The worst commercials in TV history..

[azumanga]

Yesterday I heard that familiar "Hoveround takes me where I want to go, where will it send me?" song on TPIR. Plus Doug Harrison and the Scooter Store. How long has Doug been on there? 10 years? Give me a break!

I still find it funny that for a show that draws a lot of college students, most of its ad load is for seniors aged 70 or over.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Yesterday I heard that familiar "Hoveround takes me where I want to go, where will it send me?" song on TPIR. Plus Doug Harrison and the Scooter Store. How long has Doug been on there? 10 years? Give me a break!

I still find it funny that for a show that draws a lot of college students, most of its ad load is for seniors aged 70 or over.

because they aren't sampled in Neilsen

 

[crainbebo]

Today on TPIR...

Colonel Penn Funeral Insurance-with Alex Trebek spokesperson
"Hoveround takes me where I want to go, where will it send me?"
American Advisors Group [reverse mortgage, for ages 62+]

-crainbebo

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Today on TPIR...

Colonel Penn Funeral Insurance-with Alex Trebek spokesperson

I'm surprised Colonial Penn isn't a Jeopardy sponsor--but if so there would likely be a different spokesperson in the ads airing during J!.

 

[Kent T]

A Hoverround in the wheelchair world is as bottom of the line as they get. An insult in the motorized wheelchair world. And so slow granny can't get in trouble. And guaranteed to spend more time being repaired at Hoverround than in use. Seconded about the Hoverround commercials, Hall of fame Bad. I call them a Suckerround!

 

[azumanga]

Today on TPIR...

Colonel Penn Funeral Insurance-with Alex Trebek spokesperson

I'm surprised Colonial Penn isn't a Jeopardy sponsor--but if so there would likely be a different spokesperson in the ads airing during J!.

Early on, Dennis James (who was a host of the nighttime TPIR in the 1970s) was a long-time spokesperson for Colonial Penn until his death.

 

[onairb]

Today on TPIR...

Colonel Penn Funeral Insurance-with Alex Trebek spokesperson

I'm surprised Colonial Penn isn't a Jeopardy sponsor--but if so there would likely be a different spokesperson in the ads airing during J!.

Early on, Dennis James (who was a host of the nighttime TPIR in the 1970s) was a long-time spokesperson for Colonial Penn until his death.

Later on, Ed McMahon and Lou Rawls (separately) did ads for the company.
I'm sure crainbebo is correct that Trebek's ads couldn't run during 'Jeopardy!' However, they do run on other stations opposite 'J!'; In San Francisco, Alex's 'Jeopardy!' sign-off usually coincides with the local ME TV channel airing a CP ad in between reruns of 'MASH'...so, you can almost instantly flip from Alex saying 'goodbye' on KGO, to him saying 'hello' on KOFY! ;D

 

[willdav713]

Willdav the everyday people commercials were in the late 90s

No because I lived across from MacArthur and I wasn't in High School yet, and OJ Simpson was racing the cops. It was 1994, but then of course, they could have aired the San Antonio market earlier than others. So in your neck of the woods it could have been a couple of years later.

 

[jwgreek8606]

Does anyone remember the commercials with the mirace whip sandwich man? Nd the piece of bread morphing into the miracle whip logo? Did you find thm scaryA.

 

[willdav713]

Does anyone remember the commercials with the mirace whip sandwich man? Nd the piece of bread morphing into the miracle whip logo? Did you find thm scaryA.

Robert Stack used to do Miracle Whip commercials. Some people thought his voice was creepy.

And so did that gal that played the English teacher on Saved by the Bell, who did those early 90s Hidden Valley ranch commercials.

 

[jwgreek8606]

Well they found the piece of bread morphing into the miracle whip logo more scary than the sandwich man.

 

[FreddyE1977]

My new #1 in this category is Joe Theismann kvetching about his prostate.

Seriously, Joe? Would Slingin' Sammy Baugh or Johnny Unitas have done this?

Or did Lawrence Taylor jack that up too?? :

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

This product and ad has apparently been around for a while, but I just saw the Mr. Lid ad for the first time, with the "Mr. Lid, Mr. Lid" theme song, and the song has prompted me to put the ad on the Worst Commercials list. The video of the full Mr. Lid ad can be seen on their website:

http://mrlid.com/?src=wc-branded

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Almost all commercials that run during "The Price Is Right" are about elderly problems. Scooter-stores, medicare, medicaid, good lord. If this show is committed to dying, then they are on the right track. Perhaps there are some younger viewers watching, and there are certainly younger folks trying to be contestants, but if I hear that one old guy yelling about how he is a prisoner in his own home one more time, I will permanently turn to The View. And that will be the end of me, without the scooter.

I have some time off this morning, so "out of curiousity" I have TPIR on--and of course, Scooter Store's ad was on during the first commercial break (second ad following the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, and followed by a contacts spots).

A little off-topic, but I have always wondered: Is it just me or does the beginning of the Scooter Store ad after "Attention Medicare Beneficiaries" remind you of the Shady Hill Rest Home ad played at the end of the first WKRP episode (during Venus Flytrap's commercial break)? Particularly the part of the Scooter Store ad that says "Do you have trouble going to the bathroom on your own?" IIRC there was something along those lines in the Shady Hill spot (barely heard under the laughter at the credits).

 

[Darth_vader]

Jeeze, I haven't been around this thread in a long time...

"1985 Apple 'Lemmings' ad that aired during the Super Bowl. Not only was it incredibly stupid, it insulted the very customer base they were trying to reach."

Funny you should mention that. In '84, they promoted the then-forthcoming Macintrash with that one ad that had the drap-looking people marching in lock-step toward the big telescreen, with the track-runner girl ran in and threw the big sledgehammer (or whatever that thing was) into it; apparently a parody of the Orwell novel. Little did they know that the drab-looking people following lock-step with each other was, in fact, the very machine/OS they were promoting, and the racer girl with the sledgehammer was the then-impending free software movement coming to liberate them. Strangely enough, through this ad they inadvertently ended up promoting Linux almost a decade before its time!

It's amazing how self-referential (and self-deprecating) the old App£e ads were. Either that, or I've just been working with computers for too damned many years......

 

[Darth_vader]

Oh yeah, and I don't recall the Miracle Whip commercial. I do remember that the old Hamburger Helper ads in the 80s, you know, the ones with that weird oversized singing oven mitt, used to freak me out as a little kid!

 

[desertskies]

Any Cox Cable spot should be deemed worst commercial, especially the "cool dad" spots with the kid and his Bieber haircut. They make me want to drop Cox Cable (and I use Dish).
Another one, not so much worst but strange would be the Just for Men spot with the baby wearing a Van Dyke style beard.
Gives me the creeps.

 

[KML0224]

The Comcast ads aren't any better. Their ad for a home security service is total b-s. The perfect perky mommy keeping tabs on her children at home at all time...yeah, right!

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

I am looking forward to Sept. 4--when the Nissan "Summer Savings" sale ends. In other words, I am sick of those ads with their version of "Summer Nights" from Grease--which IMO was already one of the worst songs ever recorded in history.

 

[KeithE4]

I am looking forward to Sept. 4--when the Nissan "Summer Savings" sale ends. In other words, I am sick of those ads with their version of "Summer Nights" from Grease--which IMO was already one of the worst songs ever recorded in history.

They run it twice per between-innings break during FSN Diamondbacks games - EVERY inning. If I was looking for a car, it would NOT be Nissan, just because of these ads.