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The worst commercials in TV history..

BRNout said:
mleach said:
Lkeller said:
The problem with the subject - "Worst Commercials in TV History" is that we all have short memories. Granted, I'm getting old and more accepting, but I remember TV commercials in the 50s and 60s as much worse than today's. Even today's local commercials are far better than 20-30 years ago.
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I agree with you about local commericals ( better now than in the past ) but with the national commercials what gets me is how many ads back then were considered "ok", nobody seemed to cared but today when one views those same ads many get offended. The old cigarette ads are obvious, saw an old ad for Virginia Slims cigarettes on You Tube recently and reading the comments such as "stupid bitches....you got lung cancer baby" ( and that remark was tame compared to the others ). Soda pop ads seem to be more taboo now and even the classic ones like "Be A Pepper" or even the Michael Jackson Pepsi ad, I noticed that even those are getting slammed when they pop up online the same way with cigarettes. Recently I heard an ad for 7-Up in the radio making fun of the old Assoication tune "Wendy", my co-worker who is 22 was VERY offended by the ad who felt that soda pop next to tobacco is a major factor why today many people are fat and have a variety of health issues and products like 7-UP should not be allowed to advertise......of course it should be noted my co-worker was drinking a Rockstar energy drink and smoking, ok "puffing" a little cigar when telling me this..
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WOW, your friend truly frightens me! People like this are leading us down a path toward totalitarianism and they don't even realize it. :eek:

By the way, not trying to nitpick, but it was "Windy" by the Association and not "Wendy."
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Funny thing is, they very carefully enunciated the "e" when they sang it.

Sounds more like "when" than it does like "win".

Of course that was back in the dark ages when some of the singers riding their dinosaurs to recording sessions were actually aware of the concept of enunciation.
 
How about Mr. Opportunity singing opera during the Honda Clearance event during the summer of 2011? I hated those commercials on both radio and TV!
How the hell did they come up with it in the first place?
 
blackgold said:
How about Mr. Opportunity singing opera during the Honda Clearance event during the summer of 2011? I hated those commercials on both radio and TV!
How the hell did they come up with it in the first place?
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I ask this same question everytime I see that dopey Alka Seltzer TV commercial set in a Karaoke Bar. Spots like this one reinforce a long simmering suspicion of mine that, the younger the targeted market, the stupider the script must be.
 
First of all, I HATE that new McDonald's ad for the Fish McNuggets or whatever they call it, with people singing like fish. Stupid ad!

Second, old people ads are hitting Wheel of Fortune! Saw an ad for Lyrica with a retired school bus driver, and a Bayer Aspirin ad in the same national break.

-crainbebo
 
You know what tops them all? It's those TD Bank commercials with those people trying to get business done and the bank won't let them! "It's time to bank human again," they say! I hate those ads! Where are Regis and Kelly when we need them now? Bring them back, damnit!
 
Decades ago, my mother and I hated a Pepto-Bismol commercial. I still remember it because of the way it made us feel.
A person would say a long, drawn-out "Pepto" as the camera zoomed up to the speaker's face, distorting it and making it look very round, as if it were very bloated. Then the camera would pan back, and the person would say "Bismol" in a normal voice. Several people said this before the announcer made the statement about how Pepto-Bismol can help with nausea.
The commercial made my mother and I almost gag! It was TOO effective. The quick, jumpy zoom in on the person's face gave us both headaches.

The contemporary commercials that I despise so much that I have to use the mute button are those where the man is asking the children, "Which is better, big or little?" An annoying child starts rambling about something in response. I honestly do not know what product or company is being advertised in this series of commercials because I HAVE to tune them out.
 
"More is better than less, because, if, if, we want more, we'd like to have more, and, if, if..."

EXACTLY what I mean. Another horrible commercial. Should have fired the girl off the set! She may be kindergarten age, but she is ANNOYING!

-crainbebo
 
crainbebo said:
"More is better than less, because, if, if, we want more, we'd like to have more, and, if, if..."

EXACTLY what I mean. Another horrible commercial. Should have fired the girl off the set! She may be kindergarten age, but she is ANNOYING!

-crainbebo
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Just goes to show ya that what irritates some people amuses others. These spots are exactly what you would expect if you sat down a random group of youngsters and asked a question. Art Linkletter made a good living doing exactly that.
 
skippercollector said:
Decades ago, my mother and I hated a Pepto-Bismol commercial. I still remember it because of the way it made us feel.
A person would say a long, drawn-out "Pepto" as the camera zoomed up to the speaker's face, distorting it and making it look very round, as if it were very bloated. Then the camera would pan back, and the person would say "Bismol" in a normal voice. Several people said this before the announcer made the statement about how Pepto-Bismol can help with nausea.
The commercial made my mother and I almost gag! It was TOO effective. The quick, jumpy zoom in on the person's face gave us both headaches.

The contemporary commercials that I despise so much that I have to use the mute button are those where the man is asking the children, "Which is better, big or little?" An annoying child starts rambling about something in response. I honestly do not know what product or company is being advertised in this series of commercials because I HAVE to tune them out.
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I remember that Pepto ad VER-RRRRYYYYY...WE-EE-LLLLLL..oh, sorry. ;D INNNN-DIIII-GESSSSSSSSSTIOOOOONNN!
The AT&T ads with those kids have been hit or miss. Some of the kids speak more or less 'normally', others are there seemingly because someone thought their speech impediments are 'cute'.The girl you mentioned is terrible, but my least favorite, which has already been dropped, was the curly haired kid with that Elmer Fudd/Barbara Walters 'r w' lisp, babbling about 'a wi-uh on the TEEvee.' Not all of those ads are that bad, however, and the ones with old basketball players(Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), were a good 'spoof'.
 
onairb said:
skippercollector said:
Decades ago, my mother and I hated a Pepto-Bismol commercial. I still remember it because of the way it made us feel.
A person would say a long, drawn-out "Pepto" as the camera zoomed up to the speaker's face, distorting it and making it look very round, as if it were very bloated. Then the camera would pan back, and the person would say "Bismol" in a normal voice. Several people said this before the announcer made the statement about how Pepto-Bismol can help with nausea.
The commercial made my mother and I almost gag! It was TOO effective. The quick, jumpy zoom in on the person's face gave us both headaches.
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I remember that Pepto ad VER-RRRRYYYYY...WE-EE-LLLLLL..oh, sorry. ;D INNNN-DIIII-GESSSSSSSSSTIOOOOONNN!
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About when did those Pepto-Bismol ads air? If something like that aired in the 70s/80s/early 90s I'm sure the likes of Johnny Carson, SNL, SCTV and later David Letterman and/or the Simpsons would have had a field day parodying that ad. IMO especially Johnny (a la the "I would like to speak to you about . . . diarheea" followed by a pie in the face).
 
Tim from Springfield said:
onairb said:
skippercollector said:
Decades ago, my mother and I hated a Pepto-Bismol commercial. I still remember it because of the way it made us feel.
A person would say a long, drawn-out "Pepto" as the camera zoomed up to the speaker's face, distorting it and making it look very round, as if it were very bloated. Then the camera would pan back, and the person would say "Bismol" in a normal voice. Several people said this before the announcer made the statement about how Pepto-Bismol can help with nausea.
The commercial made my mother and I almost gag! It was TOO effective. The quick, jumpy zoom in on the person's face gave us both headaches.
Click to expand...
I remember that Pepto ad VER-RRRRYYYYY...WE-EE-LLLLLL..oh, sorry. ;D INNNN-DIIII-GESSSSSSSSSTIOOOOONNN!
Click to expand...

About when did those Pepto-Bismol ads air? If something like that aired in the 70s/80s/early 90s I'm sure the likes of Johnny Carson, SNL, SCTV and later David Letterman and/or the Simpsons would have had a field day parodying that ad. IMO especially Johnny (a la the "I would like to speak to you about . . . diarheea" followed by a pie in the face).
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Those ran during the 1970s apparently (here's one that was part of a demo reel for the old Dolphin Productions graphics outfit)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMvTNCz5LOc (go to 1:11)
 
I can't STAND that State Farm ad with the Asian girl wishing for "Insurance to find me money" in the store. It's aired almost 10,000 times on TV, give me a break!

Also, the Burger King Whopper ad where the man keeps saying "$1.29" about every 2 seconds!! Then some guy dressed up in a "1.29" suit and STARTS DANCING! I CANNOT wait to throw something at the TV for that!

-crainbebo
 
That horrible Mountain Dew commerical. If you're scratching your head, you probably never saw it. That's because this commercial was so creepy (some even called it racist) that not only did the agency pull the spot from TV, a replay was also removed from YouTube.
 
The commercial in which the guy says she's still gonna give him a heart attack. Drugs that induce suicide or insurance or some nonsense.
 


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