• 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 worst commercials in TV history..

yeoldeschool said:
Deodorant ads with extreme closeups of obese people's arm pits
Click to expand...

If you're talking about the very first of the Lume deodorant ads, I really have to think that it was an outrageous attempt to get the viewer to say "WTF?", I know that was my reaction. Once this ad got burned into everyone's brain, subsequent ads were less shocking. (And you had to stop and ask, "what's a bifold?".)

Let's put it this way, when someone says "deodorant commercial", what's the first thing you think of? Exactly. That's the whole idea of advertising.

And I don't know if I'd call the lady "obese", she's a bit stocky, but not terribly overweight.
 
Walmart's latest commercial, based on The Who's Who Are You, "Who knew, who knew" is absolutely putrid. Pete Townshend (I don’t remember hearing anything about him selling his music catalog) may be crying all the way to the bank, but this is a total sellout.
 
WSTV/WTOV in Steubenville, Ohio for years ran a series of cheesy ads for Huebner Chevrolet in Carrolton, Ohio.
The owner, Mr. Huebner, would dress-up as a super hero in a mask and a cape, and he'd go flying around via
green screen to save Ohio Valley car buyers from high prices and bad deals. They were every bit as hokey as you'd
imagine them to be. Various Huebner Chevrolet employees playing bit parts as villains, etc.

Then, in December, he'd shed the costume, put on a suit, and sit in front of the camera with a Christmas tree and candles
behind him. He'd read a bit of the Nativity story out of the Bible, and then invite viewers to accept Jesus Christ as their
Lord and Savior.

Come January he was flying around in a cape again. It was one of the things that made small market local television endearing,
and which you rarely find anymore.
 
Both of these may have already been mentioned earlier but this thread is so big I haven't been able to read it all yet.

First would be the 1972 TV commercial updating the 1971 Jack-in-the-box sing-along radio commercial with the little boy (Rodney Allen Rippy, right?) singing along. I suppose he looked nice but he sure couldn't sing. "Make life a little easier..."

The other would be a 1980s national radio ad from McDonald's. The ad begins with some people driving and debating about eating. Then you hear: "I'm your radio. And I'm hungry!" That definitely made me want to turn off the radio.
 
Last edited:
Has anyone seen the latest Stanley Steamer tv commercial called Meet the Steamer where three college age dunderheads using a kitchen blender without a lid make a stain splattered mess all over the house?
 
Those of you from the tri-state (NY,NJ,CT) area will remember the Crazy Eddie (Antar) tv ads for stereo and electronic equipment. Eddie Antar later went to jail for fraud. They even spoofed the ads on Saturday Night Live.

I remember a rare TV ad for Capitol One with Samuel L Jackson. It was the usual "What's in your wallet" except he was very intense, like he was saying "Use this card or ill kick your *ss." The ad lasted maybe a week if that and was pulled from the air. They reshot it, and he was much more subdued, more friendlier and smiling I think. The bank must have complained about the original ad. Don't think I've ever seen an ad removed like that. I do believe they did the right thing though.
 

Attachments

  • crazyeddiecommercial.png
    crazyeddiecommercial.png
    152.7 KB · Views: 2
Just saw a Hilton commercial where a kid and his mom were eating breakfast and the kid looks at the mom’s bagel slathered with cream cheese and jam and the kid tries to take his mom’s bagel and she stops him and says he has one in front of him. But the kid takes the bagel anyway. Hey you little shit! You can cut up your bagel and put cream cheese and jam on it! You don’t have to take your mother’s!
 
The 1-877-Kars4Kids commercial that is one of the worst in radio history has moved over to TV. Just as bad on TV as on radio.

Saw it for the first time in a waiting room TV. So unfortunately I could not immediately change the channel.

I always thought Kars 4 Kids was just a Chicago-area radio staple. At least WLS had them constantly. Enough to make you want to stay with the likes of the downstate Illinois stations (Peoria, Champaign, etc.) as much into the Chicago area as possible.

 
ted chittenden said:
First would be the 1972 TV commercial updating the 1971 Jack-in-the-box sing-along radio commercial with the little boy (Rodney Allen Rippy, right?) singing along. I suppose he looked nice but he sure couldn't sing. "Make life a little easier..."
Click to expand...
Supposedly there was someone trickling him out of sight of the camera on the commercial I saw in 1974 while station in Fort Worth. I really didn't think much of it half a century ago. I believe you couldn't do that now. It was funny back then.
 
The delectables commercial with a young woman on a zoom call and her cat would not leave her alone until she gave it a delectable. They are right in front of you lady! Give your cat a delectable where you won’t miss your zoom call!
 
Mike in Destin said:
The bank must have complained about the original ad. Don't think I've ever seen an ad removed like that. I do believe they did the right thing though.
Click to expand...
Agencies don't place ads without the client having approved all the creative first. More likely... the client got customer feedback... or even negative comments by bank staff not involved with the advertising function... and they decided to pull it.
 
Watching a compilation of commercials from VH1 from when they showed the Rocky Horrir Picture Show in 1995, and the Aaron Burr Got Milk commercial reminds me and everyone WHY you are NOT supposed to talk with your mouth full!
 
Tim from Springfield IL said:
The 1-877-Kars4Kids commercial that is one of the worst in radio history has moved over to TV. Just as bad on TV as on radio.

Saw it for the first time in a waiting room TV. So unfortunately I could not immediately change the channel.

I always thought Kars 4 Kids was just a Chicago-area radio staple. At least WLS had them constantly. Enough to make you want to stay with the likes of the downstate Illinois stations (Peoria, Champaign, etc.) as much into the Chicago area as possible.

Click to expand...
These kids have to be out of college by now.
 
mleach said:
My picks for the worst commericals ( national & local ) in TV history...

*Nike "Rock & Roll Tennis" featuring Andre Agassi. Bad because Andre from what I can remember wasn't a fan of rock music so why would he be "into" rock & roll tennis?

*Syms..the retail chain whose motto is "..An educated comsumer is our best customer". Nothing wrong with that but for some reason both Sy Syms and his daughter Marcy gave me the creeps. Yes, I know Sy Syms recently passed on but Marcy is still with us, and I assume she still has that weird smile.

*Denver based Attorney Frank Azar. Usually I don't have a problem with lawyers advertsing on TV but Azar his ads are a bit too much. His "clients" showing off their settlement checks, people with smiles on their faces saying how much money they have for their "pain and suffering". Almost as if they were happy to be in an auto accident.

and this "gem"...

The now defunct Charter Hospital of Aurora, Colorado ( a mental hospital ). Back in the late 80's I remember seeing this ad on Denver's KMGH and KUSA featuring clips of home movies like the children opening Christmas presents, playing in the snow, the daughter's wedding day while the Ray Stevens tune "Everything is Beautiful" is playing the background. However on top of the Ray Stevens tune one hears a variety of voices shouting such things like "...Billy don't take those pills...Billy put down that pill bottle !!" "...Mama..I got the razor blade in my hand and I WILL cut my wrist..I SWEAR I WILL DO IT !!!" "...Daddy my life sucks..I am gonna kill myself"...I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE !!!"...all of this while the viewer sees those home movies of such a "happy" family. And the tag "...Don't YOU wish Everything could beautiful again? Get Help...Charter Hospital of Aurora".

If I had to pick just one bad commerical..this would be it.
Click to expand...
Not sure if you remember Doublemint Gum c. 1962. That "Double your pleasure, double your fun .." with the twin young ladies even at the age of 15 seemed far too obvious. And then one of them pretended to shoot the bass player and he, in profile, pretended to be hit.

Her First Un-Cola of 1970 was not necessarily bad but borrowed the ambience of Swedish art films. The idea being that her first taste of the Un-Cola marks the beginning of the end of innocence. Then the kids rush into the park and lose hold of their balloon which soars aloft as the music swells. Another one of the same series ended with "The Un-Cola is gone. And so is Summer".
 
The McDonalds "Bah Dap Bup Bup Baaaa" sung logo shoud be put out to pasture already. I very rarely -- if ever-- hear anyone in public that repeats that jingle anywhere and it's been around since way before they remodeled all of their restaurant exteriors. And when the older voice-over guy "mumbles" it, it sounds like he is taking his last breath before dying.

And I really wonder how much the people at Audi had spent for their audio logo, which sounds like someone tapping a microphone four times out of boredom.
 


Back
Top Bottom