The Most Irritating Commercials

[LKellerIII]

Remember Cal Stereo?
That Tall Guy's still at it! Some other hyped electronic schlock mart, let them both remain nameless

(Tall) Tom Campbell was a Bay Area DJ in the 60s and 70s (KYA, KNEW) who graduated into the fast talking huckster for the now long defunct Matthew's TV & Stereo ("Top of the hill, Daly City!") and the similarly now defunct Comfort Zone Waterbeds ("17 the Nimitz at Fremont Boulevard..."). I guess his ads were effective because his oft-repeated slogans are still stuck in my head 30 years later. My favorite- "(Groan)...tossing and turning again all night in that lumpy ice-cold dead bed. GET RID OF IT!!! you need a Comfort Zone waterbed!!!"

In the 80s, he left town for the Southland, thank God. On a visit to LA last year, I heard his voice on a TV ad...Linder's Furniture, IIRC. You can keep him.

 

[Natheodan]

The jingle makers earned their $$$ by making these infectious commercials.

Ones that are still forever burned into my brain:

A carpet company near Sacramento: "Call Six Thirty five, eighty nine fifty seven"
The legendary Cal Worthington and his dog Spot
Denevi Camera "Dublin, Berkeley, San Lorenzo, Cupertino, San Jose"
The classic "Matthew's; Top of the Hill, Daly City!"
From the upper Midwest: "Save Big Money at Menard's!"

And since I currently live in Phoenix, injury lawyers have taken over the commercials; Lerner and Rowe's "Call Nine-Seven-Seven, One Nine Oh Oh" is unavoidable.

 

[henry]

And since I currently live in Phoenix, injury lawyers have taken over the commercials; Lerner and Rowe's "Call Nine-Seven-Seven, One Nine Oh Oh" is unavoidable.

That reminds of Glen Lerner in Las Vegas. There hasn't been a single drive thru sin city where I haven't heard the jingle: "Glen Lerner is the way to go! Dial 8-7-7-1-5-oh-oh."

 

[Thomps2525]

Mister russgaj mentioned Mike Diamond Plumbing Company. I don't like their commercials either, but for a different reason: they advertise as the "smell-good plumbers." If there's a leaky faucet or broken pipe, I just want a plumber to come fix it and not charge too much; I do not want the concept of the plumber's odor, whether good or bad, entering my brain. That's something I'd rather not think about.

 

[LKellerIII]

Mister russgaj mentioned Mike Diamond Plumbing Company. I don't like their commercials either, but for a different reason: they advertise as the "smell-good plumbers." If there's a leaky faucet or broken pipe, I just want a plumber to come fix it and not charge too much; I do not want the concept of the plumber's odor, whether good or bad, entering my brain. That's something I'd rather not think about.

Funny. In my experience, regular plumbers are not a problem, but if you have an appointment late in the work day with one of those Roto-Rooter type drain unblocking people, I can guarantee you that he or she will be ripe. Occupational hazard.

 

[Dave Atonement]

Agreed, Tom Campbell is the alltime worst -- I'm just glad ripoff artist "Jimmy Cash" has not (yet) made the transition from TV to radio ("you've got the pink, we've got the green" -- ugh.)

 

[SolidGold16]

Remember Cal Stereo?
That Tall Guy's still at it! Some other hyped electronic schlock mart, let them both remain nameless

(Tall) Tom Campbell was a Bay Area DJ in the 60s and 70s (KYA, KNEW) who graduated into the fast talking huckster for the now long defunct Matthew's TV & Stereo ("Top of the hill, Daly City!") and the similarly now defunct Comfort Zone Waterbeds ("17 the Nimitz at Fremont Boulevard..."). I guess his ads were effective because his oft-repeated slogans are still stuck in my head 30 years later. My favorite- "(Groan)...tossing and turning again all night in that lumpy ice-cold dead bed. GET RID OF IT!!! you need a Comfort Zone waterbed!!!"

In the 80s, he left town for the Southland, thank God. On a visit to LA last year, I heard his voice on a TV ad...Linder's Furniture, IIRC. You can keep him.

Yes, I remember the Cal Stereo ads where Tom Campbell rattled off the name of all the cities CS was located, at the end of the commercial. Something like "Bellflower, Canoga Park, Torrance, Garden Grove, West Covina, North Hollywood, West LA, San Bernardino, Upland, Riverside, Cal Stereo, NOW!" I think there were a few more cities in there, I used to have it memorized and could rattle it off almost as fast...used to try it in a competition with my friends

I still like the "Fred Rated" commercials that were shown on TV, with Shadoe Stevens. At least they were entertaining! There's a bunch of them posted on YouTube, good for some retro laughs. Remember when there used to be so many stereo shops around LA? Cal Stereo, Dow Stereo, Federated, Pacific Stereo (I worked there as an audio tech back around 1979/80, what a corrupt place...). Ah, the good old days

 

[Thomps2525]

Yes, over the years the Cal Stereo ad named more and more cities as the chain expanded. Another chain that did that was Clyde Wallich's Music City. After the first store opened in 1940 in Hollywood, the jingle was "It's Music City, Sunset and Vine." Eventually the jingle became "It's Music City, Hollywood, Lakewood, Downtown." Several celebrities sang the jingles; among them were Bing Crosby, Perry Como...and Jerry Lewis! And Jerry sang just like you might imagine he would. "Hey, lady!"

 

[LKellerIII]

I've only seen the Fred Rated ads on You Tube. We don't have The Federated in Northern CA. But Shadoe briefly did very funny TV commercials in the 90s for Lloyd Wise
("The Wise Guys"), a big car dealer around here. In the same tradition, Shadoe played a slimy used car salesman type named Boyd Wise.

 

[SolidGold16]

In the 80s, he left town for the Southland, thank God. On a visit to LA last year, I heard his voice on a TV ad...Linder's Furniture, IIRC. You can keep him.

...and now Linder's Furniture is gone too. I only went in there one time and it was a ghost town (Rancho Cucamonga 4th St. store). I knew the handwriting was on the wall for them. Another furniture store had already came and went before Linder's in the same location. Now that Linder's is closed...still another furniture store has opened there! Guess these guys never learn. I don't remember hearing Tom Campbell on their ads, but I never paid any attention to furniture ads, anyway.

Now, if they could have gotten Shadoe instead to do some of their ads - that would have been amusing. I can see him busting up furniture or a sofa dropping from a building!

 

[Lopaka]

While it is true that obnoxious advertisers may have burned their message into my brain, that is, at least in my case, not a good thing. Anybody old enough to remember the Anacin ads? FAST FAST FAST relief. Soooooooo obnoxious. And I have never bought Anacin, it is on the permanent kukae list, they couldn't pay me to use it, not could that 866 66 faster mortgage refi company ever get my business. Sure I remember them. Like I remember food poisoning.

 

[romer979fm]

how about the weight loss spot featuring "DJ Diet from K-SLIM radio" ???? really?
I've heard it frequently on the KNX stream.

 

[radio777]

You know that it's probably the beginning of the end for Fry's Electronics when they started using the ol' defunct DOW Stereo/Video voice (or someone similar) for their radio ads.

 

[Thomps2525]

If I recall, those commercials always spelled the name of the store: "D-O-W, Dow!" I suppose that was very helpful to all the thousands of listeners who thought it was spelled "D-A-U."

Everyone seems to hate the Kars For Kids ads. A few years ago there was another donate-your-car company whose name I don't remember---probably because I never listened to their commercial all the way through. It included the lines "Sitting on the curb, you see a car you're no longer driving..." and "Sitting in your garage, you see a car you're no longer driving..." The reason I always turned off the commercial was because I was so outraged by their poor wording: I'm sitting on the curb? I'm sitting in the garage? Didn't anyone at the ad agency know how to use adverbial phrases?

 

[oldtimeradio]

I'm in Phoenix, but I listen to some L.A. radio stations either over the air, or now the Internet.

re: "You're killing me." I know a bunch of people where I work saying that line. As far as I know they didn't get the idea from the commercial, but they still use it.

Did the 1-877-Kars for Kids jingle get shorter? Whenever the jingle used to come on the radio I turned the audio down for what I thought was 60 seconds. Nowadays, I hear a shorter version along with a mention of someone who did something nice.

Of course, listening to KNX and KCBS has its problems. Several online only spots get repeated too often, even in the same commercial break. One or two Netflix spots are clever, but there's another one or two that is not.

There's one running where this kid is dictating a story about a pirate with egg beaters for hands. I forget the sponsor because usually I'm turning the audio down on the speakers.

I have the same hate for bad spots as you guys... I just have more ways of hearing them. ;-)

 

[wadio]

The doofus-sounding fellow who voices the Kars for Kids commercial (I suspect he's the CEO of the non-profit organization who owns a drum machine, is the kid's father and has a secret desire to be in show business) did a special version for the NY metro area following Hurricane Sandy. In it, he interrupts his normal commentary to don his finest pseudo-somber monotone voice and intone a message of sympathy for the victims, then returns to his usual "Advertising 101" delivery. It's quite comical.

Advertisers should learn to leave their advertising to the pros. Kars for Kids may well be a fine organization but if I decided to donate a car it would be to another of the many non-profits that have such programs because that radio spot makes Kars for Kids sound like a two-bit operation.

 

[Thomps2525]

In addition to Kars For Kids, Greenlight Financial Services also has a telephone number that is sung. I hate their jingle almost as much as I hate the 1-877-Kars-For-Kids jingle: "8-6-6, 66-Faster---You've got the green light." I don't like the woman's voice, I don't like the tune, and I don't like the substandard phrase "You've got." It should be "You have." (And that brings me to AOL's "You've got mail".....)