The worst commercials in TV history..

[Tim from Springfield IL]

K-tel's Pure Power record commercial from 1977(with England Dan and John Ford Coley,Kiss,The Sylvers,Alice Cooper and others). I don't think it gets any more cheesy or crappy than this! ;D

You mean...this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkU1teKNjwQ
Yes, extremely cheesy and crappy.

I have that record! And several others like it! I picked mine up at a consignment shop in the late '80s, at a time when these songs weren't being played on the radio anymore, and I didn't think that they would ever be back. I've now had these records longer than the original owner(s) had them! And I have those Pure Power records, too! Guilty pleasures! (Of course, they had to be advertised on TV so they could make that "as shown on TV" claim on the records!)

Here's another lame-o K-Tel album commercial from '77 (for their "Music Machine" album), with dancing robots.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBolFjvsdkA&feature=related (Ad 1 of 3 on the video).

Also note the third ad on the video for the 3-album "Solid Gold" set--back in the days where apparently you didn't have to worry about getting stuck with lame "new stereo recordings" of classic oldies (featuring one of the original members of certain bands). (Although well into the '90s you very rarely had to worry about that problem with K-Tel oldies collections, the Billboard Top 10 collections for each year from about 1955-1991--other brands like Dominion, etc. was another matter for the worst).

 

[firepoint525]

Also note the third ad on the video for the 3-album "Solid Gold" set--back in the days where apparently you didn't have to worry about getting stuck with lame "new stereo recordings" of classic oldies (featuring one of the original members of certain bands). (Although well into the '90s you very rarely had to worry about that problem with K-Tel oldies collections, the Billboard Top 10 collections for each year from about 1955-1991--other brands like Dominion, etc. was another matter for the worst).

Although with those K-Tel records, sometimes you got very short edits of some of the songs on those collections! One K-Tel record I have has 22 songs crammed onto just one record album! I often wondered if they had longer mixes on the tapes. I wouldn't know. I have never had a K-Tel tape, and until seeing these commercials, I never even knew that they had ever even made tapes.

 

[gr8oldies]

I remember playing "Piano Man" on the radio off a KTel LP. It dissapeared at about 2 and a half min

 

[Markieo]

Also note the third ad on the video for the 3-album "Solid Gold" set--back in the days where apparently you didn't have to worry about getting stuck with lame "new stereo recordings" of classic oldies (featuring one of the original members of certain bands). (Although well into the '90s you very rarely had to worry about that problem with K-Tel oldies collections, the Billboard Top 10 collections for each year from about 1955-1991--other brands like Dominion, etc. was another matter for the worst).

Although with those K-Tel records, sometimes you got very short edits of some of the songs on those collections! One K-Tel record I have has 22 songs crammed onto just one record album! I often wondered if they had longer mixes on the tapes. I wouldn't know. I have never had a K-Tel tape, and until seeing these commercials, I never even knew that they had ever even made tapes.

Must have been 1972's "Believe In Music"! All the songs had late starts, early fades, bad edits, except for two, and they were both Donny Osmond songs!! And the fidelity was the worst!

 

[johnnya2k6]

Living in the Mississippi Gulf Coast from 1989-91, I would be treated to the cheesiest commercials that would rival the Tip Top Chevrolet ones back in Fairbanks or even Mattress Ranch...and they were all coming out of New Orleans!!!! (where most of its stations are seen on cable)

One of them for Frankie and Johnny's Furniture was featured in the "Bad Ads" piece on Jay Leno last night (1/21)!!!! And there were others including Seafood City, McKenzie's Bakery, and Michael Hebert Furniture; all of them have been long out of business before Katrina.

 

[firepoint525]

Also note the third ad on the video for the 3-album "Solid Gold" set--back in the days where apparently you didn't have to worry about getting stuck with lame "new stereo recordings" of classic oldies (featuring one of the original members of certain bands). (Although well into the '90s you very rarely had to worry about that problem with K-Tel oldies collections, the Billboard Top 10 collections for each year from about 1955-1991--other brands like Dominion, etc. was another matter for the worst).

Although with those K-Tel records, sometimes you got very short edits of some of the songs on those collections! One K-Tel record I have has 22 songs crammed onto just one record album! I often wondered if they had longer mixes on the tapes. I wouldn't know. I have never had a K-Tel tape, and until seeing these commercials, I never even knew that they had ever even made tapes.

Must have been 1972's "Believe In Music"! All the songs had late starts, early fades, bad edits, except for two, and they were both Donny Osmond songs!! And the fidelity was the worst!

MusicBender, 1976.

 

[David67]

K-tel's Pure Power record commercial from 1977(with England Dan and John Ford Coley,Kiss,The Sylvers,Alice Cooper and others). I don't think it gets any more cheesy or crappy than this! ;D

You mean...this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkU1teKNjwQ
Yes, extremely cheesy and crappy.

I have that record! And several others like it! I picked mine up at a consignment shop in the late '80s, at a time when these songs weren't being played on the radio anymore, and I didn't think that they would ever be back. I've now had these records longer than the original owner(s) had them! And I have those Pure Power records, too! Guilty pleasures! (Of course, they had to be advertised on TV so they could make that "as shown on TV" claim on the records!)

Here's another lame-o K-Tel album commercial from '77 (for their "Music Machine" album), with dancing robots.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBolFjvsdkA&feature=related (Ad 1 of 3 on the video).

Also note the third ad on the video for the 3-album "Solid Gold" set--back in the days where apparently you didn't have to worry about getting stuck with lame "new stereo recordings" of classic oldies (featuring one of the original members of certain bands). (Although well into the '90s you very rarely had to worry about that problem with K-Tel oldies collections, the Billboard Top 10 collections for each year from about 1955-1991--other brands like Dominion, etc. was another matter for the worst).

That's awesome thanks!

 

[azumanga]

Must have been 1972's "Believe In Music"! All the songs had late starts, early fades, bad edits, except for two, and they were both Donny Osmond songs!! And the fidelity was the worst!

Reminds me of Ronco's first greatest hits LP back in 1970, "Do It Now", a record album for a drug abuse charity (back in the day when Ronco sold records, alongside the Pocket Fisherman and Veg-a-Matic); one of the songs, Steam's "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" actually played at a slow speed for the last minute of the song.

 

[Kurt Toy]

Any mid-70s commercial for records that offered "rip-off" versions of hit songs recorded by bad studio groups, similar to those offered by Madacy offering new stereo versions of classic hits-though the tunes on the latter are done by the original artists.

 

[gr8oldies]

Due to contractural obligations, we can't reveal the name of this group!

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Speaking of poor quality K-Tel albums, there's one that probably is only found in radio production libraries, "Top Ten College Fight Songs". The first cut on the album, "Mr. Touchdown USA (You've got to be a football hero)" starts on the wrong speed.

 

[David67]

Speaking of poor quality K-Tel albums, there's one that probably is only found in radio production libraries, "Top Ten College Fight Songs". The first cut on the album, "Mr. Touchdown USA (You've got to be a football hero)" starts on the wrong speed.

I had that DVD in the early 90s.

 

[RegularJoeRG]

The most recent commercial that gets on my nerves is the "Oh No! Your tires all flat and junk!" commercial.

The one with the talking pothole that sounds like a blonde airhead pop star? That one gets on my nerves too!

 

[nightfly61]

I like all those hokey old K-Tel commercials.
One I didn't like though from my childhood was for Transformers:
"Transformers...more than meets the eye...Transformers...(add sonovox & have annoying little kid mouth the words here...Robots in the skies."
Worst recent one by far..."YA FOLLOWIN ME CAMERA GUY...and "YOU'RE GONNA LOVE MY NUTS". :

Another(can't remember the product...maybe Prylosec?) With the old ladies out power walking...whatever it was had to do with taking the pill only once a day?

Any spot that lasts longer than :60 or piggybacks with another just when you thought it was over.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Worst recent one by far..."YA FOLLOWIN ME CAMERA GUY...and "YOU'RE GONNA LOVE MY NUTS".

Ah, prostitute-punchin' pitchman Vince Shlomi. "Fettucini...Linguini...Martini...Bikini".
It's been pointed out on a certain devoid-of-pity TV-centric website that he looks like a human velociraptor.

 

[Markieo]

Must have been 1972's "Believe In Music"! All the songs had late starts, early fades, bad edits, except for two, and they were both Donny Osmond songs!! And the fidelity was the worst!

Reminds me of Ronco's first greatest hits LP back in 1970, "Do It Now", a record album for a drug abuse charity (back in the day when Ronco sold records, alongside the Pocket Fisherman and Veg-a-Matic); one of the songs, Steam's "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" actually played at a slow speed for the last minute of the song.

The record was getting slower and slower till the fade-out. B.J. Thomas' "I'm So Lonesome I could Cry" and Teegarden and Van Winkle's "God, Love and Rock and Roll" suffer the same fate. Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody To Love" sounds like it was recorded off a transistor radio! And how they got the rights to The Beatles "Nowhere Man", I thought that Capitol never licensed the Beatles songs for compilations!!

 

[bk77]

There is a commerical I can remember from the mid 1980's for some lotion or perfume. The scene was of a woman laying in a chair right next to a large swimming pool. She is wearing a bikini and those big sunglasses saying something like "I am made of blue sky" or something like it. Later in the same ad, a man wearing speedos jumps in the pool and swims towards her only to disappear while he steps out of the pool. I would like to say the brand was the perfume Chanel #5 but I am not sure but I do remember the rumor at the time where another similar spot was supposed to had been made where both the woman and man were totally nude and instead of doing the disappearing act when the man gets out of the pool..he and the woman have sex. Maybe that ad was made for the French TV market. ;D

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

After seeing this ad for the first time in tonight's Saints-Vikings NFC championship game on Fox, I now nominate the Walmart birthday party ad with the clown (who was scary looking enough already) who accidentally steps on a unicorn decoration when jumping down the steps--and finds himself screaming in pain (and scaring off the kids in the process). Tasteless and sad--I can't see how anyone can find this to be funny--but that's just my opinion.

The YouTube link to this latest work of art:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVqyt4iS7uI

 

[Stanislav]

After seeing this ad for the first time in tonight's Saints-Vikings NFC championship game on Fox, I now nominate the Walmart birthday party ad with the clown (who was scary looking enough already) who accidentally steps on a unicorn decoration when jumping down the steps--and finds himself screaming in pain (and scaring off the kids in the process). Tasteless and sad--I can't see how anyone can find this to be funny--but that's just my opinion.

The YouTube link to this latest work of art:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVqyt4iS7uI

Me, too! The minute I saw that stupid spot, I thought "this is gonna be in that 'worst commercials' thread tomorrow, for sure..." :

 

[bpatrick]

There is a commerical I can remember from the mid 1980's for some lotion or perfume. The scene was of a woman laying in a chair right next to a large swimming pool. She is wearing a bikini and those big sunglasses saying something like "I am made of blue sky" or something like it. Later in the same ad, a man wearing speedos jumps in the pool and swims towards her only to disappear while he steps out of the pool. I would like to say the brand was the perfume Chanel #5 but I am not sure but I do remember the rumor at the time where another similar spot was supposed to had been made where both the woman and man were totally nude and instead of doing the disappearing act when the man gets out of the pool..he and the woman have sex. Maybe that ad was made for the French TV market. ;D

That ad was all over American TV. Funny, I can't remember the brand either.