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The worst commercials in TV history..

Since we're talking about both "classic" And current spots...

Anyone in Central Florida is familiar with the Appliance Direct stores and their ads. The main spokesman is this Asian guy with knobby knees (always on display, cos he usually wears shorts) with a perpetual cheesy smile and a stilted delivery who waxes rhapsodic about their wares. His cohort is a loudmouthed redheaded gal named Leigh who seems to own just two outfits: an ugly orange plaid dress, and an equally ugly garish lime-green pantsuit. What makes these spots so annoying, besides their cheesiness, is that they run constantly, during almost every break, and at times the same one or two spots will hang around for what seems like forever. There was one single ad for a big refrigerator sale that ran for something like three months, over and over and over. (I'm thinking somebody screwed up big-time and obtained a crapload of these fridges, and the owner said "You're going to run that damn commercial as long as it takes until we sell every last one of those things!!")

They also occasionally sell damaged merchandise out of a couple of warehouse locations under the name "Scratch and Dent World." These ads are handled by Leigh and her foghorn voice, and also tend to run for weeks and months on end. What makes this laughable and annoying is that these scratch-and-dent extravaganzas always start out as being for 14 days only, but instead last for weeks. The endings of the spots are supposed to have a "countdown" with different variations ("last 13 days!" "last 12 days!" and so forth), but as the "sale" goes on, they will get "stuck" on one "day" and repeat it ad nauseum. (Apparently, there is some sort of time warp/dilation surrounding these stores -- scientists really need to investigate this phenomenon.) The current spot started out as "14 days only" (which variation itself ran daily for the better part of a fortnight), then jumped to "last 10 days" where it has been stuck for weeks.

This same Appliance Direct business, BTW, also runs half-hour infomercials on some of our lesser locals (ION, myTV, etc.). I have been blessed to have avoided them and have never seen one, and shudder at the thought of that idiocy going on for a full 30 minutes.

And BTW, when it comes to local commercials in general, I have a hard and fast rule -- no matter how good the product or service, I will not patronize your business if you YELL at me in your ads. ::)
 
1st of 5 said:
People are FATTER now because they don't exercise anymore. When I was young, we WALKED about 1/2 mile to school and back! In all kinds of weather, too! If we wanted a soda, we WALKED to the neighborhood American owned convenience (Not a foreigner owned Quickiemart) store. During summer vacations we played outside all day, running, bike riding, BB rifle safaris, football, baseball, NOT sitting inside an airconditioned, fully automated house of the future, incessantly playing computer games. Nowadays, people drive everywhere, even to the corner mailbox. People these days are nothing but a bunch of legal aged soiled and spoiled, helpless children who can't think or care for themselves, totally lacking any shred of common sense. They have all been brainwashed with today's philosophy of: You are not responsible for any of your actions, Its always someone else's fault, its only illegal if you get caught, if caught, accuse your accuser, and the big one, why work? the government will give you everything.
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I agree with you ( and for the record I agree with what LKeller had brought up too ), however one can add "lawsuits"and in many cases the schools themselves as to the reasons why so many people are fat. Several years back I can remember some parent in West Virginia actually suing a school district because he/she didn't think it was fair for their child to dress up and shower in front of other kids for gym class. Result..PE classes become more/less social time like study hall so if one wants exercise, then they have to join the school team. Meanwhile in nearby Virginia, about ten years ago a number of counties started cutting back on gym classes in the high schools making them a "choice" rather than a class one is required to take in order to graduate. Of course many of these same coutnies had made a big deal about banning those "evil" Coke & Pepsi people for the good of their students health but to my knowledge they still did nothing about making gym a required course again. Just another example of "passing the buck", kinda like how those so-called flavored cigarettes were banned by our goverment because they were supposed to get kids hooked on smoking ( funny how I have never seen a pack of those Strawberry flavored Winstons or Grape Newports ) but I do see flavored cigars all over the place being sold in stores and young people do smoke those...yet those products are NOT banned. Same thing with schools banning soda pop YET they won't touch energy drinks with a ten foot pole..could it be because the kids like them too much? Didn't know today's kids had that much power.
 
1st of 5 said:
People are FATTER now because they don't exercise anymore. When I was young, we WALKED about 1/2 mile to school and back! In all kinds of weather, too! If we wanted a soda, we WALKED to the neighborhood American owned convenience (Not a foreigner owned Quickiemart) store. During summer vacations we played outside all day, running, bike riding, BB rifle safaris, football, baseball, NOT sitting inside an airconditioned, fully automated house of the future, incessantly playing computer games. Nowadays, people drive everywhere, even to the corner mailbox. People these days are nothing but a bunch of legal aged soiled and spoiled, helpless children who can't think or care for themselves, totally lacking any shred of common sense. They have all been brainwashed with today's philosophy of: You are not responsible for any of your actions, Its always someone else's fault, its only illegal if you get caught, if caught, accuse your accuser, and the big one, why work? the government will give you everything.
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Well...exercise (or lack of exercise) is a minor factor, but really - the reason American obesity is such a problem is that Americans have a hard time putting their forks down. I'm a busy person, but I try to work out about 35 minutes a day. That burns about 250 calories - that's less than a low-fat turkey sandwich or whole grain bread, or about 4 Oreo cookies. Unless you stick to a low calorie diet, you will not lose weight. Not if you're middle aged or older, anyway.

Now back to the topic. I always hated those Dove commercials that claimed washing dishes with Dove was the same as using hand lotion. The worst were the mother/daughter commercials in the 60s in which the youthful mother always looked "as young" as the daughter. They reportedly used real-life mothers and daughters, but I suspect they only chose the "child" bride mothers who were still in their late 30s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ganU1mA-prI
 
Some of the commercials I find to be the worst include: Charter Hospital, which was mentioned by the OP. Their commercials aired in my market, as they had hospitals in the Chicagoland area. The only one I knew of was in Hobart, IN, across the street from St. Mary Medical Center.

Quiznos had plenty of commercials that were terrible. The overall worst with Quiznos was what looked like a rat promoting their food. I haven't seen any new commercials for their brand, though they're still around my area for now.

Jimmy Johns is also annoying. The radio versions are the worst with the freaky fast talker. I barely can understand the people talking in the commercials. The TV versions are just as bad with a lady in the delivery room of a hospital, acting like she's giving birth. I saw no baby in the commercial, but she was holding a sandwich like a baby.

AT&T Uverse. Someone already mentioned the family pointing the remotes at each other. I see that one alot. How about the radio version where the wife asks the husband to watch the football game in the basement. He says: Gotta sit on my lucky couch, or my team might lose.

The newest is from the Illinois Lottery. It has people in the commercial looking rather creepy (particularly the guy shampooing the carpet & the butcher holding a piece of meat). I found a video on youtube for this commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs_h2L1mZcE
 
evolve991 said:
mleach I remember a commercial like that here in MD. Not sure what hospital it was for though
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I wonder if the Maryland hospital in question was Brooklane/Finding Paths in Hagerstown? I know they used to advertise on local WHAG NBC 25 and perhaps on Baltimore, Harrisburg and DC TV as well. I don't recall them doing a Charter Hospital type of ad but my wife remembers an ad they did air many years ago of a cartoon of a little boy spitting, slapping himself in the face, raising his fist..etc....sounds like a "bad" commercial but I myself had never seen it so I can't put it on my "list".
 
Two words, my friend: Mattress Ranch!!!!

It even made the big time last week when Jay Leno showed it during the "Bad Ads" bit!

But being in Alaska, I miss the old Tip Top Chevrolet commercials from the '80s to early 2000's starring Robbie Giinther, parodying movies and TV shows (he sold the dealership to Lithia some years ago)
 
Subway's commercial for the foot long subs makes me have a headache every time it airs where they sing "Five...Five dollar...Five dollar foot longgggggggggggggggggggggggggg" and in another commercial that's all they sing through the commercial, no announcer, no nothing, just that silly song sung.

Another commercial would be the one for Hillshire Bratwurst Sausages where all the neighbors yell real loud and sing in a military cadence "When I say Hillshire, you say Farm, GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Meat". I would hate to have anyone of them as my neighbors with them hollering like they were at a hog calling contest. ::)
 
azumanga said:
mleach said:
I do see flavored cigars all over the place being sold in stores and young people do smoke those...yet those products are NOT banned.
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I always thought that cigars are also included in the new smoking regulations, which became law in June:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Smoking_Prevention_and_Tobacco_Control_Act
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I believe that was part of the original game plan but according to two of my clients ( Smoker Friendly stores and Kroger Supermarkets ), the government for some unknown reason earlier this year had backed away from banning flavored cigars even though they could still ban them, but rather they focused strictly on flavored cigarettes instead. Maybe because the goverment just doesn't see young people being into cigars, maybe its that image of only "old men" who are into such things like the image of George Burns for example even though it is a false stereotype. I can somewhat see that as I have known people in the past who just flat out refuse to believe a 25 year old could be a cigar smoker much less some kid of 15 though they can see those within that age range getting into cigarettes.
 
mleach said:
the government for some unknown reason earlier this year had backed away from banning flavored cigars even though they could still ban them, but rather they focused strictly on flavored cigarettes instead. Maybe because the goverment just doesn't see young people being into cigars, maybe its that image of only "old men" who are into such things like the image of George Burns for example even though it is a false stereotype. I can somewhat see that as I have known people in the past who just flat out refuse to believe a 25 year old could be a cigar smoker much less some kid of 15 though they can see those within that age range getting into cigarettes.
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Of course, there are some youth today who buy flavored cigars, not for the tobacco inside, but for the "wacky tobaccy" they want to put in the wrappers.
 
johnnya2k6 said:
Two words, my friend: Mattress Ranch!!!!

It even made the big time last week when Jay Leno showed it during the "Bad Ads" bit!

But being in Alaska, I miss the old Tip Top Chevrolet commercials from the '80s to early 2000's starring Robbie Giinther, parodying movies and TV shows (he sold the dealership to Lithia some years ago)
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have to agree with mattress ranch. Here in Tacoma
Comcast airs them constantly everyday and the guy
dancing at the end of the commercial is annoying.
 
One of the worst national spots I've seen in some time was for Emerald Nuts; a half-baked premise having to do with the Swiss Family Robison building their house on this guy who's supposedly passed out because of a 3pm blood-sugar drop..convoluted huh?..it gets worse...an observer explains all this to her friend in a rapid pace whisper...this (and a similar follow-up spot) just left me saying WTF?
 
Peoria, IL: An entertainment columnist for the Peoria Journal-Star recalled them fondly in his column last Sunday, but growing up within range of that market's stations I thought those ads were some of the worst ever created. These were the commercials for "Money Center 24" (an early ATM prototype created in partnership with three Peoria financial institutions), featuring the "Little Green Guys," that were all over Peoria TV from 1982-96. The column linked below gives more information on this central Illinois example of lousy local advertising, IMO:

http://www.pjstar.com/entertainment/x962895166/On-the-Air-This-green-campaign-worked-just-fine
 
For you real old folks(like me) remember those early-mid 60s series of Anacin commercials. Where somebody loses their temper because of a splitting headache and then takes Anacin & all is well(nowdays this might work better for anti-depressants). Here's one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dXcimQ0QTs

Sadly, Youtube does not appear to have the most famous of this series of ads, the one that started a national "mock out" catchphrase: "Mother Please, I'd Rather Do It Myself!" There was even a "Mother Please..." song by Jo Ann Campbell that made the charts.
 
Locally, a couple of particularly clownish car dealers, one who pops into a baby delivery, ladies room, wherever when someone mentions a car yelling "did someone say something about buying a new car?".

(Side note: a car is the second biggest purchase one will ever make...if I'm committing to years of payments, and even depending on a vehicle for my livelihood why do I want to make that purchase from a clown? You ever see real estate agents screaming and dressing up in silly costumes to sell houses?)

Local attorneys Dyer Garafolo Mann and Schultz, our local ambulance chaser firm. One of the lawyers dresses up as a tiger heading to the courthouse.

One real bad one running locally is for a music instrument store...has a teenage girl band singing a particularly bad song and does nothing to sell the store.
 
gr8oldies said:
Locally, a couple of particularly clownish car dealers, one who pops into a baby delivery, ladies room, wherever when someone mentions a car yelling "did someone say something about buying a new car?".

(Side note: a car is the second biggest purchase one will ever make...if I'm committing to years of payments, and even depending on a vehicle for my livelihood why do I want to make that purchase from a clown? You ever see real estate agents screaming and dressing up in silly costumes to sell houses?)
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The point of "clownish" commercials is to make your business stand out from the 'noise' from all the other advertising, and make people remember you. One of the most successful car dealers in America is Cal Worthington, and he used to do commercials with zoo animals (who he'd always call his dog "Spot" - originally a satire of another Southern CA car dealer). Cal would say "if I can't sell you a car, I'll eat a bug." His country-western style jingle had an endless number of verses.

Get a new car for your wife,
She will love you all her life,
Go see Cal, Go see Cal, Go see Cal
 etc....

Of course, Cal was a radio DJ and host of his own county-western TV show (1950s and early 60s), so he knew what he was doing. And it worked. I no longer live in an area with a Worthington dealership, but if I'm not mistaken, Cal is still advertising on TV, though he's slowed down a lot, being in his late 80s and all.
 
cee said:
For you real old folks(like me) remember those early-mid 60s series of Anacin commercials. Where somebody loses their temper because of a splitting headache and then takes Anacin & all is well(nowdays this might work better for anti-depressants). Here's one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dXcimQ0QTs

Sadly, Youtube does not appear to have the most famous of this series of ads, the one that started a national "mock out" catchphrase: "Mother Please, I'd Rather Do It Myself!" There was even a "Mother Please..." song by Jo Ann Campbell that made the charts.
Click to expand...

Here's another one of those Anacin ads, this time from 1965, with a angry father relieved after taking Anacin. The ad instantly reminded me of the character of Jack Arnold (played by Dan Lauria) on Wonder Years--the time period of this ad (3 years before "Wonder Years" began in "reel time") and the image of the father just instantly gave me a flashback to one of the greatest shows on television.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtpuEDqFdmA&NR=1
 
cee said:
For you real old folks(like me) remember those early-mid 60s series of Anacin commercials. Where somebody loses their temper because of a splitting headache and then takes Anacin & all is well(nowdays this might work better for anti-depressants). Here's one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dXcimQ0QTs

Sadly, Youtube does not appear to have the most famous of this series of ads, the one that started a national "mock out" catchphrase: "Mother Please, I'd Rather Do It Myself!" There was even a "Mother Please..." song by Jo Ann Campbell that made the charts.
Click to expand...

Oddly enough, I remember that song; Mike Reineri, when he was on WKIX Raleigh, loved to play it, but I suspect it would appeal to his sense of humor (I remember one morning he'd just played a commercial with Minnie Pearl for Dulany frozen foods; when it ended he said, "I bet that dress is a booger to iron."). And does anyone recall a couple of other songs based on commercials: "No Matter What Shape Your Stomach's In," and the Benson & Hedges-inspired "The Disadvantages Of You"?

One of my few memories of the George DeWitt "Name That Tune" in the late '50s, aside from the contestants running across the stage and ringing the bell when they thought they knew the tune, were the Anacin commercials with the mallet, the lightning bolt, and whatever else.
 
I was going to also mention this recent campaign in my original reply, but I couldn't remember whether they were Bud Light or Miller Lite ads. Today, while watching Fox's coverage of this afternoons Bears/Ravens game, my memory was refreshed.

Thus, I will now add this fall's Bud Light "Jimmy Football" ad campaign to my list of "worst commercials in TV history." He very much reminds me of a Billy Mays wannabe, obnoxiousness and all.

Here are examples of this fall's "Jimmy Football" ads from YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0F6B5BE427896968&search_query=bud+light+jimmy+football
 


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