What's new

The worst commercials (1 Viewer)

Scott McGillivray

Supporting Actor
Joined
Sep 20, 1999
Messages
932
Well, I guess you guys have not seen ANY commercials from the Canadian company "McCains". They are a food producer (french fries, cake all kinds of stuff). They CONSISTANTLY have had the worst commercials for over 20 years. I heard of a guy at our university that wrote a term paper on their commercials and how bad they were. The odd thing is, they make a great product and, from what I can tell, they are a very successful company. But WOW they have horrible commercials!
 

Kenneth Cummings

Supporting Actor
Joined
Aug 7, 2001
Messages
852
By the way, has any of you seen that annoying commersials with a fat bull frog with a bunch of words coming up to some song. I hate that commerisals, it hard to look at a fat frog for thirty seconds!
 

GordonL

Supporting Actor
Joined
Feb 14, 2000
Messages
771
Verizon, Voicestream, and RadioShack commercials are the ones that bug me.
My favs at the moment are two Heineken commercials which are only seen late night, I think. The first one is the "Poachers". Two guys are in line paying for their groceries. The guy behind them puts a case of Heineken on the conveyor belt. The first two guys see the beer, look at each other, and when no one is looking, nonchalantly move their divider behind the beer. The expressions on these guys faces are perfect! Cracks me up every time. :D
The other Heineken commercial shows a guy and a gorgeous woman both reaching into the refrigerator for a Heineken at the same time. The guy gets his mitts around the last one. The guy looks at the bottle, looks at the girl, looks at the bottle, looks at the girl, notices in the background more beer is being brought in, and hands the bottle to the girl. A win-win situation! :D
Speaking of commercials and PVRs, a marketing research firm did a study and found that beer and drug commercials were the least likely to be skipped over. Fast food, TV show promos, credit card, mortgage financing, and home products were most likely to be skipped over.
 

Pete M

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Apr 20, 2000
Messages
88
99% of commercials bother me, but a recent one that I find hilarious (at least until I see it for the 87th time):

The new Toyota Celica commercials. 1) The old man is walking down the street and sees a Celica parked and yells "Slow down, this is a neighborhood!!" 2) Dog comes tearing out of the driveway and down the street and runs into the parked Celica.
 

Malcolm R

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2002
Messages
25,081
Real Name
Malcolm
Beer commercials are generally pretty funny (with the exception of that grating Coors Light commercial now running).
I don't remember the beer company, but one I laughed at recently had this guy cutting through the wall into the next apartment's refrigerator in order to poach food and beer. The girl living in this apartment happens to open the fridge when his head is poking through, and she screams bloody murder at finding a head in the fridge. She slams the door and continues screaming. Her boyfriend/husband wonders what the big deal is, so he walks over and opens the door...and finds all the beer is gone with just an empty 6-pack carton left behind...and he begins screaming just like the girl.
Oh, and one that had the whole room in hysterics last weekend, was where a delivery guy has arrived at the bar and the bartender asks the guys sitting at the bar to "cover for me." So, one jumps over the bar and begins to help himself just as the bartender comes back. "Quick, hide!" say his buddies, so he crawls headfirst into a small space under the bar. A customer walks up to the bar and orders a beer, the bartender grabs a bottle from the cooler and, um, shoves it "you know where" thinking it's the bottle opener. A couple of good twists and a hard yank ensue and the bottle is presented to the customer sans bottlecap (while friends of the "opener" cringe at the event). Juvenile, but funny (as are many beer commercials) :laugh:
 

Pete M

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Apr 20, 2000
Messages
88
I forgot a really annoying commercial (or series of commercials):

The Arm & Hammer deodorant commercials with Jason Giambi. I can't tell if they're intentionally cheesy or it is a serious commercial. Either way, they are terrible.
 

Kenneth Cummings

Supporting Actor
Joined
Aug 7, 2001
Messages
852
By the way, the recent KFC commerisals with Jason Alexander have been very annoying, and almost Ditech.com ads look good.
 

Steve Y

Supporting Actor
Joined
May 1, 2000
Messages
991
Some advertising firms go the "annoy them until they hate you but at least they know who you are" approach. They know exactly what they're doing.
Thank goodness for the mute button and my ability to NOT look at the TV screen.
I don't agree that bad commercials are only bad because you see them a million times. I know from the first viewing if I hate a commercial (it goes on mutewatch thereafter) and likewise I will enjoy a well-done commercial however many times it is played.
Advertisers (working for their bosses) entice a certain percentage of the population with all the munching, dripping, zoom-zooming (I hate that kid), mentopopping, inane-jingle-singing, grinning, misogynistic pap and lord help me, I have seen and heard friends of mine singing the jingles and repeating the slogans, full aware of their stupidity but unable to help themselves.
Exposure is exposure, after all.
Among my least favorite commercials are those that run a (real) song for thirty seconds or more (music videos, basically)... generally the edit the lyrics too, as evidenced above. Anyone remember the NorTel ads with upper-glass men in business suits stiffly reciting (conspicuously edited) John Lennon lyrics? How lazy can you get? You're feeding on (and eventually ruining) someone's emotional response to a song. I guess I just take music more seriously than most.
I still wince when I hear "Rhapsody in Blue" and picture an airplane flying above a sea of clouds and fine white print.
On a similar note, I'm sick of the commercials that feature an upper-class family man (always with glasses) gaping dumbly in shock and amazement at the great product or service placed before his pitiful monkey-suited self. ("Really? Zero percent down? No fees? A free whopper? I've got mail? My life will never be the same!")
It's fun to be cranky. :D
~Steve
 

Grant B

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2000
Messages
3,209
In the SF bay area, shain jewelers radio commericals are awful and clueless.
They had one were the old man annouces,"Give your girlfriend a pearl necklace today!"

The DJ just lost it completely ....1st & only time it ran.... too bad
 

Kenneth Cummings

Supporting Actor
Joined
Aug 7, 2001
Messages
852
By the way, I was watching Angel premire today (great episode) and they aired one of the dumbest commerisals ever. It was some gum (Double Mint?) that was greenish tint, but had the evil TNN style bug at the bottom with all the crap going. And worst yet was a rapper in the commerisals, which like the Twix commerisal, can get very annoying.
 

Bill Slack

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 16, 1999
Messages
837
Those Nextel commercials with Denniz Franz sure annoy me. They're soooo clever, aren't they... Ugh!

Now, my all time hall-of-shame commercial would have to be the 'Dodge Different' campaign from about 2 years ago. They actually very quickly toned down it's annoyance (but it would still be high on my list.) If I heard it from another room I would make the effort to go and change the channel or yell at someone to turn it off. I asked a few friends about it and didn't even need to say how much I hated it, they just understood upon mentioning the ad.

There are a lot of stupid, annoying and bad commercials. But only that Dodge one has had such an impact on me.
 

Zen Butler

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2002
Messages
5,568
Location
Southern, Ca
Real Name
Zen K. Butler
Guy said:
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 refuse to eat there, based on these awful commercials. They are condescending and might as well say "Carl's Jr., we just know your an idiot". Also, since when does a 1/2 bottle of ketchup on a burger = juicy. If it "gets all over the place" , I'll eat somewhere else.
The all time worst IMO is "Seizure Girl" in the Mitsubishi commercial. Followed very closely by the Barenaked Ladies Mitsu commercial. I haven't heard many that do not dislike these commercials.
 

Inspector Hammer!

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 15, 1999
Messages
11,063
Location
Houston, Texas
Real Name
John Williamson
Great thread! :emoji_thumbsup:
Finally! Someone mentioned those freaking Herbal Esscense ads! First off, it's ORGANIC not ORGASMIC, and second if shampoo really had that effect on people, i'd never stop washing my hair!
And to those who watch NASCAR like me, those insipid How bad have you got it? commercials! :angry:
And yes of course, the Wal-Mart ads. Whenever the commercial says We've got what your looking for!, I say "Yeah excuse me, i'm looking for the wide-screen version of LOTR's..." Bastards.
 

Zen Butler

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2002
Messages
5,568
Location
Southern, Ca
Real Name
Zen K. Butler
Has a commercial been so annoying that it caused you to NOT buy the product?
Yes, all the time. I don't buy into the argument, "well, you remembered their name though." Your point is?
Yes, I remember to never buy their product. Also, there are a few corps mentioned here and their ad agencies that probably hate me by now.
 

Parker Clack

Schizophrenic Man
Moderator
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 30, 1997
Messages
12,228
Location
Kansas City, MO
Real Name
Parker
I hate all of the hated commercials listed too.

I do like the Southwest Airline commercials that use -

"Want to get away?"

and the - "It must be football season"

Parker
 

Wayne Bundrick

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 17, 1999
Messages
2,358
The problem with the Mac "switch" ads is that they exaggerate a little too much. My sister gave me a digital camera, I plugged it into my computer, and Windows XP saw it and wanted to walk me through transferring my pictures into the computer. JUST LIKE A MAC. Too much like a Mac if you ask me. I've got a three digit IQ and I don't need my computer to hold my hand.

The latest one that I can't stand is the slacker looking "IT director" who used to hate Macs but now proclaims OS X is "the bomb". He's using the wrong hand gestures. He's using the gesture that you're supposed to use when you want to say that something is "whack", not "the bomb". Fo sheezy.

And I can't stand any car ads that aim for a demographic younger than me. When I was their age I couldn't afford a new car and neither should they.

Finally, maybe this is just a local phenomenon but it seems that all my local car dealerships are owned by men who mistakenly believe their teenage daughters are the most beautiful and talented spokesmodels ever. And it's not just on TV commercials, their faces are on billboards too.
 

Dennis Reno

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jun 30, 1997
Messages
862
How could Mitsu's commercials fall so far so fast? I loved the Mitsu SUV commercial featuring Stevie Ray Vaughn's version of "Voodoo Chile".
One I currently loathe is for a room freshener. It involves the kid holding his nose and making faces after one of his parents uses the bathroom. It may have already been mentioned, I haven't read the previous three pages yet.
The other one is a toilet tissue ad featuring peoples rear ends and talking about how "fresh" they feel. When I first saw it I was wondering "WTF is this about"???? Thanks, but I don't need to focus on someones posterior to understand what the product is used for. Whats next, will they will have to show you someone who didn't use it and focus on their badly soiled pants? :eek:
 

MickeS

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2000
Messages
5,058


Yes, that one grossed me out! And I'm not easily grossed out.

For those who haven't seen it, it consists of a bunch of scenes that focus on people's (clothed, thankfully) butts, of various sizes, ages and shapes. I was like "What the hell is this a commercial for, pants?" and then a voiceover comes in and says something like "When you want to feel fresh where it matters the most." EWWWWW! I don't even remember what brand it was a commercial for.

/Mike
 

Alex-C

Screenwriter
Joined
Apr 18, 2000
Messages
1,238
Finally, maybe this is just a local phenomenon but it seems that all my local car dealerships are owned by men who mistakenly believe their teenage daughters are the most beautiful and talented spokesmodels ever.
Holy Mackeral ! I thought this only happened here locally. The kids in the car dealership commercials....they always overact so the cute factor drops right off as soon as the audience grows larger than just family members, and sometimes they look like they just dont want to be in the commercials whatsoever...which begs the question, why are they there in the first place....bring back Fred Rated !
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Forum statistics

Threads
356,710
Messages
5,121,094
Members
144,146
Latest member
SaladinNagasawa
Recent bookmarks
0
Top