• Best/ Worst TV Commercials  November 11 - 2:12 pm

• Best/Worst TV Commercials Part II January 21 - 2:03 am

One word: Misandry.

http://www.peugeot.de/aktuell/video/peugeot.mpg

The Butterfinger commercial featuring the old man & woman sharing a pair of dentures. Yuck!

The "Truth" commercials. The Truth is people smoke because they want to and because they ignore the dangers. The Surgeon General's original condemnation of cigarettes came out in 1950. Before that there were Temperance groups that preached about how bad cigarettes were. Heck, I figure that when Sir Walter Raleigh brought tobacco back from the New World there must have been someone who said, "Take a rolled up burning leaf and stick it in your mouth and inhale? Are you crazy? You'll kill yourself!"

I don't know if it's a true story or apocryphal but, supposedly one of Raleigh's servants saw smoke coming from his mouth and thinking he was on fire, doused him with water.

Oh, sure - early Europeans were absolutely baffled by why anyone would want to pick up the tobacco habit. I'm not taking any responsibility for the site it's on, but here's an excellent reproduction of King James I's Counterblaste to Tobacco.

Meanwhile, back on topic...Y'know those Benilyn-DM cough syrup commercials? The one where the med student starts coughing in a vast lecture hall, and suddenly all his fellow students whip around and hold up their boxes of Benilyn in perfect formation (complete with military-style marching noises?)
So does anybody else think this lecture is taking place in the George Orwell Memorial School of Medicine?

There's a Jeep Liberty commercial that features the Sheryl Crow song "You're An Original." Sheryl Crow Rules!
The commercials for the new Lincoln Aviator (which is really just a gussied-up Ford Explorer) has a guy doing the voice over who sounds a lot like the actor who portrays Harley Earl in the latest Buick ads.

New Zealand TV currently has a rather good advert about drink-driving, which lasts about two minutes or so. It's about a car driver who, after having too much to drink with his mates one night, almost runs into a speeding motorcyclist on a country road, who ends up dead somewhere (we don't know where) - and who happens to be the car driver's best friend. The second half of the advert features the guilt-ridden car driver, hearing that the police are after the person responsible, and unable to sleep at night. All very dramatic (especially the guilty man's heavy breathing) but personally the tense atmosphere was completely ruined by the advert's slogan at the end:

"If you drink then drive, you're a bloody idiot."

There's a cute commercial for Mercedes-Benz airing now. In it, two young brothers rejoice, as they look out the window, see snow and scream "No School!" Their playful hysterics are quickly interrupted by their dad, who says to them "We're leaving in five minutes, guys." Turns out Dad has a four-wheel-drive Mercedes sedan.

I was watching a repeat of one of my favorite Once And Again episodes last night, when my mood was interrupted by this wretched hair dye ad. A guy is chatting with a lady on line, when the question of the guy's hair color comes up. First he types "Gray," then he changes it to "Salt and Pepper," before settling on "Brown." Next thing you know, the guy is dyeing his hair brown with the advertised product, "Just For Men." These ads make it seem like it's unattractive and out of touch (for both men and women) to have gray or graying hair. I have "Salt and Pepper" hair, and I would never dye it. Gray it stays. A dye job looks like a dye job-Yecch.

Yeah, I've got grey in my hair, too. I'm just not vain enough to even think about dyeing my hair. I really don't care enough to bother. I've earned every grey on my head, thankyouverymuch.

Indeed!
I feel the same way about balding. While not currently a problem for me, if/when I ever do start to lose my hair, I'm not going to fight it with awful comb-overs or bad rugs. I'm just going to shave my head and get it over with. (Currently, my hair's way too long for my liking, but I'm growing it out for the "Locks of Love" program. I hope they don't mind a few greys in there. Maybe I'll keep those as trophies of hard times fought and won. )

I discovered my first grey hair a week before my 16th birthday.

My hair may have a few grey hairs, but my mustache is definitely salt&pepper. Mrs. ScottN claims to like it.

The Albertson's commercials with Patricia Heaton are truly annoying. Mute button time.

While not as annoying the Glad Bag commercials with the ex-celebrities got me thinking that here's a sign that not only has one's career gone into the toilet, but that it's been flushed several times since.
I saw the one with Kathy Griffin complaining that the vegetables in the bargain bag stink & I said, "They almost stink as bad as your career."
Bad.

The Viagra comerical with all the people dancing in the streets while 'we are the champions' plays is horribly annoying, even more annoying then the viagra spam I get in my inbox.

These days I haven't found many commercials that make me want to hit the "mute" button.
So, since this is for best as well as worst commercials, has anyone seen the new Quizno's Subs commercial? I don't know which parts of the country have Quizno's, so maybe I'm the only one (I'm in Denton, TX, near Dallas), but man that thing is hilarious.

A recent Canadian tv ad was kind of disgusting, and I'm surprised in a way it aired. It was for Mark's Work Wearhouse, a major Canadian clothing retail chain, promoting stain resistant pants. The ad begins with someone handing their naked baby to another woman. The kid begins to urinate, but the Mark's spokeman freezes the action, and changes her clothes to the stain resistant stuff. He unfreezes the scene, and action resumes with the kid spraying all over the room as the woman holding him spins around in panic. People are screaming and trying to avoid getting hit, but to no avail as the baby is hosing the room down.

tim gueguen,

That kind of ad is memorable. That excuses the executives who came up with it, but not the network who showed it.

Which is kinda funny considering the hoopla over the new Dodge Durango ad

There's a cute ad for a new product-the Dupli Color Automotive Paint Pen. It shows a huge parking lot, with just one car in it. Next, we see some bozo pull up right within an inch of him, open the car door and put a scratch in the parked car's paint. (This is one of my pet peeves. I will park as far away from other cars as possible. Inevitably, someone will park right on top of you, no matter how many empty spaces the lot has.)

I can't stand the commercials for DirecTV, with major stars (Laurence Fishburne, Andy Garcia, Danny DeVito) overacting to the extreme while reading letters written to praise DirecTV.

This an upcoming commercial. It should either be here or the NFL and other American sports board.

Chrysler is floating the idea of buying time during the Super Bowl halftime to air a regular commercial in between the "Lingerie Bowl". (Am I spelling "lingerie" right? Frankly as a guy I have never read that word as pictures keep my interest whenever it is applicable.)

The "Lingerie Bowl" will feature models in lingerie playing tackle football. I'm not making this up. I got it from Friday's USA Today (Dec.4th). (It was left on a table in the lunch room and with the storm an old paper I have not read was the best available.)

It is not uncommon for a trial balloon for wacky ideas to be floated before spending millions on a one shot add, an Chrysler may be trying to get water cooler buzz without actually airing anything that will alienate the soccer moms, but ...

Can anyone explain what lingerie models have to do with cars. My mechanic never dresses that way (in public anyway).

Want to know what I don't like? Two Sprint commercials, one in a sorority house, the other in a fraternity house, and everyone is screaming "SEVEN!!!!!!!"

But you know what the best commercial is right now? Jack In The Box. If you live in a state where they don't have Jack In The Box, you are really missing out. Not only do they make great burgers but they also make amusing commercials. This one's got "Jack" (fictional CEO) at a board meeting trying to decide what to call the new chicken breast sandwich. He thinks aloud: "real breasts...bigger breasts..." Everyone else in the room is snickering and chuckling, then one guy raises his hand and Jack says flatly "Don't go there, Phil."

In a current comercial "Bob" asked his doctor about a natural male enhancement. While out bowling with his wife he grabs the wrong shoes. As they return the rented shoes we see he has like a size 26 or something. The guys at the counter exchange knowing glances and one winks. (I'm not sure if that is a "You go girl" to "Bob's" wife or a come on to "Bob".)

1) Shouldn't "Bob notice?
2) Shouldn't the guy with big feet notice the dinky shoes?
3) There is no eveidence supporting the "Big Feet = Big Elsewhere" bit. (Note to the ladies: I wear 10E. Triple E.)

[Reposted from the (now-defunct) 2004 topic Greenlight commercials and the worship of money - Mod]

Now I know money is being worshiped. That Greenlight 2nd morgage commercial which features a choir singing about it is very disturbing.

Somehow, DirecTV now has Robert Duvall, one of my favorite actors, shilling for them. I thought Mr. Duvall would never do a commercial of any kind.

I prefer DirecTV's commercial with Laurence Fishburne, "Jumpin' Jehosephat Yeehah!"

I liked DirecTV's old commercial with Joe Regalbuto.

"How does it work? I have no idea."

There's a cute current commercial for the Kia Rio. We first see what appears to be an old and beat-up Chevy Citation. A man approaches it, and begins to peel away the Citation covering, to reveal a brand new Kia Rio.

I'm getting annoyed at the ad blitz by the Shrek characters. In the last two days I've seen them promoting Sierra Mist, Baskin Robbins, and M&M's. I may have missed some.

It's one thing if it's a promotional tie-in (recalling some of the fiascos that Burger King and McDonald's had), but having so many ads for different things, using the same characters, seems to diminish their trademark somewhat.

Aggh! Another one last night for Dial soap! Can you say "overexposure"??

There's a cute current commercial for the Kia Rio. We first see what appears to be an old and beat-up Chevy Citation. A man approaches it, and begins to peel away the Citation covering, to reveal a brand new Kia Rio.

There's a nit there. If you look, you can see through the open windows on the "Citation" to the building behind it. And the "building" moves with perspective. Yet we see that the open window is merely painted on, and the Kia's windows are closed and tinted.

Finally saw the Kia ad yesterday, and thought "Oh, this is that Kia ad! Funny!" (It kind of reminds me of the Saturday Night Live ad for the Chameleon XLE.)

Didn't even notice the nit ScottN pointed out, though. Good one!

I really hate the Total cereal commercials with their "you'd have to eat so many bowls of (whatever) to get the vitamins & minerals" yadda yadda yadda.

The worst one features the hotel guests with the obnoxious bell boy. I find myself hoping one of the guests snaps and either kills this [CENSORED] or shoves all those bowls of cereal up his *Ahem*. At the very least the guests should point out that they only ordered one bowl and they'll only pay for one bowl.

Another features a guy's mother bringing him lots of bowls. This guy should pack mom off the old geezers home as quickly as possible.

I hate those ads because they're deceptive. They only focus on one piece of vitamin to one other cereal.

Even TV Guide had a "Jeer" this week to Shrek for its overabundance of product huckstering.

There's another ad, for hotels.com I think, where the site's representative is shown jogging while holding a tape measure and stops in front of a building, puts the end down, takes a reading (it looks like), then lets the tape measure go to have it snake back to the doorman who is holding the main body of it. The thing is, the doorman was holding the end with the proper reading on it! The gal would be looking at the end that says "1 inch", which wouldn't change. Now, it doesn't show where the actual reading takes place, but the impression given is that she does it.

Another problem with those Total cereal commercials is that they almost assume that breakfast is the only time someone will be eating. I mean, c'mon! There's lunch and supper and all those inbetween snacks. Surely, through those meals, you're going get your "Recommended Daily Requirement" of whatever vitamin Total is pushing.

Not sold in any store!

I am enjoying the NBA player ads for American Express. Last year, they had a series of clever ones featuring the coaches (Cartwright and the kids, Phil Jackson and a lottery ticket, etc.). This year, there have been two good ones featuring Kidd and Duncan (and hopefully more). The Duncan one is okay with the game face getting a better car deal, but the Kidd one is great with him reading an eye chart while looking away. The quietly sane way Jason Kidd says "Doc, I can't read when you're waving your hand around like that," and then swiftly resumes reading the chart cracks me up. And then Richard Jefferson has a cameo. Priceless.

Toyota has a funny commercial for its Corolla, that spoofs MTV's Pimp My Ride. A woman beings in a very beat up 1963 Ford Falcon into a shop, saying "Can you help me?" So, after a bit, the Falcon is (allegedly) turned into a Toyota Corolla.

The Priceline.com commercials with our Trek buddies are pretty amusing. So far, I've seen three. Funny line: "Oh, Bill. Thought it was room service."

I just love when Nimoy squeaks that little toy at Shatner.

Favorite new commercial campaign: Emerald Nuts. Each is all of 15 seconds long, presenting a scene that makes you go "Wha?!", then the EN logo comes on ("Egyptian Navigators love -- Emerald Nuts"). Short, to the point, and not back-to-backed like some of the Geico ads. The single ads stand out the most.

Not counting the ones I haven't seen yet, what other ones will they come up with?

Enterprise Nerds (sorry, had to have this one...)
Elegant Newscasters

The Summer's Eve commercials are the best. A loving warm enviroment surrounds that woman. It's humanistic and promises a better future.

Maybe. But how many women do you know discuss their feminine problems in public?

John, do you ever have that "not-so-fresh" feeling? J

Only after I fart.

Then buy some Beano!

One of the best ever? Outpost.com's hamster cannon. That was priceless.

Yep. And the releasing the wolves against the marching band.

I actually wrote to outpost.com to tell them how much I liked those commercials.

I used to love those catchy "I'm a Pepper!" commercials from the early 80's. I even remember the Dr. Pepper commercials that were tied in with Godzilla 1985.

Remember the "Pepper Guy"? He was David Naughton. He starred in the disco sitcom Makin' It and was An American Werewolf in London.

Barry Manilow wrote the "I'm a pepper" song.

"I'm a pepper,
He's a pepper,
She's a pepper,
We're all peppers
Wouldn't you like to be a pepper too?"

I drink Dr.Pepper cuz I'm proud,
I'm part of an original crowd,
and if you look around today
there seems to be a Dr. Pepper craze...

Weren't these commercials made before Dr Pepper was bought by the Coca-Cola Company?

So...
Drink Dr. Pepper,
The joy of every boy and girl
It's the most original soft drink ever
in the whole wide world!
(Dr. Pepper!)

NANJAO. Barry Manilow also wrote the McD's "You Deserve A Break Today" jingle.

A nit: it's Dr Pepper - no period after the Dee-are. (Just look at a can to be sure.)

"For whiter teeth and fresher breath..."

Weren't these commercials made before Dr Pepper was bought by the Coca-Cola Company?

Huh? Dr Pepper was independent until acquired by Cadbury-Schweppes nine years ago. Coca-Cola doesn't own Dr Pepper; hence, Mr. Pibb, their Dr Pepper clone.

Mr. Pibb was created in the early '70s, IIRC. I remember when they first came out. (God, does that date me.)

"Ring around the collar!"

I can never tell the difference between Dr Pepper & Mr. Pibb.

Mr. Pibb, is that a regional soda? I never heard of that.

Mr. Pibb is the Coca-Cola company's version of Dr Pepper.

Love the Visa check card commercial with Joe Torre & Steinbrenner, with an injured right arm. Someone had fun coming up with that one.

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I liked those emerald nuts commercials too.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Cog%2C+Accord&btnG=Google+Search

Coolest. Commercial. EVER.

Honda Accord's "Cog" commercial.

No CGI only one camera trick, namely the hall was only long enough for half of the setup so they filmed half and than set up the second half and used some tricks to match the 2 together.

Blast Pepsi for using scenes from the classic gladiator movie Spartacus to push their soda. It takes one of the most memorable scenes from cinema and trivializes it. I don't mind a parody now and then, but this seems like overdoing it (considering how often this commercial seems to be on).

Yeah, I saw this comerical recently as well and it sickened me that they'd do that to a classic.

Of course, it probably wouldn't have cheesed off people had they used the other logical choice... The Life of Brian.

I dunno... Chee-to's could probably do something with "Blessed are the cheesemakers".

Influx, Chris,

How many people will not get that joke and decide they should see the movie? (a lot less than will say, "ho-hum" and do nothing, but isn't 1 enough?)

Actually, I've never seen it, but like most of Monty Python, hear it quoted quite often. Maybe I should see it?

Oops, BB, I guess you were talking about Spartacus and not Life of Brian....

In that case, it might be difficult to take that scene as seriously as it warrants.

Like a few months ago when TCM had a double-feature of Airplane, and the movie it was based on, Zero Hour. I had taped them and watched Airplane first, then ZH. Seeing where the jokes came from, I couldn't help but laugh at ZH when it was actually supposed to be a thrilling movie.

But yeah, anything that gets people to watch classics is good, I guess. I hadn't even seen Spartacus until a few years ago.

Besides, the movie will be around long after the commercial has been forgotten.

(I sure wish there was an edit feature here...)

I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but I really like those Esurance cartoon ads with the spy girl & the car salesman.

Although in the last one the bad guys are after her in a helicopter and she jumps out a window and pops a parachute. Wouldn't that make her an easier target?

Not if she's Aeon Flux.

There's a new Esurance ad, but in this one the car salesman's intelligence seems to drop a bit as he doesn't seem as familiar with Esurance as one would think he was from having spy girl explain it to him in previous ads.

Not if she's Aeon Flux.

Who, by the way, is no relation to me...

I love the Jack in the Box commercials. It's about time we had a fast food clown that is 180 degrees from Ronald Mc Donald :>

The latest one showed this guy who keeps stalking Jack. "I'm glad you love my latest Chabata(?)s, stop sending your hair scuptures, I got a stun gun" -Jack

Although in the last one the bad guys are after her in a helicopter and she jumps out a window and pops a parachute. Wouldn't that make her an easier target?>

Well, I guess that, or go splat when she reaches the ground.

Or she could have used some kinda Batman-style grappling device.

The Leonard Nimoy Aleve (I think) commercial. The ending cracked me up.

That was pretty good too.

The DirectTV commercial with the original Star Trek cast in the movie uniforms. Had me both smiling & thinking, 'Bad, bad, bad.'

Had me both smiling & thinking, 'Bad, bad, bad.'
Why? I got a kick out of it, even though I didn't hear any of the dialog, as I was talking to my son over the phone. (So faf, I've only seen it once.) Oh, in true Star Trek fashion, the shot of Chekov is reversed. BTW, the clips are taken from Star Trek VI. Also, I think that Kirk's rank insignia on the shoulder patch is wrong.

Nit on that commercial -- the uniforms are STII-STV, but the Klingon ship appears to be from the series, rather than the movies.

Wasn't it the Klingon ship from Trials & Tribble-Ations?

Adam, not necesarily bad as in horrible, but more in how bad that it comes down to just hawking a product instead of being a brand new movie.

That being said I think the writer of the commercial did a better job than Brannon Braga.

Upon further review, the ship may in fact be Q'onos 1.

I'm pretty sure it is Quonous I.
I hope that the commercial will run during G4's "Trek Uncut" marathon tomorrow. It will definitely beat the endless commercials for the film The Science Of Sleep that G4's run ad nauseum lately.

I don't think the shot of Chekov is reversed. The strap is on his right shoulder.

The part in Chekov's hair is on the opposite side in the ad (his right, when it's normally on his left side.) I didn't notice the strap; I was concentrating on the hair. Also, Kirk's pointed sideburns are gone, and I think his rank insignia is wrong. I'll have to see it again to be sure.
There's a shot of Shatner getting into the turbo-lift at the end of the ad, that I'm sure was shot for the ad. Does that bridge set still exist any more?
Great line - "Enough with the shields!"

Oh, here's another nitpick about the ad - The commercial closes with the Jerry Goldsmith theme music from Star Trek - TMP. But, Star Trek VI didn't use any of Mr. Goldsmith's TMP theme. (I know - Pick, pick, pick.)

Who said it was supposed to be Trek 6? All we really know is that it was the Trek 2-6 ERA.

This is cool.

I really hate the anti-money commercials. When the evil person who tries to pay with *shock gasp* real money I half-expect to see someone scream, "Unclean!" & then see the credit card users stone the heathen to death.

I really find it a dumb commercial because when I worked at the movie theater (back when we used a dial-up to confirm credit cards) I knew that any credit card meant about 20-30 seconds of waiting for it to come back. If someone paid me in cash I could make change for them in like 5 seconds. Doesn't sound like much but when over 1000 people come through your line an extra 25 seconds times several hundred people is a lot.

There's a new AT&T cable commercial on the radio featuring an old lady looking at a police line-up. The commercial ends with the old lady banging on the window and yelling, "Hey! Did you hear that in there? I'm getting AT&T now! HAH!"

It's a riot.

I don't know what to think about this, but - AFLAC has a new commercial out, just in time for Christmas, in which the AFLAC duck (voiced by Gilbert Gottfried) is paired with the characters from the 1964 Rankin-Bass special Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer. They (assumedly) even made duplicates of the stop-motion figures used in the special. The duck winds up leading the reindeer on Christmas Eve. More on the Rudolph special here.

Actually, Rudolph gets better, but the AFLAC duck fills in for Donner (I think).

Blitzen.

Actually, the orignal name for that reindeer is "Donder"...it's German for "Thunder"...."Blitzen" is German for "Lightning" (Like: Blitzkreig)

The Rudolph special aired the other night, for what's probably the show's 44th run since 1964. I thought that CBS might run the "Rudolph"/AFLAC ad in it, but they didn't. I guess their reasoning would be that it might confuse the kiddies who were watching.

The original Rudolph & Santa figures are currently on display at the Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield, Il.

Apparently, some collector purchased the items from Rankin/Bass & restored them.

This just reminded me that I have little PVC figures (and one BIG one) of a lot of those characters around somewhere. I really should pull those out for Xmas.

Thers'a an amusing commercial for Citibank. (At least I think it's Citibank.) A guy and his wife (or girlfriend) are having dinner at this exclusive restaurant, where they had to wait forever to get reservations. (Me, I'd rather go to Chili's or Applebee's than some hoity-toity spot.) The service, they say, is superb. They're served thair dinner, and it's the smallest portions possible. The "chicken" leg is unbelievably tiny. The guy says to his lady "Looks like elf food." So, the guy and his lady head to a grocery store and stock up on junk food, with the lady muttering "I'm so hungry." Of course, they pay for it with their Citi card. The ad ends with the couple feeding each other on the couch. How nice.
As a side note, I almost never pay cash for anything these days. Almost everything I buy I use my debit card.

Jaguar has this cool commercial for it's very cool XF model. The ad features Deep Purple's "Hush", one of the gretest songs ever. (IMHO, of course.)

Let's not forget the Yogi Berra AFLAC commercial.

Yogi is awesome!

Newest commercial for DirecTV has Robert Patrick re-creating his T-1000 role fron Terminator 2. In liquid metal form.

Yeah, and just like Han didn't shoot first, T1000 doesn't want to kill John Connor, he just wants to watch his DirectTV.

Verizon has a commercial which makes me glad I don't have a cell phone. A guy is on-line with his web-cammed girlfriend. She's constantly cooing "Who's my cuddle-bear?" He closes his computer (with a sign of relief on his face), walks outside, and his cellphone rings. Right. It's the girlfriend, cooing the same treacly "cuddlebear" phrase. I know that she's trying to be lovey-dovey, but to me, that qualifies as cyber stalking. Leave the guy alone for a minute, will you? Besides, my girlfriend would never do that. She does have a life.

The new Morrison's advert with Richard Hammond. The bit where the lady says, "Roadhog" (oh ho ho, so funny) to him because he crashes into her with his trolley, and he pulls this face which seems to be directed at an invisible person standing over his right shoulder. He really should have more pride than this, it's just painful.........

Oh, and the new "Just for Men" advert, with the 'cute' little girls telling their dad that's he's very grey and he'll never get a woman that way. Firstly, they deserve to be sent to the naughty step for having the impertinence to point out their dad's grey, and secondly (or maybe joint firstly) how dare they assume that because a man has some grey hairs, a woman won't find him attractive. Anthony Hopkins, Michael Douglas, George Clooney - are these men considered to be ugly? And yet I think they have, er, maybe one or two grey hairs they haven't covered up. Even my beloved James May has some very dignified grey.

Volkswagen has an irritating commercial for its "Punch-Dub" sale days. A woman constantly hits the VW salesman in his shoulder whenever she sees a VW. ("Green one. White one.") And, she sees a lot of VW's, as she's in one of their dealerships. I'm waiting for the ad in which the salesman punches the customer back. I still say that the Jetta is a blast to drive, despite the irritating ads.

You might get some arguments from SLUGBUG who used to be a member here.... :P

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quote:

The new "Just for Men" advert, with the 'cute' little girls telling their dad that's he's very grey and he'll never get a woman that way. Firstly, they deserve to be sent to the naughty step for having the impertinence to point out their dad's grey, and secondly (or maybe joint firstly) how dare they assume that because a man has some grey hairs, a woman won't find him attractive.

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The commercial. Look at his name, for goodness sake!

Oh. Now I get you. Sometimes, I'm just so dense...

Nah, you're just gettin' old, Adam.

Points at Adam

At least I'm not as old as him!!! Now what was I a-sayin' ag'in? Git off'n my lawn, y'darned kids!

I purely hate the "Mission Impoosible" Chase debit card commercial in where the guy and his date/wife go to a fancy restaraunt, and he finds out it's "cash only". So he has to run and find an ATM before his date realizes he's gone.

Why not just say, "Oh, I didn't realize it was cash only here. I'll be back in a few after I hit an ATM". Instead he runs out while his date reads the ENTIRE menu out loud (yeah, right), and plops down just before she finishes, and has to pretend he knows what he's having.

Dumb dumb dumb.

What sort of restaurants are cash only anyway (fancy ones like that anyway)?

What sort of restaurants are cash only anyway (fancy ones like that anyway)?

I've never been to a restaurant that took cash only. And, that includes diners, chains, and local eateries. Even the hoity-toity "Louis XVI" that my girlfriend and I ate in late Sept. 2008 took plastic (although I paid cash anyway.)

The plastic-faced "Burger King" of the commercials remind me of the old movie Mr. Sardonicus. So, why did they hire the narrator of Forensic Files, Peter Thomas, to do the voice overs for the latest ads? That just adds an extra layer of creepiness.

What sort of restaurants are cash only anyway (fancy ones like that anyway)?

Even Waffle House takes credit cards today.

I like the commercial for J.G. Wentworth, in which people on a bus sing lyrics (in operatic fashion) like "I have a structured settlement but I need cash now." In a bit of juvenile behavior, I sang those lyrics to my sister's dog to get a rise out of her; the dog had the good sense not to pay me any mind. Especially since my singing voice would probably count as animal cruelty.

I sang those lyrics to my sister's dog...

I think they make medication for that.

The ad mentioned in this post may not be the best or worst around, but it amuses me greatly nonetheless. Post has a new commercial for its Honey Bunches of Oats cereal, that samples the chorus of the 1976 song "More More More" by the "Andrea True Connection." The account executive from the agency that handles Post should have researched the song a bit more. Andrea True was a major '70s porn star, and (IIRC) the thrust of the song is the making of a porn film. BTW, Ms. True passed away on November 7, 2011 at the age of 68.

There's an annoying radio commercial where a mother is talking about her son's school problems with the computer program, Siri.

Maybe her son's problems stem from having a mother who talks to inanimate objects rather than real, live human beings?

I really like this commercial for Schick Xtreme 3. The secretary's smile when she sees what the guy did is priceless, as well as the other candidates reaction when they see the boss come out of his office.

This commercial for 1-800-Contacts reminds me of the Seinfeld episode "The Pothole". Specifically, when Jerry accidentally drops his girlfriend's toothbrush into the toilet.

The Cottee's cordial ad jingle was so well known in Australia that The D-Generation comedy troupe used it in their parody of the media hysteria about the Bosnian War. In the comedy sketch, a Serb militia man is interviewed by a boneheaded tabloid-style reporter and when the man is questioned about the red stains on the wall, he claims that they are raspberry cordial and starts singing the Cottee's cordial jingle.

A commercial for American Express features a photographer named Pei Ketron. In one of the last shots of the ad, we see a tattoo covering a major portion of Ketron's back. I gather Ketron has other tattoos in places we can't see. I wonder if she paid for the tattoos with her American Express.

Remember Emily Mae Young (SORASed Lily on Step by Step) and Welch's Grape Juice?

One amusing commercial for Milky Way has a tattoo artist inking a biker-type guy with "No Regerts" instead of "No Regrets". The guy is shocked, and the artist says (in her best Brooklyn accent) "I was eating a Milky Way." I'll bet that guy has one "regert" now.

Cigna Insurance has a fun commercial with "the TV doctors of America". They are Noah Wyle (ER), Alan Alda (M*A*S*H), Lisa Edelstein (House), Donald Faison (Scrubs) and Patrick Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy). I wonder if Hugh Laurie was asked. My guess - he probably wants to put House behind him. The commercial can be watched here.

I believe the Lynda Carter / Maybelline swimming pool commercial is THE best commercial ever....

Especially when Lynda says, "Moist"...and "Wet"

Never before has double meanings sounded so sexy.

Makes you wonder if she's referring to the lipstick or herself.

You've got Marina. Hands off Lynda! She's MINE!!!

She was all mine way back when, gentlemen.

This is AWESOME!

There's an ad running here in Oz parodying the Grail Knight from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"... a movie which is 29 years old. Says a lot about the age of the people behind the ad, doesn't it?

A fun commercial for Swiffer shows a very hairy white cat go nuts and run around the house wildly, just as his owner leaves, leaving cat hair everywhere; the tag line for the commercial is "If you have a wild child..." As an aside, most cats I've seen are lazy as sin; they don't move as much in a month as the cat in the commercial moves in 30 seconds.

I like the commercials with Joe Namath promoting the Medicare Coverage Helpline. One reason is that in a bit over 11 months, yours truly will be eligible for Medicare. (Hope that low rent idiot now in the White House will leave well enough alone in that matter.)

I thought it was sad. Broadway Joe reduced to a whiny old man.

80's icon Cyndi Lauper is (unintentionally) amusing in those commercials for the psoriasis drug Cosentyx, with her Noo Yawk accent. Especially at the end of one, when she says "Cleah skin can laasst".

lovely Christmas ad - can't have the girl in trousers https://youtu.be/Es_GPvlDDRM?t=54

Why would she need to be, Judi?

I've just remembered how much i hated that old Chicken Tonight campaign.

The Pissweak Kids on "The D-Generation" comedy show put it best: "the food that makes you dance like a chicken and look like a dickhead!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl3GC6bxmWE

Everytime I hear 'So Happy Together' by The Turtles, I always think of this funny Toyota commercial from more than 10 years ago.

https://youtu.be/tzvL7e_wiVM

Think I remember that one.

That IS a good one.

I wonder if it inspired the writers of the movie 'Mr. And Mrs. Smith'?

The movie that inflicted Brangelina on the world.

I was thinking The War Of The Roses instead.

You know, maybe instead of trying to kill each other they could just buy a second car and get a divorce?

Why get a divorce? Once they have two Toyotas, they have no more reasons to kill each other.

Good point.

Well, to my way of thinking, trying to kill each other implies deeper problems than "I really like that car!"

The car was just the final straw in their deep-seated resentment of each other and not the actual cause of their wanting to kill each other.

Well, it's a Toyota commercial, so of course it implies that this absolutely wonderful car is enough of a reason for them to kill each other over it.

And blow up their house, too!
The lawyers are gonna have a field day in court!

I really find those Workhuman* commercials they run on the CW shows to be really annoying.
They come off like the sort of thing a bean counter might come up with to avoid paying bonuses or give raises. "Wage slaves love it when you tell them how well they're appreciated! Manipulate their stupid human feelings!"

Wendy's is plugging their new breakfast meal with a version of "Where's the beef?" Instead of beef, the old lady asks where the bacon is.

Of course, the original "Where's the beef?" lady is long dead, so this is a different one.

Of course, anyone born after the 80's will be scratching their heads. They will not understand this reference.

"Where's the beef?" did become a catchphrase outside of the commercial, so people might know the phrase without knowing it's origin.

Funny that the commercial writer thought the catchphrase would be "big, fluffy bun", instead.

Could be.

A new commercial for Dash Pass shows a man sitting on the rear bumper of a Ford Pinto. Since the car has the 5 mph bumpers required back then, it's a 1974-80 model. He's lucky the car didn't explode when he sat on it. I also refer you to the movie Top Secret, which spoofs that. (Seriously, the Pinto was a rolling death trap; as the linked article says, Ford figured it would be cheaper to pay any lawsuits that would come their way, rather than recall and fix the cars.)

1998, back when beer commercials were fun...

https://youtu.be/EYM74s79hLg

Yeah, I remember those.

There's a Suburu commercial featuring crippled shelter dogs which has a good message, but visually looks cruel.

It has these pathetic looking, sad dogs, one is blind, one has three legs, one has two working front legs while his back half in in a wheeled cart. And they look so sad and pathetic that I think, "What cruel monster is forcing these poor animals to run at the camera?"

Now maybe the dogs are happy to be out and running around, but it didn't look that way to me.

An otherwise good message, but showing the animals enjoying their time out running around at the end would have worked much better.

Never seen that one.

Here is a compilation of all the Dos Equis "Most interesting man in the world" commercials. That was one of the greatest publicity campaign in history.

And one of the most boring, IMO.

I hate two commercials for Downy Infusions detergent or whatever the stuff is. Not even going to post a link for it-- you'll just have to take my word for how annoying it is.
A mother and father are 'doing the laundry' (because they're in the laundry room), but we first see them literally just staring at the wall. They look to their left as they hear their kids fighting in the next room. Seemingly, to get away from the noise (and not take action or partake in any parental duties), they both just bury their faces in a blanket and snort the wonderful scent of Downy Infusions, to relax themselves and escape parenthood.

A similar second commercial has these same two awful parents, dealing with a crying baby. On the frowning mother I've never seen a more depressed, defeated, destroyed, I-want-to-kill-my-own-baby expression on anyone in my life. Fortunately, they possess Downy Infusions! Next we see the father dancing with his baby in his arms to happy music, while the mother swishes back and forth, 'sorta' dancing, but again, doing nothing to comfort her baby. It's all on daddy and especially Downy Infusions.
I can't stand these commercials, and for the past several months (and EVEN AS I WROTE THIS!!!!!), the bloody first commercial aired on TWO different stations!

Sounds like you have the same hate for these commercials that I had for that Bounty one.

Oh, yes. And just like the Bounty actors, I sarcastically think these two are millionaires by now, considering how often their commercials air!

Well, do what I did with Bounty.

Boycott Downy.

There are some annoying commercials for some AIDS treatments out there (at least, two, but I don't remember the names), and the thing that's annoying is the message that people who take the treatment can go back to the hedonistic, casual sex lifestyle that made AIDS such a widespread killer in the first place.

Pregnancy isn't the only consequence of lots of sex, sexually transmitted diseases are another one, but these ads seem to promote a consequence free lifestyle.

It's like if some comedy show had made a 'commercial' about Head Putty, "the next time you lose at Russian Roulette, just have your friend put Head Putty in the wound and in fifteen minutes you'll be ready to play another round of Russian Roulette", but done seriously, not for laughs.

And some brain dead dittoheads will believe these ads.

There are some annoying commercials for some AIDS treatments out there (at least, two, but I don't remember the names...

One of those medications is called (IIRC) Dovato. It's most memorable to me, as some fellow with a ridiculously long beard is singing its praises. Stuff like that makes me wish that commercials for prescription drugs were again banned. This is coming from a user of five prescription meds, covering the gamut from prostate problems, seizures, hypertension and skin disorders.

Years ago, youtube kept showing me ads for insurance. One showed some gentleman on the toilet on his phone. A disgusting enough habit. Someone closes a door to a stall that startles him and he drops the phone in the toilet and freaks out. The ads vanished for years but have come back somewhat recently.

Yeah, sometimes commercials come back from exile, for some reason.

I think they need to pass a law: After a commercial has aired for a certain amount of time, say six months, it can never air again.

I came across this funny commercial today while watching old music videos on my VCR. Yes, I still use my VCR for things I don't have on DVD.

https://youtu.be/Atz_UTAkjIk

Same here.

I still have my VCR because I still have a few VHS tapes.

I've got a bunch of VHSs and I still record the Weather Channel forecast in the mornings.

Guess we're showing our age, Butch

Butch, can I ask why you record weather forecasts?

Here is a commercial for the Nissan Frontier truck dating back a decade. First, let me say that it looks great and is very well scripted and shot. But, of course, it has nits or I wouldn't talk about it here. First nit, a jetliner's landing speed is between 140 to 160 knots. That translates to a minimum of 240 kph or 150 mph. I don't think a truck could match that speed, certainly not in the short time shown here. Second, obviously, no truck would be able to handle that much weight. Third, how could the plane's pilot and the truck driver manage to synchronize their breaking actions well enough to keep the plane's damaged gear on the truck's bed? Finally, airports have procedures to handle such emergencies, one of which being evacuating the runway involved of all unnecessary personel. That guy and his magical truck should never have been there in the first place.

I don't think that accuracy was top priority here.

I wonder if the creators ever saw the first episode of 'Thunderbirds', where this emergency also occurred (although this plane has NO functioning landing gear);

https://youtu.be/yR4nKdMYKGc?si=IkvhQn-u1uqaB4mt

The classic "How many licks?" Tootsie Pop commercial is back, at least for the Halloween season.

What?

That commercial must be fifty years old now!

Yes, and now the owl has to use his false teeth crunch the candy. ;-)

True.

Here is a great Star Trek commercial for the Old Space Channel (now CTV Sci-Fi) in Canada.

Never saw that one.

I vaguely remember that one, because they really did play ALOT of Star Trek.
Nowadays, stations will play 4 or 5 hours of the same series and nobody complains.

And on the subject of Star Trek, this one popped up on my youtube choices out of nowhere.
Don't know if the cast did voiceovers, but they sound like them;

https://youtu.be/8ZBTDlvShYg?si=kBTDmU0azTn8yvhn

Someone needs to tell CTV Sci-Fi that there are other Sci-Fi shows besides Star Trek and f**king Stargate! And what is Castle, a cop show, doing there!?

Whomever is in charge of programming at CTV Sci-Fi needs to be fired.

Ah, yes, 'Castle', which CTV Sci-Fi airs weekdays at 9am and 10am and then AGAIN at 5pm and 6pm and YET AGAIN at 11pm and 12am!!!!
SIX HOUS OF FLIPPIN' 'CASTLE' A DAY???!!! What the hell, man???!!!

But, that's not all! Sometimes movies won't be remotely science fiction, such as 'The Equalizer' and '12 Strong' this weekend.

So, how does Sy-Fy fare down in the U.S.?

The CRTC really needs to start cracking down.

Tell CTV Sci-Fi that they either return to their original mandate, or they're off the air.

Not so much a commercial, but a way the YouTube TV app allows one to skip (or not) the rest of a commercial.

They started off with a simple countdown that after a certain point you click your remote to skip the rest of a commercial, however, more and more common is the tendency for the counter to reach 1 and then they start a new commercial and a new countdown.

So you either are fast enough to click in the split second between ads or you have to sit there and suffer through another countdown.

I consider this tactic to be a lie plain and simple as they are not really giving the viewer a legitimate chance to skip the commercial and get back to the video.

AdBlock comes in handy here.

This isn't the computer, this is the built-in app that allows one to watch YouTube (& other streaming services) on the TV. I don't believe AdBlock is an option.

Oh.

Never mind.