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Are you kidding me!

F

FM 100 Means Music

Dear North Olmstead Nissan,

Please hurry up and go bankrupt so I don't have to see or hear those stupid commercials where you see the shadow of a guy shouting "Are you kidding me!"

The commercials are very annoying.
 
Whenever has a used-car salesman NOT been successful with annoying commercials? Ever since the beginning of time, when Ug the Caveman donned a polyester leopard skin and made his first sale to his Cro-Magnon brethren, they've ALWAYS been annoying.

I was fortunate not to catch Rick Case's ads when he was in his annoying pinnacle (so much so that WMMS made several parody ads that savaged his act). However, I remember in the mid-90s when Bob Cerpantini went on a bender of sorts for SEVERAL MONTHS advocating Pete Rose's reinstatement into baseball and induction into the HOF... ??? (Uhhh.... okay.)

Recall that Mike D'Amato has envisioned himself being the next Billy Mays. Unfortunately, Mike doesn't nearly have the charisma or silliness that Billy did.

Meanwhile, two humble requests for WKNR:

1) Can you please stop using the "are you kidding me" drop whenever it airs non-sequiter-esque during a commercial break? It's bad enough that Munch does (bad) imitations of Mike's act.
2) Just as annoying is the fact that WKNR thinks that Conrad's Tire Service Center apparently counts as a COL. What other way to explain their "This is 'ESPN 850' WKNR: Cleveland/Conrad's" top-of-the-hour legal ID? (And yes, they use the old Conrad's shout jingle...)

Ahhh... minor-league radio at its' finest. :p
 
OK, time for a true story, assuming the person who told me about it was truthful (which I think he was):

A certain car dealer mentioned here (I'll omit his name), in the height of his visibility in this market, used to do his radio commercials at the radio station studio conveniently located just one block away from his main dealership. (Both the dealership and the radio station are no longer there today.)

He walked into the production studio, where they had started a reel-to-reel machine to record whatever he would lay down.

He did his traditional opening..."Hi! This is Car Dealer! (bleep!!!)" Yes, THAT word.

Frustrated, he left the studio, tape still rolling.

After he'd cooled down, he came back to the studio, where someone at the station had spliced his recording together and kept it playing in a loop...

"Hi! This is Car Dealer! (bleep!!!)"
"Hi! This is Car Dealer! (bleep!!!)"
"Hi! This is Car Dealer! (bleep!!!)"
"Hi! This is Car Dealer! (bleep!!!)"

This is a story that at least one person on this board may know, though I'm not sure he's still reading R-I...
 
Wanna see some car commercials with a bit of humor, go to YouTube and punch in "cal worthington" - and his "dog" spot, but it's almost never a dog, could be any animal he uses. He's all over the west coast. And when they sing "go see Cal" if you're not really familiar with the commercial, first time you hear it, it may sound like something "nasty".
 
Remember C. Miller? The Chevrolet dealer who was all over local TV back in the 1960s and some of the 1970s? He was obviously having fun with his commercials, and I guess they payed off. One time though, he must have decided that he went too far. He made an ad where he was standing in or wearing a barrel to make the point that his prices were so low, that he was in living in a barrel these days. Well, the first version of this commercial, which I only saw once, had him standing in the barrel, naked from a little above the waist up, and the rest of him covered by the barrel. The next time, and all the other times I saw that commercial, he was still standing in the barrel, but he had his suit and tie on.
 
Bob Serpentini was very annoying with his political commentary commercials, waaay back in the nineties. I almost wish he would run for office to see what kind of mud slinging his opponent would lay upon him. Now that could be entertaining.

Another annoying tag line is "We're the Fred Martin car guys and we know cars!"
 
I LOVED the Bob Serpentini ads. Very interesting use of ad time/dollars. I liked how he took time to say something besides how much his cars cost. Pursuing freedom of speech is always a good endeavor as far as I'm concerned. His were one of the few ads I wouldn't shut off and actually hoped I'd hear.
 
All of the commercials cited above are either silly or obnoxious. But guess what? You remember them. NONO probably suffers from over-exposure on WKNR but I do like their creative. It's off the wall enough to be memorable.
 
johnbasalla said:
I LOVED the Bob Serpentini ads. Very interesting use of ad time/dollars. I liked how he took time to say something besides how much his cars cost. Pursuing freedom of speech is always a good endeavor as far as I'm concerned. His were one of the few ads I wouldn't shut off and actually hoped I'd hear.
Click to expand...

Any vitriol I have towards the Serpentini family is purely selfish. I was fired from one of his dealerships in 1988.
 
I remember the 80's when John Lance used that high pressure actor shouting "Look at this car heeeeeeeerrrrre (here)." Lance probably got tired of paying an actor to do his commercials, so he did the "heeeeeeerrre" schtick himself. It wasn't pretty.
 
74WIXYGrad said:
Bob Serpentini was very annoying with his political commentary commercials, waaay back in the nineties. I almost wish he would run for office to see what kind of mud slinging his opponent would lay upon him. Now that could be entertaining.

Another annoying tag line is "We're the Fred Martin car guys and we know cars!"
Click to expand...


I always used to laugh at the line Serpentini used: "American...and proud of it!" while selling US branded cars made in Canada or Mexico. Also, my friend bought a car from Fred Martin. He said that it was the single worst experience he ever had with buying a car.
 
Jimme said:
I remember the 80's when John Lance used that high pressure actor shouting "Look at this car heeeeeeeerrrrre (here)." Lance probably got tired of paying an actor to do his commercials, so he did the "heeeeeeerrre" schtick himself. It wasn't pretty.
Click to expand...

Can't remember those spots. I, however, can't get that corny "John Lance Ford!" jingle out of my head, so it must be working for him.
 
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