive to a walmart cool, when their competitors will just mail the stuff to your door.
― wasdnuos (abanana), Saturday, 1 February 2020 09:42 (four years ago) link
h8 this guy
https://i0.wp.com/bobsullivan.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Cap-One.jpg
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 3 February 2021 03:01 (three years ago) link
the allstate moon commercial is close to ruining "crusin" forever for me
― ✖, Wednesday, 3 February 2021 04:31 (three years ago) link
The Jill Scott Nationwide commercial is literally satan
― Marty J. Bilge (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 17 August 2021 23:25 (two years ago) link
i wonder if state farm has to pay like double the going rate to get athletes for its painfully dorky ads
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 18 August 2021 00:02 (two years ago) link
I don't think so.
https://i.imgur.com/QXTC5eD.jpg
― pplains, Wednesday, 18 August 2021 00:24 (two years ago) link
man i hope jill got paid
― think “Gypsy-Pixie” and misspelled. (We are a white family.) (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 18 August 2021 02:03 (two years ago) link
My gf is rewatching Fringe on IMDB's streaming thing and they play that Nationwide ad during literally every single commercial break. I never thought I'd have occasion to implore Jill Scott to shut the everloving fuck up for the love of christ but, well, here we are.
― Marty J. Bilge (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 18 August 2021 02:54 (two years ago) link
It's like if the HR manager at your shitty corporate job Tiktok-ed a musical paean to corporate synergy and it went viral.
― Marty J. Bilge (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 18 August 2021 03:04 (two years ago) link
--A talking ass for SeatGeek
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, 18 August 2021 04:54 (two years ago) link
Liberty Mutual was bad enough when it was just Liberty Liberty Liberty Liiiiberty etcthe limu emu shit though is a plague
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 18 August 2021 05:10 (two years ago) link
all the AT&T commercials with Lily make me want to die
― frogbs, Wednesday, 18 August 2021 13:53 (two years ago) link
I feel like the intolerability quotient of advertising would drop by like 90% if it was illegal for insurance companies to make commercials.
― Marty J. Bilge (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 18 August 2021 14:03 (two years ago) link
the Dean Winters commercials as "Mayhem" are pretty good. or maybe I just think they're good because they actually have something to do with insurance? like every other company is just doing "you can save a lot on insurance!" and "oh my god, I can't shut the fuck up about insurance!"
― frogbs, Wednesday, 18 August 2021 14:07 (two years ago) link
i think commercials in general are getting more annoying and desperate for attention. maybe they have to now that they're competing with "switching to a different tab" and "looking at phone"
― ✖, Wednesday, 18 August 2021 23:09 (two years ago) link
WHY are these BIRDS so ANGRY???
― frogbs, Tuesday, 8 February 2022 21:19 (two years ago) link
also wanna mention the USAA ad where Gronk is trying and failing to buy insurance?? one because he fucking sucks as an actor (surprising!!), two because why are we supposed to believe superstar athletes give a fuck about their home and auto insurance? what is this contrived Trix and the rabbit situation
― frogbs, Tuesday, 8 February 2022 21:23 (two years ago) link
What... what year did you just post this from?
― pplains, Tuesday, 8 February 2022 22:57 (two years ago) link
The Geico angry birds commercial still airs all the time!! The game is well over a decade old!! As old as Mario 64 was when it first came out!
― frogbs, Wednesday, 9 February 2022 00:37 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVjFdaRxoo0
This Ben Moore commercial is just a farce. NOT how you paint.
― Kim, Wednesday, 9 February 2022 14:15 (two years ago) link
The Russian meerkat characters getting cancelled is objectively absurd and somewhat indicative of ugly xenophobia that is already having worse consequences, but can't say I'll miss the little fuckers.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 2 March 2022 14:14 (two years ago) link
dunno why they didn't just go "oh Sergei is ukranian of course" tho unless there's some deeper meerkat lore I'm not privy to.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 2 March 2022 14:15 (two years ago) link
uhhh the Uber Eats commercial where celebrities drink soap and eat candles?
― frogbs, Thursday, 23 June 2022 02:30 (one year ago) link
the youtube tv commercial (i think that's what it's for, some streaming alternative to cable) where the woman keeps moaning and groaning. physical pain to hear it
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Thursday, 23 June 2022 03:29 (one year ago) link
I do not understand these AT&T Lily commercials at all, every single one comes off like half the dialogue has been removed
― frogbs, Tuesday, 20 September 2022 18:24 (one year ago) link
"I'm Cologuard and I detect altered DNA in your stool"
I know this falls into the rather wide category of ads that are really just trying to get you to pester your doctor or whatever but jesus the ubiquity of this one on any show streaming on Paramount+
― made entirely of styrofoam (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Thursday, 22 September 2022 08:19 (one year ago) link
also yeah the Lily commercials are very very strange
― made entirely of styrofoam (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Thursday, 22 September 2022 08:20 (one year ago) link
feel like Rule #1 of writing/directing commercials is knowing that the vast majority of your audience isn't really paying attention. so all this intricately produced stuff that's paced like an Avengers movie is just kinda falling on deaf ears, particularly those which have very little to do with the product itself. back in my day a commercial was just two dude yelling "ZESTY!" at each other
― frogbs, Thursday, 22 September 2022 19:53 (one year ago) link
Geico doing a bunch of "TV dad" commercials who I presume from the sweaters is trying to resemble Bill Cosby
― frogbs, Wednesday, 26 April 2023 17:04 (eleven months ago) link
Think he's supposed to resemble the character he played on Family Matters (the Urkel show)?
Me, I could live without the Cologuard (place that sends you a box you shit in and return to be tested for cancer) commercials that feature a rewritten version of My Way.
― made entirely of styrofoam (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Wednesday, 26 April 2023 17:52 (eleven months ago) link
lol ok, didn't watch it so I didn't realize it was the same actor
― frogbs, Wednesday, 26 April 2023 18:00 (eleven months ago) link