Worst TV adverts of the moment

confused.com ads are the worst. "hey you know what would look cool on TV? CLIP ART"

the wistful american idol ads

Carol Vorderman on Farmfoods. Does she really need the money?

it's not a detergent, it's a SAFE-TERGENT!!!!!!!!!

injurylawers4u ad with eastenders' johnny allen

I've just seen one of these. "You might think that suing others is selfish, but there's this little thing called karma. The universe needs a karmic balance and if you don't make them pay then the universe will implode and it will be your fault. Who's selfish now, eh?"

I don't understand why you'd want your company represented by a former bent copper/gangster.

john hannah's smug caledonian face on those virgin atlantic ads

honourable mention to pc world

Perennial classic. Always love the bullshit random specs the "employees" are casually discussing.

I dunno if it's 'worst', strictly, but bloody hell that Western Australia ad is a wee bit up itself. "Come and see the REAL Australia - It's four hours nearer than Sydney!"

80 GIGABYTE HARD DISK???????????????????

WTF is 2 Gig of "Memory"?

"We need Dual-Core and a 17" monitor!"

i liked the one with the smiling silent Tech Guy who pops round to install your pc and presumably also to copy your keys and come back while you sleep and slit your throat

Has Karl Howman finally lost the Flash contract? RIP Big Fella

Not annoying or anything, more just an abject (and presumably expensive) failure: the Virgin Broadband campaign with Uma Thurman. The original ones a year or so ago lit her in the most unflattering way, made her look really haggard, and gave her a terrible script that was cringemakingly charmless in its attempt to be what ... sultry? Intimate?

Now they've gone one step further with their "high-speed" push by putting her in a sodding wind tunnel so that her skin is pulled off her face faster than gravity can manage. It's horrible. Hiring a Hollywood pin-up to lend glamour to your product then systematically defiling her looks - not smart.

Looking at them again on YouTube, I think I overstressed her looks in what makes them so bad. And I don't think it's intimacy or sultriness they're trying for. It's more just beating you over the head with what a big star they've landed, hoping that if they get her to say "I'm Uma Thurman, the sexy film star" as blatantly as possible, over and over again, we'll be impressed. Lady, if you have to tell us.

oh hey the norton finance hurdle advert is back, a new era dawns

The homoerotic Walker's Crisps one with Gary Lineker and the Arctic Monkeys.

Looking at them again on YouTube, I think I overstressed her looks in what makes them so bad. And I don't think it's intimacy or sultriness they're trying for. It's more just beating you over the head with what a big star they've landed, hoping that if they get her to say "I'm Uma Thurman, the sexy film star" as blatantly as possible, over and over again, we'll be impressed. Lady, if you have to tell us.

-- Alba, Sunday, 3 February 2008 17:31 (1 month ago) Bookmark Link

Funnily enough, some interviewer asked her if she had Virgin Broadband, she said no as she hasn't got a home in the UK, and they don't serve the US. So, yeah.

Didn't they replace her with Ruby Wax for a while? Or was that a nightmareish vision I had??

no it was real :(

The new ones from the Spanish tourist board are... sinister. They have this family, but shoot them at really odd angles in a bleached-out-nouvelle-vague fashion with nothing but the sound of the sea fading in and out. It looks as though something really terrible is about to happen and then they're all 'Visit Spain!'

Yes, certainly, visit Spain and by the look of the adverts one of the following will happen:

- Mother falls into sea, drowns, leaving family to tear themselves apart in nightmare of guilt, grief and recrimination.
- Father sleeps with cocktail waitress, leaving family to tear themselves apart in nightmare of guilt, grief and recrimination.
- Child snatched a la Madeleine McCann, leaving family to tear themselves apart in nightmare of guilt, grief and recrimination.

The homoerotic Walker's Crisps one with Gary Lineker and the Arctic Monkeys.

Arctic Monkeys? Youtube comes up with nowt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5d0agRpuSo

this just confuses me

The new ones from the Spanish tourist board are... sinister.

ha! you didn't see the ad for portugal

This monstrosity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLXMxU-FC1E

really, how dare they!

the currys ads are back too! three cheers

xp are they... crimping?

That Sugar Puffs ad is a disgrace! No doubt the coke-raddled "creative" who pitched it would argue it's a homage to The Mighty Boosh, but fucking hell that is some seriously shitty crimp that they have come up with.

Horrible on its own terms and it even cheapens the crimps that have gone before. That almost defines imaginative bankruptcy!

It not only cheapens the crimp, it cheapens the honey monster. he was brought of retirement for this

Damn right. Also, they bring the poor bastard back and he doesn't even get to drop a "Tell 'em about the honey, mummy". They've basically turned him into a Poochie...

fuck that sugar puffs ad on general principle, mighty boosh or no.

S'like when McDonalds ripped off Viz's Top Tips, innit.

Bruce Hutton, Bray Leino managing director, says: “Honey Monster is without doubt one of the classic TV ad characters. Having not been on screen for some years, we wanted to give Honey Monster the chance to express himself in a new contemporary way that only he could.

“But it was essential in doing this that we remained true to the tradition of him being seen as a fun character that kids everywhere would love to have at their breakfast tables. We feel his latest antics bring him up to date and have the power to get people talking.”

really hate the advert that uses 'she's like a rainbow', whatever it's for.

With the rabbits! Sony Bravia. It's highly acclaimed, you're not allowed not to like it.

hate that song

I like that song, but seeing it every time I walk past the Sony concession in Debenhams is getting me tired of it.

The one where the grandmother checks out Jamie Oliver's bum and he turns around and goes "cheeky!"

Makes me want to reach through the screen and strangle humanity.

God yes. I hate how every twat standing around in that advert is pissing themselves laughing.

hate that song

-- That one guy that hit it and quit it, Tuesday, 18 March 2008 16:53 (49 minutes ago)

would post to the 'posts very much in character' thread but, y'know

The latest Foster's advert is inoffensive enough apart from the way they've fucked around with the lyrics to Violent Femme's Blister in the Sun: instead of being 'strung out' he's 'hung out' (what does that even mean?), and instead of being 'high as a kite' he now claims to 'fly like a kite'.

The Toyota Yaris 'treat them with respect' adverts where they screw people up just because they happen to have shut the door with their feet or got a little dirt on their car. What a couple of self obsessed, judgemental, materialistic fucks.

ITV boat race ad, lol gladiator

DHS, chainsaw, wtf

DFS should be barred from this thread, they wipe the floor with everyone

Lenny Henry, Premier Inn - at last, Britain's own Jay Leno/Doritos/Point Of No Return.

What I find amazing is how certain adverts turn up on certain channels. OK, I admit it, I spend too much time watching NME TV (certainly far too much as I haven't read a copy in 8 years and am touching 40 years old but it's worth it to see my two year old son dancing to "Balloons"), but the adverts on there between the videos are so incongruous for the target audience - it's all Cilla Black selling life assurance and InjuryLawyers4U. WTF?