...a few years ago I was really disturbed by a Mitsubishi SUV commercial using the Marc Bolan song "20th Century Boy" as its music bed; Bolan died in a London car crash in 1977. It was kinda like American Airlines suddenly deciding to license a Jim Croce song for its ads. Well, I just saw one that beats the Mitsubishi Bolan spot on the trusty ol' disgustometer: a DirecTV spot using Heather O'Rourke footage from the movie Poltergeist, with a current-day Craig T. Nelson as her father giving the DirecTV sales schpiel. I'm fairly sure someone in Rupert Murdoch's employ must recall that O'Rourke died from complications of Crohn's Disease when she was 12 years old, and seeing a child who we know will die while still a child is not a particularly appealing element in any commercial...
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
The Most Disturbing Commercial This Year
- Thread starter Ultimajock
- Start date
The two most disturbing ads I have seen this year...
This Burger King ad I saw the other day with the "King" being chased by the police and ended up getting hit by a car I find that rather bizarre and tasteless.
About a month ago on You Tube I saw an ad someone for a Colorado motorcycle dealership. The person who had uploaded it claimed the ad had aired on Denver's KCNC and KMGH ( but I doubt it ). Anyway the ad had these two guys decked out in leather pants & t-shirts and smoking cigars/ The sales chick sells these two guys two motorcycles and as they drive towards the mountains and camera shows a close-up of the back of one of those guy's t-shirts. It said "..POZ guys make better lovers !!".
So according to this motorcycle dealership ( and those two guys ) if one wants to be in a relationship...its best to be HIV positive. Now I have heard everything. Terrible !!!!
Tonight I went on You Tube to see if I could find this spot but I couldn't find it at all. I assume it was taken down either by the person who had uploaded it or the motorcycle dealership in question. Perhaps maybe even by a Colorado TV station. This is one ad I am actually glad to see that has been taken down.
This Burger King ad I saw the other day with the "King" being chased by the police and ended up getting hit by a car I find that rather bizarre and tasteless.
About a month ago on You Tube I saw an ad someone for a Colorado motorcycle dealership. The person who had uploaded it claimed the ad had aired on Denver's KCNC and KMGH ( but I doubt it ). Anyway the ad had these two guys decked out in leather pants & t-shirts and smoking cigars/ The sales chick sells these two guys two motorcycles and as they drive towards the mountains and camera shows a close-up of the back of one of those guy's t-shirts. It said "..POZ guys make better lovers !!".
So according to this motorcycle dealership ( and those two guys ) if one wants to be in a relationship...its best to be HIV positive. Now I have heard everything. Terrible !!!!
Tonight I went on You Tube to see if I could find this spot but I couldn't find it at all. I assume it was taken down either by the person who had uploaded it or the motorcycle dealership in question. Perhaps maybe even by a Colorado TV station. This is one ad I am actually glad to see that has been taken down.
Ultimajock said:
1. I doubt most people seeing the ad know this girl is dead. Nor do I think many knew Bolen died in a car crash. I also don't think it really matters. There are exceptions to every rule, but most people will recognize the song - not think about the way the singer died.
2. Rupert Murdoch does not own DirecTV anymore.
mleach said:
I guess Burger King has a leg up on others when it comes to creepy commercials. This one is pretty creepy, although the spots for that new show where the cop goes back to '73 (starts out with him getting hit by a car) puts chills down my spine.
Burger King's other commercial that just struck me as wrong is the one where the guy wakes up and the king is sitting on his bed looking at him with that grin plastered on his face.
My pick is the Southwest Airlines ad with the "two-faced" ticket agent.
"Gimmie your wallet... gimmie everything!"
"Gimmie your wallet... gimmie everything!"
I have never heard of Mark Bolen.
If I heard that the Poltergeist girl had died, I would have assumed it was an urban legend.
I don't think I'm that far off "the norm" and most people probably weren't as disturbed by those commercials, not knowing the intricate details and backstories and whatnot. Probably, the people who produced them didn't go into that much research about them either, and just thought they worked, for whatever reasons.
If I heard that the Poltergeist girl had died, I would have assumed it was an urban legend.
I don't think I'm that far off "the norm" and most people probably weren't as disturbed by those commercials, not knowing the intricate details and backstories and whatnot. Probably, the people who produced them didn't go into that much research about them either, and just thought they worked, for whatever reasons.
Some of those drinking and driving PSA's are disturbing, Also the anti smoking PSA's are too. But people still don't learn.
My first vote would go to Chrysler for its current Jeep TV ad which features four young morons zipping across sand dunes, down a creek at high speed and otherwise tearing up Mother Earth. Fools.
Almost as bad is the Nationwide Insurance Co. ad showing more irresponsible driving behavior.
Close behind are the Cadillac CTS ads which portray male and female Yuppies gloating about their car. As if anyone envied anything from GM lately.
Hmmmmmm, there seems to be a thread here.
Almost as bad is the Nationwide Insurance Co. ad showing more irresponsible driving behavior.
Close behind are the Cadillac CTS ads which portray male and female Yuppies gloating about their car. As if anyone envied anything from GM lately.
Hmmmmmm, there seems to be a thread here.
Well I googled him and apparently Mark Bolan was the lead singer of T-Rex, who had one hit with "Bang A Gong (Get It On)" and who after some other stuff happened and his fame was petering out, later on died in 1977.
He's apparently gotten a lot of work since he died though. Good for him. So it's just a commercial using a dead guy's song, nothing new or surprising.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0092647/
He's apparently gotten a lot of work since he died though. Good for him. So it's just a commercial using a dead guy's song, nothing new or surprising.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0092647/
quadraphonic said:Well I googled him and apparently Mark Bolan was the lead singer of T-Rex, who had one hit with "Bang A Gong (Get It On)" and who after some other stuff happened and his fame was petering out, later on died in 1977.
He's apparently gotten a lot of work since he died though. Good for him. So it's just a commercial using a dead guy's song, nothing new or surprising.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0092647/
No - I wouldn't have a problem with a dead guy's song either. Think about how many old Elvis, or Buddy Holly songs appear in commercials. Wal-Mart used Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces" for their "falling prices" commercials for awhile. I don't think that bothered anybody. I think Patsy died in 1963.
However, I didn't like that trend of a couple of years ago where they used film footage of dead celebrities in commercials. It made it seem like the dead celebrity was endorsing a product without his or her approval. There was a brief controversy about it. The advertisers pointed out that they had the permission of the dead celebrity's estate...so it was OK. It may have been OK legally, but it still bothered me.
"I didn't like that trend of a couple of years ago where they used film footage of dead celebrities in commercials. It made it seem like the dead celebrity was endorsing a product without his or her approval. "
I gotta say... If you can get the approval of a dead celebrity, THAT would be one heck of an endorsement!
I gotta say... If you can get the approval of a dead celebrity, THAT would be one heck of an endorsement!
buster2 said:
That was my point. Obviously dead people can't endorse anything...only their surviving relatives can make that happen...and they obviously have a financial incentive to do so. Maybe The Duke didn't like Coors Light. Actually, I think he died in the 70s, well before Coors Light was invented.
Wayne's family/estate permitted Coor Light to do that ad as long as Coors made a donation to the Wayne family's cancer charity, and made an acknowledgement of this at the end of that ad. That's probably more than, say, that ridiculous Fred Astaire vacuum cleaner campaign!Lkeller said:
An agreement made among the Doors while all four were still living was that their music would not be made available for movies or commercials without a unanimous approval. One vote against killed the idea.
For years, film makers and ad agencies have wanted to use the Doors' music, and most of the time, the lone vote against approval has come from drummer John Densmore. He contends that Jim Morrison wouldn't have approved. The other two surviving Doors have taken him to court, claiming massive money losses because of his roadblocking. The courts so far have sided with Densmore.
I usually don't care about things like this, but it does bother me to hear Beatles music in commercials, and I totally blame Michael Jackson for this. What's he doing owning the Beatles' songbook, anyway? How did they lose control in the firstplace? They couldn't have needed the money.
Maybe using Light My Fire in an ad for charcoal briquets is a bad idea.
For years, film makers and ad agencies have wanted to use the Doors' music, and most of the time, the lone vote against approval has come from drummer John Densmore. He contends that Jim Morrison wouldn't have approved. The other two surviving Doors have taken him to court, claiming massive money losses because of his roadblocking. The courts so far have sided with Densmore.
I usually don't care about things like this, but it does bother me to hear Beatles music in commercials, and I totally blame Michael Jackson for this. What's he doing owning the Beatles' songbook, anyway? How did they lose control in the firstplace? They couldn't have needed the money.
Maybe using Light My Fire in an ad for charcoal briquets is a bad idea.
- Status