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The worst commercials (1 Viewer)

Guy Martin

Second Unit
Joined
Nov 29, 1998
Messages
347
My least favorite at the moment are those disgusting "Don't bother me, I'm eating" ads for Carl's Jr/Hardees where people slobber and drip condiments to the most unpleasant chewing sound FX ever created. They've basically convinced me never to go near the place, ever.
I also can't stand the oft-mentioned Mitsubishi adds. And as a Mac fan, I must admit the current "Switch" campaign seems weak, especially coming from the company that brought us Ridley Scott's brilliant "1984" spot.
Back when I was in College in Williamsburg, VA there was a so-bad-its-great ad for a local lawyer named Lowell "The Hammer" Stanely who promised to "hammer" insurance companies until you see "green". :)
- Guy
 

Gui A

Supporting Actor
Joined
Dec 25, 2000
Messages
596
There a good documentary series on BBC World. It's called The Ad Factor... it was on at 1:10 PM last saturday and the one before that, so I guess there's more coming.
One good moment was during a Q&A session after the presentation, the client asked the art director to make a drastic change...
The ads for the palm-pc device were making light of smart-phones. But the client wanted to work WITH them, and thought that putting them in a bad light wasn't a good idea. He asked the creative director if the image could be changed of the smart phone, while keeping the overall creative flow. ... He stood silent for a good length of time (and in a one on one, it seemed even longer), transferred the Q to the art director, who mumbled a no...
So even though the agency was really happy with their work, and the ads were good, the client killed it with one question.
 

Kenneth Cummings

Supporting Actor
Joined
Aug 7, 2001
Messages
852
ditech commercials....idiotic!
Thank God, I am not the only one who hate Ditech.com. That damn fat man always saying "I lost another loan to Ditech.com" is annoying, and it shown on Fox News and Weather Channel most of the time (with the equally annoying IDT commerisals).
 

LewB

Screenwriter
Joined
Feb 11, 2002
Messages
1,282
Any commercial for a prescription medicine makes me cringe.
They are telling me that I'm smarter about what medicine to take than my doctor ?!! Between the drug company salesmen, and now the mainstream commercials, you have to wonder what part it all plays in the high cost of medicine.
 

Michael*K

Screenwriter
Joined
May 24, 2001
Messages
1,806
I find the ads for Terminix especially grating, in particular the one with the family that's turned their house into a wind tunnel. When I see it come on, I can't reach for the remote fast enough.
 

todd s

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 8, 1999
Messages
7,132
That siezure girl dancing in the front of the car. That commericial is truly grating on my nerves. :rolleyes
 

PS Nystrom

Second Unit
Joined
Jan 27, 1999
Messages
444
If anyone recalls the ad for the newly designed iBook that came out a year ago; that one bothered me a lot. It was about this guy who chooses the center seat on a plane so that while everyone around him is sleeping he can wake them up by flipping down their tray tables and connecting every peripheral under the sun in order to make a 'kick-ass' iMovie for his girlfriend. And of course the topper was at the end he unplugs his earphones to blast 'Who Let the Dogs Out!" for anyone on the plane he hadn't already woken.

Again, the problem was that it portrayed Mac users as insensitive boobs... and that is offensive.

Pieter
 

RonaldK

Grip
Joined
Apr 2, 2002
Messages
15
Memo to GEICO-

Most people hate insurance companies, and your stupid gecko commercials aren't helping to change that feeling.
 

Kenneth Cummings

Supporting Actor
Joined
Aug 7, 2001
Messages
852
Oh yeah, Wal-Mart ads, those are pain. Including the most evil of all, their videogame, music, and DVD (who cares about VHS) ads, which are bad for the following.

Their music is edited, their games are limited, and the DVD are pan and scam at times.
 

Phil Florian

Screenwriter
Joined
Mar 10, 2001
Messages
1,188
Ah...thank you DishPVR (Tivo-like for those that don't know). That said, because of these digital recording devices we get the worst kind of ads...the kinds that pop up at the bottom of the screen DURING a program. Ugh. Ah...thanks full seasons on DVD...

Phil


PS Though I can skip through commercials, I did catch two that I liked. Last year, the Verizon "can you hear me" ad was GREAT when it was done on the Angel (WB) set. Clever and fun. The rest are stupid. The other I liked but I don't know why is the Playstation ad where the guy is getting all these clues to prevent a little girl from being crushed under a falling gargoyle. Cool as all get out. Okay, I know this is praise for ads, but it had to be said.

Phil

PPS Gimme "Where's the beef!" again.
 

Richard Kim

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2001
Messages
4,385
Those MasterCard commercials quantifing purchases made and ending with "priceless" really get on my nerves. It might have been novel the first few times, but now they're just insipid and redundant.
 

David Von Pein

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2002
Messages
5,752
That commericial is truly grating on my nerves.
As will virtually ANY commercial after seeing it for the 771st time! The first time you see an ad is always a nicer experience than the upteenth time. Cases in point .... The first time you heard "Can you hear me now?" and "Dude, you're gettin' a Dell!" These ads now grate on your brain to the point of despising not only the overly-uttered slogan, but now we hear hateful comments directed at the "Dell guy" personally, and the DiTech man and even Jared from Subway. We might hate seeing the same ads over and over, but I think we should show some pity on the actors in these commercials. They're just saying the lines given them. It isn't the Dell dude's fault his face is on the tube a thousand times per day.
I guess this is why an OLD commercial is automatically better. Because we now don't have to endure "I can't believe I ate the whole thing!" or "I'd like to teach the world to sing" each and every time we turn on the TV. But, I'd be willing to wager that if this new version of the Idiot Box (i.e.: our computers) were around in 1971, we'd be witnessing the same invective aimed at that "damn annoying-as-Hell Coca-Cola advertisement"! :)
By-the-by, I vote for the Game Show Network's endless series of ads promoting its own shows as by far the "Most Annoying"! In the overnight hours, they even give the audience the ADDED THRILL of having to sit through an additional 30 minutes of commercials in a 2-hour time block, by showing just 3 thirty-minute programs in 2 hours! (And these are just about the only good shows that are provided all day long.) And 90% of these ads are for GSN's own brand of unwatchably-horrible original shows! EDIT: With one exception (IMO): Lingo, which is pretty good. The rest of them MUST have been thought up by Chuck Barris, the King of lousy game shows! (Like the barf-fest known as The Gong Show. :) )
 

Lee L

Supporting Actor
Joined
Oct 26, 2000
Messages
868
I do think the Mentos ads are pretty dumb, I think they are designed to run all over the world hence only the voice over and teh need to make exagerated movements on the part of the actors to get the point across without speaking.

As far as Geico's commercials, they do work at least as far as getting their name recognized. On a cruise we stopped in Nassau and we were doing a tour of a fort. While there a woman in the tour group saw a lizard and exclaimed to her husband "look Bob, there's a Geico!" I started laughing out loud and still do to this day thinking about it. My wife was so pissed because I practically laughed in her face. The lizard wasn't even a Gecko either.
 

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