Say What?: Commercials That Made Us Scratch Our Heads

[Callasin]

There's a commercial where the people call this dog to get in the car.  They show it when he is little and then older.  Sorry but I have only caught part of it twice so I don't remember what product they are advertising.  What has me confused is the dog's name.  It sounds like his name is Duck.  Am I hearing this right?  That's an odd dog name.

[Moose135]

""You know what I drink when I am feeling low?" I heard, "booze!" ........ it was Boost.

 

Either one works...

[CoderLady]

There's a commercial where the people call this dog to get in the car. They show it when he is little and then older. Sorry but I have only caught part of it twice so I don't remember what product they are advertising. What has me confused is the dog's name. It sounds like his name is Duck. Am I hearing this right? That's an odd dog name.

You are hearing right. When the puppy is new the grownups tell the little boy the dog's name is "Duke" but he pronounces it "Duck." The name sticks forever.

Edited July 12, 2015 by CoderLady

[Sandman87]

Oddly enough, the word "duke" comes from the Latin word dux (pronounced "ducks"), so maybe the kid is really, really smart.

[xls]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJPYPE335KI

[Prevailing Wind]

Aw, that's so sweet.  Too bad it's for such an awful pet food. Perhaps the dog food's better, but I've never had a cat willingly eat IAMS.

[BusyOctober]

I keep seeing an ad for a new zip-lock baggie.  It has "tabs" to make it easier to open so your child can avoid the horrifying and potentially middle school career ending embarrassment of spraying chip shrapnel across the cafeteria.  I'm sorry, but if your special snowflake hasn't mastered opening a snack bag by 5th grade, that failure is on you as a parent. Showing me a seemingly capable 11 yr old girl struggling with the non-tab bag just reminds me of how far the dumbing down of kids continues to spiral out of control.  One one hand we have educators and parents asking for more STEM/STEAM focused learning, but Poor Precious can't get into her Doritos on her own?

 

That said, I think the marketing execs missed other target audiences.  These tabs could be very helpful for folks with fine motor skill issues or Rheumatoid Arthritis or partial paralysis, etc. 

[St. Claire]

Part of what irritates me about that commercial is that the exploding chip bag isn't even a zipper bag, it's regular chip bag (which I've seen adults have problems opening without spewing chips all over the room). This doesn't show me why to use the tabby bags. (full disclosure- I put my kids' snacks into zipper baggies when I pack lunches, but it's because I'm too cheap to pay for the individual servings of snacks when I could get bigger bags for much less cost per serving and divide them into individual servings myself.)

[Rick Kitchen]

Who could possibly have thought that "I Ching Chang Ding Dang" is an appropriate thing to be singing?  I don't care if it is a Nina Simone song.

http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7h9f/behr-paint-true-to-hue-song-by-nina-simone

[CarpeDiem54]

Who could possibly have thought that "I Ching Chang Ding Dang" is an appropriate thing to be singing?  I don't care if it is a Nina Simone song.

http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7h9f/behr-paint-true-to-hue-song-by-nina-simone

Rick, honey, where have ya been? We've been beating that commercial to death. LOL! It's also known as the "Cholera's a beautiful thing" ad.

[Muffyn]

I don't know about Rick, but I was busy ching changging my ding dang. 

[Moose135]

Showing me a seemingly capable 11 yr old girl struggling with the non-tab bag just reminds me of how far the dumbing down of kids continues to spiral out of control.

 

Was she in black and white while struggling with the non-tab bag?

[Cobalt Stargazer]

I don't know about Rick, but I was busy ching changging my ding dang. 

 

This makes me think of Jesus Built My Hotrod by Ministry.

 

"I knew there was only one thing I could do. Was to ding a ding dang my dang-along-ling-long."

[Aquarius]

Rick, honey, where have ya been? We've been beating that commercial to death. LOL! It's also known as the "Cholera's a beautiful thing" ad.

 

I'll have you know, thanks to all of you here, I strode into my workplace bathroom today singing, "Cholera's a beautiful thing!"  So not cool.

 

I don't know about Rick, but I was busy ching changging my ding dang. 

 

I'm filing that under "TMI."

[Rick Kitchen]

Rick, honey, where have ya been? We've been beating that commercial to death. LOL! It's also known as the "Cholera's a beautiful thing" ad.

 

Yeah, but I find the fake Chinese verging on racist.

[CarpeDiem54]

I find it just bizarre.

I think it's supposed to be some kind of jazz scat, but it comes across like animal scat - shitty.

Edited July 14, 2015 by CarpeDiem54

[Jamoche]

That said, I think the marketing execs missed other target audiences.  These tabs could be very helpful for folks with fine motor skill issues or Rheumatoid Arthritis or partial paralysis, etc. 

Someone - I don't think it was here, but it might have been - said a lot of those things are designed for people with motor skill issues etc, but it's not a big enough market so that's why we get so many late-night ads trying to convince able-bodied people that they really need them.

[smittykins]

An editor on TV Tropes pretty much said the same thing:

Might be Truth in Television for some products and some users. In fact, many of these products were invented specifically for the elderly and disabled, people who legitimately could have problems with some of these tasks. The Snuggie, for instance, was originally meant for wheelchair users who often have problems regulating their body temperature - the design allows for the upper body and legs to both be fully covered without a corner getting caught in a wheel and without fabric bunching up in the back (which can cause bedsores). The "being too incompetent to use it" factor usually arises when the item is marketed to a general audience and it becomes necessary to convince them that they can't live without these products. Even worse, products intended originally for a general audience, which shouldn't really need this, are still advertised with utter incompetents.

[90PercentGravity]

I guess Milk wasn't performing well in the dirty old man demographic? http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7D22/milk-life-tango

[Prevailing Wind]

What? He likes to tango.  Why is he a dirty old man?

[riley702]

I thought he looked rather debonair, myself. 

[90PercentGravity]

There is an opioid constipation commercial where the guy keeps saying "oic," but I always hear "oh, I see" and it sounds ridiculous.

[erikdepressant]

There is an opioid constipation commercial where the guy keeps saying "oic," but I always hear "oh, I see" and it sounds ridiculous.

I've started using the mute button to manage my A.I.E.R. (Acronym-Induced Eye Roll).

Edited July 15, 2015 by erikdepressant

[Sandman87]

There's an ad that's been running on RetroTV for a sunscreen-like stuff called Anthelios. Name makes sense right? "Ant-Helios", which would be "against sun" if you treat it as something like Greek. Unfortunately they're pronouncing it "An-thelios" in the ad, which would be "without this nonsense word that we made up."

Why does Lipton think that "ti-hiney bubbles" will make me want to buy their dogawful beverage? I'm not putting anything in my mouth involving any kind of "hiney bubbles."

[Rick Kitchen]

Why did Ford run a Spanish language ad in the middle of the All Star Game broadcast?  They had run the exact same ad (just with English speaking actors) before during the game.  If a person who speaks Spanish was watching the broadcast, wouldn't they have been watching it with SAP turned on?

[Moose135]

Why did Ford run a Spanish language ad in the middle of the All Star Game broadcast?

 

The one with the pickup truck and the bear? Double fail in that case, because it was a Chevy truck ad...

[zillabreeze]

Maybe I haven't gone far enough back- but have you guys covered the Magnum ice cream bar ad?   I can't hit mute fast enough.... "Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets..."  The voice that sings is just horrible and scratchy.  I'm sure it's someone famous from the past but aaargh!  SHUT UP.

 

And WTF makes Lola so damn special?  I can walk into a store and buy high end ice cream, too. 

[riley702]

Actually, I always liked that song.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whatever_Lola_Wants

 

Edited July 15, 2015 by riley702

[janie jones]

What? He likes to tango.  Why is he a dirty old man?

I wouldn't call him a dirty old man, but maybe it's because he's dancing with a woman young enough to be his daughter.

 

Why did Ford run a Spanish language ad in the middle of the All Star Game broadcast?  They had run the exact same ad (just with English speaking actors) before during the game.  If a person who speaks Spanish was watching the broadcast, wouldn't they have been watching it with SAP turned on?

To be inclusive?  I've seen some Spanish commercials here and there in otherwise English programming.

[Ubiquitous]

Why didn't he buy his wife a cone?

Did he had two or three cones in the car? I'm drawing a blank.

[90PercentGravity]

Domino's commercial (paraphrasing): "We want to become carry-out experts, so we're offering a deal to get more people through the door. Help us become carry-out experts."

 

What??? Why would I want to go to your "restaurant" when you are telling me you don't know what you are doing?

[LoneHaranguer]

 

To be inclusive?  I've seen some Spanish commercials here and there in otherwise English programming.

It could be a subtle form of bigotry. It's pretty much assumed that everyone else in the U.S. can cope with English. Yet for Hispanics you need to translate. What kind of message is that supposed to send?

[Demented Daisy]

Every single Burger King chicken fries commercial.  I get they're supposed to be funny....  At least, I think they're supposed to be funny....

[SoSueMe]

Chaotic ad with small print.

Not even real mascara application effects, lol. "Simulation of product results on lashes enhanced with lash inserts."

http://www.maybelline.com/Products/Eye-Makeup/Mascara/volum-express-the-colossal-chaotic-lash-waterproof.aspx

[SoSueMe]

Sorry, one of those pesky duplicate posts I had to delete :)

Edited July 15, 2015 by SoSueMe

[bilgistic]

The Burger King commercial in which one chicken takes a picture of another chicken with a phone (because even chickens have phones now?), then draws on the picture, then whisper-growls "Chicken friiiiies!" is TERRIFYING.

Edited July 16, 2015 by bilgistic

[Cobalt Stargazer]

The Burger King commercial in which one chicken takes a picture of another chicken with a phone (because even chickens have phones now?), then draws on the picture, then whisper-growls "Chicken friiiiies!" is TERRIFYING.

 

Hey, if geese can have them, let's not discriminate against the chickens.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsa26Vcz8_A

[Sandman87]

The Burger King commercial in which one chicken takes a picture of another chicken with a phone (because even chickens have phones now?), then draws on the picture, then whisper-growls "Chicken friiiiies!" is TERRIFYING.

Yeah, with that ad it's gone from being sort of a Romeo and Juliette story to being more of a Fatal Attraction thing.

[BatmanBeatles]

So Maybelline is now selling intentionally clumpy mascara??

It must be a nightmare for contact lens wearers.

[AntiBeeSpray]

I just saw that crap in stores recently! O_O

[riley702]

Didn't clumps used to be a bad thing? 

[GaT]

This is not a real commercial, but it played on MTV with no context in the middle of a commercial break, & I sat here with my jaw dropped wondering what the hell I was watching.

[erikdepressant]

This is not a real commercial, but it played on MTV with no context in the middle of a commercial break, & I sat here with my jaw dropped wondering what the hell I was watching.

I think MTV is trying to build up awareness about a documentary they're going to broadcast in a couple of weeks.  It's called "White People," and I can't tell if it's going to be a series, mini-series, or standalone show.

 

[Brattinella]

It must be a nightmare for contact lens wearers.

 

That crap would be an IMPOSSIBILITY for contact lens wearers; those 'clumps' are actually fibers that are 'glued' onto your lashes with the gunky mascara.  That shit FALLS OFF into your eyes!  Hell No!

Regarding those two videos posted above:  Looks like more anti-white propaganda.

[Rick Kitchen]

This is not a real commercial, but it played on MTV with no context in the middle of a commercial break, & I sat here with my jaw dropped wondering what the hell I was watching.

 

That website is real - http://www.whitesquad.com/

[Aquarius]

That website is real - http://www.whitesquad.com/

 

No, it's not.  Check out the FAQ about the cost of the services and the partner - Look Different.

[GaT]

All I know is that this appeared in the middle of a bunch of other commercials, & I had no idea what it was LOL

[Rick Kitchen]

No, it's not.  Check out the FAQ about the cost of the services and the partner - Look Different.

 

I didn't say it was a real service, I said it was a real website.

[ParadoxLost]

So maybe Nissan needs to get a focus group to tell them what they hear when the song in their commercial plays...

 

"I came in like a rainbow. I never hit so hard you know. All I wanted was to break your balls.  All you ever did was ra-a-ape me.  Yeah you ra-a-ape me."

 

Not even the car being smashed at the junkyard helped.  After a couple WTF reactions to the commercial google explained that it was Miley Cyrus Wrecking Ball

[Cobalt Stargazer]

So, here's a hell of a note. I was minding my own business, watching Frasier on Hallmark, when this happened.

 

http://www.ispot.tv/ad/76FB/compose

 

Are the Incontinence Specialists aware that there is more than one type of constipation? Does this drug company know that their medication causes the reverse of the Jersey Trots? What the fuck kind of study did they have to do to discover this?! I have questions, people. So. Many. Questions.

Edited July 17, 2015 by Cobalt Stargazer