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Post by crash46 on Nov 29, 2005 1:47:56 GMT -4
I don't watch TV very much anymore, so I don't catch as many commercials as I used to. There have been a couple recent standouts that I've seen, however.
There's one for Garmin's GPS unit with Yao Ming. Yao pulls his car into a gas station in the middle of nowhere. The attendent try's to talk to him.
Attendant: You're not from around here, are you? Yao: No. Attendant: Are ya lost? Yao: No. Attendant: Ya need directions? Yao: No. I already got them.
It's clearly because trying to be an actor is way out of Yao's range, but he sounded very angry in all 3 of his replies. Garmin must have been given a lot of similar feedback, because I have not seen this commercial since the day I first saw it. What a waste of money.
And I hate just about every McDonalds commercial I've ever seen, but this one takes the cake. I originally saw this one several months ago, and it has recently made a return. A guy and a girl are sitting in Mcdonalds having a conversation.
Guy: I broke up with my girlfriend. Girl: You see, A woman is like a McGriddles. [...] And before you know it, she's gone. So what are you gonna do now? Guy: I think I'm gonna get another McGriddles.
How in the world did everyone reading the script totally miss the awkwardness of the words "a" and "another", followed by a pluralized word? I would have said that they just take the same grade-school dropouts that run the registers and serve the food at McDonalds and put them in charge of writing scripts for their commercials as well, except that you learn very early on in grade school the proper usage of singular and pluralized words!
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Post by Prince Snappy 29 on Nov 29, 2005 2:04:26 GMT -4
I would have said that they just take the same grade-school dropouts that run the registers and serve the food at McDonalds and put them in charge of writing scripts for their commercials as well, except that you learn very early on in grade school the proper usage of singular and pluralized words! Hey now! Some people work the cash registers as their high school jobs before they go off to college at the #2 public university in the nation... Although I completely agree, the grammar problems are super annoying.
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Post by crash46 on Nov 29, 2005 14:44:51 GMT -4
Hey, nothing against those types of McDonalds employees, it's just that in my neck of the woods, you need to drive way out of town to find any.
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ulij20
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Post by ulij20 on Dec 8, 2005 12:55:30 GMT -4
A commercial that I am getting very sick of is one about a cellular phone (or something like that). It starts out with a guy loading the back of a semi, humming "Karma Chameleon" and his co-worker sort of teases him about singing the song. Then he plays the ring-tone on his cellphone, playing "Where's The Hood At". Then, to the tune of "Karma Chameleon", he starts singing, "Nananananananana, where's the hood at? Where's the hood, where's it at..."
I didn't like "Karma Chameleon" very much in the first place, but now I dislike it even more.
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Post by radical347 on Dec 8, 2005 22:02:32 GMT -4
I would have said that they just take the same grade-school dropouts that run the registers and serve the food at McDonalds and put them in charge of writing scripts for their commercials as well, except that you learn very early on in grade school the proper usage of singular and pluralized words! Hey now! Some people work the cash registers as their high school jobs before they go off to college at the #2 public university in the nation... Although I completely agree, the grammar problems are super annoying. And some people work cash registers with an Ivy League degree...
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Post by mtm4319 on Dec 9, 2005 2:11:46 GMT -4
Hey now! Some people work the cash registers as their high school jobs before they go off to college at the #2 public university in the nation... Although I completely agree, the grammar problems are super annoying. And some people work cash registers with an Ivy League degree... I thought you were satisfied with your job.
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Post by radical347 on Dec 9, 2005 2:41:21 GMT -4
And some people work cash registers with an Ivy League degree... I thought you were satisfied with your job. I am, but I made that remark because it was way too easy.
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ulij20
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Post by ulij20 on Dec 19, 2005 12:37:04 GMT -4
Another commercial I don't like are the Welch's Grape Juice commercials. Is it me, or do they always get the kids with high-pitched nasal tone voices to do these commercials. For the longest time, they had that little blonde girl. She was a little cutie, but her voice made my ears bleed. And that one commercial she did when she smacked her lips everytime she took a drink of it - ugh! A long time ago, I heard somewhere that "a smack at the table is worth a smack on the bottom."
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Post by slinky on Dec 29, 2005 16:57:16 GMT -4
I actually like "Nananananananana, where's the hood at? Where's the hood..." I find myself singing it sometimes.
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Post by crash46 on Dec 29, 2005 17:47:39 GMT -4
I think we're all tired of the excessive transition of "Merry Christmas" into "happy holidays"; it's gotten so bad that nowadays I consider any commercial that even mentions Christmas a good one.
But it especially bugged me last week seeing a Sprint commercial featuring Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. "This is going to be the best holidays ever!", he proclaims. Who is Rudolph anyway? The animal who fronts the flying sleigh for use by Santa Claus, symbolizing which holiday? Say the damn word and quit trying to tippy-toe around everything.
I'd suppose that if all it takes to make a few people satisfied is to change a few words, then it shouldn't really be such a big deal. It's just that I can't give a free pass to anyone that goes that out of their way to be offended by something as simple as saying "Merry Christmas".
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Post by friday on Dec 29, 2005 21:40:55 GMT -4
I'd suppose that if all it takes to make a few people satisfied is to change a few words, then it shouldn't really be such a big deal. It's just that I can't give a free pass to anyone that goes that out of their way to be offended by something as simple as saying "Merry Christmas". I agree, but on the other hand, I can't give a free pass to anyone that gets offended by someone saying "Happy Holidays." I mean, what, are we supposed to say "Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, and Happy New Year" instead? These people who espouse the notion of a "War on Christmas" being waged by non-devout Christians honestly make me laugh. Sure, a "holiday tree" is ridiculous, but so are people who don't want to acknowledge the fact that more than one major holiday occurs around this time of year.
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Post by crash46 on Dec 30, 2005 16:56:27 GMT -4
I see what you're saying and I agree with you as well. I wasn't insinuating that I'm offended by any of it; it's just the kind of thing I simultaneously laugh and shake my head at, since using symbols of Christmas to intentionally blanket all the holidays together is just that silly. I guess it's kind of like radio bleeping the F-word out of songs. The F-word is still there; you just can't hear it, and for some reason, that makes it okay.
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ulij20
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Posts: 31
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Post by ulij20 on Jan 3, 2006 17:34:46 GMT -4
I actually like "Nananananananana, where's the hood at? Where's the hood..." I find myself singing it sometimes. That's exactly why I hate that commercial. I find myself singing it then I'm like - why am I singing this?
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Post by mtm4319 on Jan 3, 2006 21:51:49 GMT -4
My current annoyance is the one for Gerber baby food (I think), consisting of nothing but a woman singing "Silent Night" and images of a baby. Come on, try a little harder.
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Post by friday on Jan 4, 2006 0:14:29 GMT -4
How about that Burger King commerical where a monstrous burger falls from the sky and destroys a car, and then some guy comes along and sinks his teeth into the pattie. Ugh, I like fast food burgers as much as the next guy, but I want to throw up every time I see it.
And then there's a radio commerical here in Washington, which although its intent is honorable, I find its method mind-numbing. It's supposed to discourage drunk driving by having a state trooper come on and say not to drink and drive, etc., but along the way, there's this obnoxious rock singer screaming "Drive hammered! Get Nailed! Said when you drive hammered! You're gonna get nailed." Not that I espouse this, but I could see someone actually wanting to drink and drive, just to spite this.
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Post by Mega248 on Jan 10, 2006 21:11:18 GMT -4
I've seen that AppleBee's commercial with a spin off of "Mambo #5" way too many times in the last 72 hours, with many more to come I fear.
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Post by mtm4319 on Jan 14, 2006 15:14:22 GMT -4
Oh my God. The VH1 "Celebrity Fit Club 3" commercials... atrocious.
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Post by friday on Jan 14, 2006 16:52:22 GMT -4
I've been encountering a couple more commericals lately that are absolutely vomitous and make the BK commerical actually look palatable.
First there's this radio spot for McDonald's new bacon cheeseburger that's intended to sound like a commerical for men's cologne - a bacon-scented cologne. So they have this sultry female saying things like "His manly scent drives me wild," and "I'm right by his side - his downwind side." interspersed by a dumbass (who sounds like Butthead, except probably with a smaller brain) saying lines such as "She likes my scent." and "Smell it!" I mean, anyone who's ever seen bacon fried knows it's not something you're supposed to rub all over your body. Unfortunately, that was the image that invaded my head when I first heard it.
And then there's a local auto insurance commerical that takes bad taste to an incredible new low. (At least I think it's auto insurance, I was too busy being disgusted by what follows.) Basically this guy ("Mr. Whitehead") is trying to get some insurance, but the broker is hesitant to give him any. That's because Mr. Whitehead has a large pimple prominently displayed at the center of his forehead (and we get a nice close-up of it too), which the broker can't stop staring at. Eventually, the broker is compelled to pop the pimple, causing pus to spray all over his face. (And even more disgusting: the pus resembles bird droppings) The absolute nadir comes at the end when we see Mr. Whitehead with a smile on his face - and pus dribbling from his forehead. God, I have to rinse and spit every time I see it. I nearly had convulsions just writing this paragraph. Absolutely disgusting.
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Post by slinky on Jan 30, 2006 23:38:46 GMT -4
I laugh out loud every time the latest Cheese Nips commerical comes on:
"When you love Nips, it shows"
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Post by crash46 on Feb 23, 2006 0:43:00 GMT -4
There's a new one for a Kia dealership with those ridiculous George Bush/Bill Clinton impersonaters. This time they took a shot at the whole wiretapping deal. I laughed. And I feel filthy. Those commercials are so bad and they're actually selling them cars.
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Post by Mega248 on Jul 23, 2006 2:42:50 GMT -4
All four or so of the current Dunkin Donuts commercials need to go. The worst one has to be the one where a mother is driving several children in a van. They go through this jingle a few times, saying something like "soccer! swimming! oboe! and last but not least, KARATE!," with the mother lipsynching the word "karate". The only problem is, she looks as if she's never watched anyone lipsynch before in her life, let alone attempted to do it herself. Oh, and the way "karate" is sung is atrocious as hell.
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Post by friday on Nov 26, 2006 18:22:06 GMT -4
How about DirecTV rehashing those Dukes of Hazzard commericals with Jessica Simpson. I mean, it's bad enough I had to see her on TV 100,000 times when the movie was actually out. Well, now it's been over a year, so why am I seeing her in that same role another 100,000 times. And I know DirecTV's current ad campaign is to take scenes from movies and have one of the characters address the audience to pitch the product. But I swear I haven't seen any of those other commericals nearly as much as these ones.
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Post by mtm4319 on Jan 23, 2007 18:57:06 GMT -4
These aren't horrible as much as annoying: ESPN's "Never Graduate" commercials. I've seen three of them so far:
1. A game of charades where the woman is trying to get the man to say "Hook 'em Horns" and giving great clues (even going so far as drawing an accurate map of Texas with the city of Austin denoted by a star), yet the guy still can't get it.
2. A man takes old newspaper clippings from North Carolina beating Duke... and uses it to build a pinata for a party (cut to a kid swinging at it while the man jumps and yells like an idiot in his Duke sweatshirt).
3. A man and a woman are on a first (possibly blind) date. While in the car, they talk about what they do, and it seems like the woman is a pretty good catch for him -- until she mentions that she went to Michigan. "Go Blue!" is the cue for the man (who is the passenger) to unlock the door, roll out of the car while it's still going, and yell "Go Buckeyes!" from the bottom of a hill as the woman pulls over and looks on in disbelief.
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Post by mtm4319 on Feb 21, 2007 0:12:38 GMT -4
Another not-terrible-but-merely-annoying commercial: Chevy's commercial for a President's Day sale. They show one of their trucks while an announcer says "Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States". In the background is a hip-hop version of "Hail to the Chief". (I've seen it about 6 times tonight to make about 50 in the past 2 weeks. And I thought President's Day was yesterday, anyway.)
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Post by a Nick O! on Feb 21, 2007 3:31:21 GMT -4
I only got to see this once, but Kia had a President's Day sale commercial with the actor who played the monotone, dry-witted Mr. Dewey in the first season of Saved by the Bell. He especially noted William Henry Harrison, saying, "Your 30 days in office will not be forgotten" or something like that.
That was awesome.
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Post by friday on Aug 21, 2007 3:25:33 GMT -4
Have you guys seen those baseball commericals with some guy (Dane Cook, I think?) yapping on about the majesty of October baseball? One commerical, for some reason, glamourizes mustaches, even though they list people like Joe Mauer, who doesn't have anything close to facial hair.
But what really pisses me off is that MLB decided they needed to jinx the Milwaukee Brewers playoff run by featuring them in a commerical. So Cook is going on about how nobody knows them and that they're this year's Cinderella team. Meanwhile, they're three games over .500 and have just blown a 10 game lead in the division to the Cubs. Oops.
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Post by gpduke on Aug 21, 2007 3:28:11 GMT -4
Dane Cook is a Red Sox fan!! Hell yeah!! ...But no I haven't seen them. Idk what it is with Dane and baseball lately, he was at the all star game and Jay Leno's little old lady correspondent interviewed him.
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Post by friday on Aug 21, 2007 3:31:11 GMT -4
Yeah, see, that just makes it worse. Is he at least from New England, or is he just one of those guys who likes them because that's what all the cool kids do?
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Post by gpduke on Aug 21, 2007 3:34:07 GMT -4
He's from Boston...lol
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Post by a Nick O! on Aug 22, 2007 3:07:23 GMT -4
Dane Cook sucks in the first place.
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