Commercials That Annoy, Irritate or Outright Enrage

[havahabit]

On 1/3/2017 at 5:16 PM, Gam2 said:

Just saw the Cascade Platinum commercial for the millionth time. The wife takes the "Alfredo" baking pan out of the dishwasher and hands it to her husband, then takes a bunch of other pans out. Alfredo sauce is NOT RED. It's WHITE. We eat alfredo sauce with pasta all the time.  Can't these people get anything right on these commercials?! 

Thank you! Drives me nuts every.fucking.time!

[Cobalt Stargazer]

8 hours ago, Brattinella said:

She has said it herself Bread, bread, bread, bread BREAD!  I don't think WW allows you unlimited bread.

And really, if she hadn't been so clear in saying she loves bread, I could probably let it go. Like, if it was chocolate or something it wouldn't be so annoying, because chocolate is pretty clearly a no no for dieters. But a quick Google search says that a single slice of bread has something like 15 grams of carbohydrates in it, which seems like a lot for something so lightweight. So it isn't as if she could eat it by the loaf and hope to stay thin.

[Amethyst]

I have no idea what this commercial was shilling because I turned the station so fast, but I think it was about a mutual fund or something.  All I saw were black lines resembling ants crawling into someone's hair, only it got up close and you could see that they weren't ants, but words like "fees" and "responsibilities" or something.  The imagery alone was so creepy I honestly couldn't watch anymore.  My skin is still crawling thinking about it.

[kat165]

Amethyst, it's the new team mobile commercial, the one that's black and pink and use to have that girl in the pink dress and then she switched to riding a motorycle (whatever happened to her?). That's team mobile, right? Yeah, I felt the same way. Saw that commercial for the first time tonight and it made my skin crawl. Funny, I just read a post in Commercials that Make Your Scratch Your Head, etc. and how perfect a thread is it for this particular commercial?

Edited January 6, 2017 by kat165
clarity, son

[Amethyst]

I do remember a girl in a pink dress, so that probably was the commercial, Kat165.  Thanks for the info, because now I can make a marked effort to avoid it.  It's not just annoying, it's visually disturbing.

[theatremouse]

23 hours ago, kathyk24 said:

Oprah should disclose that she owns part of Weight Watchers IMO it's dishonest if she doesn't.

It got a TON of press when she bought in, and to me, was made very clear that's why she started appearing in the ads, not just as a spokesperson. I don't think they need individual disclosures on the ads. They made a giant hooplah about her becoming part owner. It's very public information.

[kat165]

Amethyst, yes, I feel the same way. How is this suppose to attract buyers?

[yourmomiseasy]

On 1/4/2017 at 4:05 PM, theatremouse said:

We're sort of getting into semantics now, but I'll say this, the term "whitelisting" does not inherently imply "only allow X and block everything else". It does imply "always allow this". "Blacklisting" implies "always block this". The program being advertised may have meant to imply their product allows you to whitelist certain things, and it will automatically block everything else for you (which would be incredibly restrictive). That might be what they're selling. I didn't see the ad in question so I'm not sure, and from the confusion going on here, I imagine they did a poor job of communicating it, if that is indeed what their point was.

In most computing contexts whitelisting does inherently imply block everything and only allow what is on the whitelist and blacklisting inherently implies allow everything and only block what is on the blacklist.  Whitelisting is more restrictive, but far more secure.  For instance whitelisting is often what is used on the outbound rule set on a firewall for a commercial website, whereas you'd blacklist the inbound (both for http ports, you'd whitelist inbound for other ports)).  For an office network you'd do the opposite and whitelist the inbound and blacklist the outbound.  The only computer context I can think of where the terms are approached differently is email spam filters.  In the instnace of what PC Matic is offering, the term is being used correctly (only allowing certain programs and apps to run on your computer)-- I think the problem is they are marketing to a base that is more familiar with email than firewalls.  

Edited January 6, 2017 by yourmomiseasy

[LoneHaranguer]

12 hours ago, Amethyst said:

I do remember a girl in a pink dress, so that probably was the commercial, Kat165.  Thanks for the info, because now I can make a marked effort to avoid it.  It's not just annoying, it's visually disturbing.

There are at least two different companies with a creepy ad theme like that right now. One is T Mobile. The other offers some sort of investment services. It's more prominent in the latter.

[kat165]

LH, I'm glad I haven't caught the investment one yet. The T Mobile is bad enough! :) I get itchy just thinking about it.

[iMonrey]

Quote

All I saw were black lines resembling ants crawling into someone's hair, only it got up close and you could see that they weren't ants, but words like "fees" and "responsibilities" or something.  The imagery alone was so creepy I honestly couldn't watch anymore.  My skin is still crawling thinking about it.

Yes! I saw that last night. ICK. The kids come in complaining of itchy heads and their parents examine their scalps and say "You have fees." Obviously a play on "you have fleas" but when they zoom in on their scalps, you see - initially - what seem to be lice crawling in swarms around their scalp. It is really disturbing - even after you realize they are little letters spelling out the word "fees" it still leaves you shuddering.

I think I'd rather pay fees on my mobile plan than see that commercial again.

[Brattinella]

Seriously.  That is the creepiest commercial I've ever seen.

[Blergh]

14 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Yes! I saw that last night. ICK. The kids come in complaining of itchy heads and their parents examine their scalps and say "You have fees." Obviously a play on "you have fleas" but when they zoom in on their scalps, you see - initially - what seem to be lice crawling in swarms around their scalp. It is really disturbing - even after you realize they are little letters spelling out the word "fees" it still leaves you shuddering.

I think I'd rather pay fees on my mobile plan than see that commercial again.

I'd rather just tell the kids they can use empty soup cans on strings if they wanna chit chat from now on. Yeah, yeah, get off my lawn whippersnappers.

[iMonrey]

Also, the mother says they must have gotten them from the (so-and-so) family because "they get fees every month," and the daughter says "But we're in love!" Cut to a shot of the daughter sitting on a sofa next to the boyfriend and there are bugs crawling around on the sofa they're sitting on. Or what look like bugs. {Shudder.}

[legaleagle53]

4 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Also, the mother says they must have gotten them from the (so-and-so) family because "they get fees every month," and the daughter says "But we're in love!" Cut to a shot of the daughter sitting on a sofa next to the boyfriend and there are bugs crawling around on the sofa they're sitting on. Or what look like bugs. {Shudder.}

I've never seen this commercial, but from what I'm hearing, it sounds positively gross.  I can't imagine that any thinking person could have greenlit this.

[peacheslatour]

51 minutes ago, legaleagle53 said:

I've never seen this commercial, but from what I'm hearing, it sounds positively gross.  I can't imagine that any thinking person could have greenlit this.

I've never hit the "prev" button on the remote so fast in my life. Well, except for maybe Sarah Mclachlan animals commercials.

[Amethyst]

Ugh, it's even worse in detail.  If these reactions are anything to go by, I can't see this commercial lasting long.

[Moose135]

I caught that T-mobile commercial tonight - that was horrifying.  Who approved that?

[Jamoche]

If you really want to see the T-Mobile ad, it's on ispot. Don't click if bugs in people's hair freaks you out, because that's what's in the still image from the video: 

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/AmQk/t-mobile-one-daughter

[riley702]

On 1/6/2017 at 8:58 PM, Maharincess said:

My peeve for the day is people who name their kids ridiculous names. There's a woman on one of the local Facebook garage sale things and her son is named Jho'chya, which she pronounces Josiah.   Why?  Why do that to a poor kid?  He'll have to spell that name every time he says it.  This kid has an eye condition, he was only born with one eye and his mother exploits that trying to get people to give her stuff but that's a whole different peeve. 

Who do people do this to kids?  What's wrong with Josiah? 

I'm still aggravated by the knuckleheads who spell Isaiah "Isiah". That's not even phonetically correct!

[topanga]

12 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Also, the mother says they must have gotten them from the (so-and-so) family because "they get fees every month," and the daughter says "But we're in love!" Cut to a shot of the daughter sitting on a sofa next to the boyfriend and there are bugs crawling around on the sofa they're sitting on. Or what look like bugs. {Shudder.}

Quote

I caught that T-mobile commercial tonight - that was horrifying.  Who approved that?

 

Yes, it's horrible. And I'm not usually grossed out by bugs. But seeing these tiny black "words" scramble through someone's scalp or up the teenagers' arms? Shudder is right. It's hard to believe that no one at the ad company--or T Mobile--wasn't disgusted by the Power Point presentation. Let alone the actual footage of the commercial. 

[millennium]

On 1/5/2017 at 3:36 PM, seasons said:

What bugs me too that she says that she's NEVER felt deprived on WW. I call bullshit on that big time.

IMO, any "deprivation" Oprah has experienced because she can't eat bread or Hostess Cupcakes or whatever is offset -- oh hell, outright negated -- by all the wealth and privilege she has enjoyed in her life.   Is she for real?  Going on TV to complain because she can't eat certain foods?   It's like, "I have a million times more than other people, but it's not enough -- I want my bread too."

I see red when she says "It's woooorking!" in that singsongy voice.

[Mabinogia]

What I don't get about the T Mobile ad is, who are they selling to? Judging by reactions here, and what I know of most normal people, this ad is going to turn off more people than it will appeal to. I don't even know the message of the commercial because I have to change channels every time it comes on, it gives me a bad case of the itchies. So, who are they trying to appeal to? I mean, the point of ads is to get people to buy what you are selling. I don't see this ad getting them many sales.

Every time the Oprah ad comes on I say "shut up" and either mute it or change channels. I don't need to hear a rich woman bitch about not eating bread. Suck it up buttercup! you have pretty much everything else.

[legaleagle53]

15 hours ago, Jamoche said:

If you really want to see the T-Mobile ad, it's on ispot. Don't click if bugs in people's hair freaks you out, because that's what's in the still image from the video: 

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/AmQk/t-mobile-one-daughter

Ick.  Gross AND in bad taste.  Even advertisements for RID shampoo to kill lice don't actually show the lice crawling all over people's scalps.

Whoever came up with this ad and whichever client representative approved it both need to be fired yesterday.

Edited January 8, 2017 by legaleagle53

[Neurochick]

On January 5, 2017 at 1:24 PM, Blergh said:

I know how that goes,too! Back to Miss Winfrey, she ALSO doesn't mention that she has at her disposal an entire staff of cooks and trainers (and, of course, is now part owner of the company). Yet, of course, she acts as though she somehow knows  and can identify MORE  with how everyday, struggling folks live their lives (even those who have gotten married and/or raised children) than  they themselves do despite not having any issues of financial struggles in the last 30+ years and never having been married or raised children. 

So does this mean that someone who is single shouldn't do a commercial for WW?

The thing is, no matter how much $$ you have, you'll always have problems.

I don't get this hate of Oprah just because she has money.  Good for her, she wasn't born with a silver spoon in her mouth or anything like that.  I think it's awesome for a black woman to get to where she is; so IMO she can do any fucking thing she wants.  

Edited January 8, 2017 by Neurochick

[Mabinogia]

11 minutes ago, Neurochick said:

IMO she can do any fucking thing she wants.  

Except eat bread. lol, Sorry couldn't resists.

But Oprah's triumph over a truly shitty childhood has nothing to do with her hocking WW, a company she now partly owns.

[MadyGirl1987]

These two commercials for some game play when I use the FX Now App to watch old Simpsons episodes to fall asleep. They make no sense... For one, why does only one person change costume in both of them? Is that something from the game? And more importantly... What does the game even do? Just random people arguing with each other and a quick 2 second shot of the game being played shows nothing about what the game is about.

https://ispot.tv/a/AiKd

https://ispot.tv/a/AmVu

Edited January 8, 2017 by MadyGirl1987

[peacheslatour]

33 minutes ago, Mabinogia said:

Except eat bread. lol, Sorry couldn't resists.

But Oprah's triumph over a truly shitty childhood has nothing to do with her hocking WW, a company she now partly owns.

So Steve Jobs shouldn't have shilled for Apple? Richard Branson shouldn't do Virgin Air commercials? I don't get it.

[Mabinogia]

Wait, Oprah created WW? I thought she just bought part of it then became their spokesperson. I could be wrong, it could have gone the other way, she was spokesperson then decided to buy part of the company. Maybe they weren't paying her enough for the commercials. HAHA (I'm kidding about that last part. It was probably the first way, she bought it then put herself in front of the camera).

For the record, though, couldn't stand Steve Jobs, though I don't remember him in a lot of commercials, thank gods, and Branson annoys me.

Edited January 8, 2017 by Mabinogia

[theatremouse]

She did not create it, but you're wrong about the order of operations. She was not a spokesperson who later invested. She bought in and as part of the deal agreed to also be a spokesperson. It appeared to be concurrent, or possibly she bought 10% and joined the board, and then shot the ads after. So the analogy to Jobs and Branson is not one of "founder" but rather addressing the (part) "owner in ads" angle.

Edited January 9, 2017 by theatremouse

[Mabinogia]

Did Steve Jobs do Apple commercials? I don't remember. I'm genuinely asking. I know Branson did. He shouldn't have, he never came off well in them. lol But I can't seem to remember Jobs commercials. Most of the Apple commercials I remember are pretty much hipsters being hip with their cool trendy Apple gadgets.

[SuburbanHangSuite]

Came here to remark on how horrified I was to see that T-Mobile ad REPEATEDLY through the football games this weekend but you guys have said it all.  Carry on.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

18 hours ago, Neurochick said:

So does this mean that someone who is single shouldn't do a commercial for WW?

The thing is, no matter how much $$ you have, you'll always have problems.

I don't get this hate of Oprah just because she has money.  Good for her, she wasn't born with a silver spoon in her mouth or anything like that.  I think it's awesome for a black woman to get to where she is; so IMO she can do any fucking thing she wants.  

So does this mean we're not allowed to be annoyed because she's black or we're not allowed to be annoyed because she's a woman? Because I don't think it rises to the level of hate, or at least for me it doesn't. I'm a lot more annoyed by Julia Roberts showing me however many teeth she's got in those perfume ads than I am by Oprah saying she loves bread, but I don't hate Roberts as much as I find her excruciatingly aggravating.

[Jamoche]

13 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

Did Steve Jobs do Apple commercials? I don't remember. I'm genuinely asking. I know Branson did. He shouldn't have, he never came off well in them. lol But I can't seem to remember Jobs commercials. Most of the Apple commercials I remember are pretty much hipsters being hip with their cool trendy Apple gadgets.

No. He did the keynote speeches for the developer's conference - that's where the "And one more thing" comes from - but no ads.

[Mabinogia]

Thanks Jamoche. I had a vague notion of seeing him in something but I didn't think it was commercials. And the only thing more annoying than commercials is that niggling feeling you remember something only you can't quite remember it. HAHA

Perfume ads are annoying period. Perfume ads with Julia Roberts huge teeth, or Charlize Theron randomly walking through a room are 10 times more annoying. And I seem to remember some Julia Roberts perfume ads where the VO wasn't even her, it was some random British chick. It made me wonder why, if you are using someone as well known as JR, why wouldn't you use her voice as well? Or at least a voice that could pass as hers if she's too good to do it? It always struck me as an odd choice.

[LoneHaranguer]

On 1/8/2017 at 11:00 AM, legaleagle53 said:

Whoever came up with this ad and whichever client representative approved it both need to be fired yesterday.

The point may have been to build name recognition by doing an ad that people would talk about.  I don't think T Mobile needs to do that any more, but there could be some marketing surveys that disagree.

[legaleagle53]

15 minutes ago, LoneHaranguer said:

The point may have been to build name recognition by doing an ad that people would talk about.  I don't think T Mobile needs to do that any more, but there could be some marketing surveys that disagree.

In other words, bad publicity is better than no publicity at all?  That's completely untrue.  The point of advertising is to encourage people to buy your product or service.  Grossing potential customers out to the point that they're so turned off that they'd never go near your product or service kind of defeats the purpose of advertising it in the first place.

[Mabinogia]

Since I don't watch their horrible commercial, and no one I know is talking about anything other than how gross it is, I now associate T Mobile with fleas. I have no idea what they have to offer. I think T Mobile I think fleas.

Edited January 9, 2017 by Mabinogia
though I flee from the commercial the animal is a flea not a flee

[iMonrey]

Quote

I don't even know the message of the commercial because I have to change channels every time it comes on, it gives me a bad case of the itchies. So, who are they trying to appeal to?

I think it's just as simple as equating "fees" with "fleas" and nothing more to it than that. Does anyone remember those commercials for Orkin where a giant cockroach crawled across your TV screen and made you jump? It's kind of like that, except at least the Orkin commercials were actually about killing bugs, rather than killing mobile data fees.

Quote

I don't get this hate of Oprah just because she has money.

I don't hate Oprah because she has money. In fact I don't hate her at all. I just call bullshit on her acting like she's "one of us." 

Quote

So Steve Jobs shouldn't have shilled for Apple? Richard Branson shouldn't do Virgin Air commercials? I don't get it.

Apples and oranges. Computers and airlines aren't diet plans. If you buy a computer or an airline ticket you're going to get the same product or service as anyone else. If you buy a WW diet plan you're not necessarily going to get the same results as Oprah Winfrey because you may not have access to the same trainers, chefs, farmers markets, Whole Foods, etc. You may not have access to support groups and meetings either. Your weight issues aren't necessarily her weight issues. As opposed to an Apple device or a plane ticket which would be the same for you as it would for Steve Jobs or Richard Branson.

Edited January 9, 2017 by iMonrey

[proserpina65]

On ‎01‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 3:53 PM, Brattinella said:

She has said it herself Bread, bread, bread, bread BREAD!  I don't think WW allows you unlimited bread.

Last time I was on WW, it didn't allow you unlimited anything, just things you liked in moderation.  That was part of the appeal; you didn't have to eliminate foods, just moderate them.

But yeah, I don't believe she never felt deprived.  Which is pretty much my main objection to her WW commercials.  That, and the 'let's wait and see if you keep the weight off this time before crowing about it' aspect.  But I'd feel that way no matter the spokesperson's race/ethnicity/age/income/gender if it were someone well-known for their weight struggles.

Edited January 9, 2017 by proserpina65

[mojoween]

Geico, it is not at all surprising to see Tiki Barber do a shitty job working as a barber.  The only surprising thing is that he didn't fumble the razor.

[Moose135]

3 hours ago, mojoween said:

The only surprising thing is that he didn't fumble the razor.

Priceless!

[chessiegal]

I have a major problem with the FreshPet dog food commercial that says a dog owner has a dog with digestive problems, is small, takes the dog to the vet, and the vet tells her to take it to a shelter. Instead she feeds it FreshPet, and the dog thrives. I've never had a dog, only cats, but I've never had a vet that would say that. I call major lie and bull shit!!

[janie jones]

I saw that T-Mobile ad with the fees/fleas, and I actually didn't think it was bad.  If I hadn't read about it here first, I don't think I would have thought anything of it.

[mojoween]

8 hours ago, chessiegal said:

I have a major problem with the FreshPet dog food commercial that says a dog owner has a dog with digestive problems, is small, takes the dog to the vet, and the vet tells her to take it to a shelter. Instead she feeds it FreshPet, and the dog thrives. I've never had a dog, only cats, but I've never had a vet that would say that. I call major lie and bull shit!!

This commercial is saying that because the dog has stomach problems you have to get rid of it?!?  That's all sorts of bullshit right there.

[janie jones]

I don't remember what the commercial is for, but there's one where this moron (I know he's a former baseball player, but I don't know his name) is hitting tennis balls like baseballs (with a tennis racket).  It's ridiculous.  It's not funny.  It just makes me think he should be fired from his job as tennis instructor because he's obviously doing a poor job, in addition to damaging property.

[Brattinella]

2 minutes ago, janie jones said:

I don't remember what the commercial is for, but there's one where this moron (I know he's a former baseball player, but I don't know his name) is hitting tennis balls like baseballs (with a tennis racket).  It's ridiculous.  It's not funny.  It just makes me think he should be fired from his job as tennis instructor because he's obviously doing a poor job, in addition to damaging property.

I agree; not funny at all.

[callmebetty]

3 minutes ago, janie jones said:

I don't remember what the commercial is for, but there's one where this moron (I know he's a former baseball player, but I don't know his name) is hitting tennis balls like baseballs (with a tennis racket).  It's ridiculous.  It's not funny.  It just makes me think he should be fired from his job as tennis instructor because he's obviously doing a poor job, in addition to damaging property.

David Ortiz.

[Archery]

There are local commercials (Boston TV market) advertising the fact that NBC has changed cable channels as of the beginning of the year.  Its logo is 3 xylophone keys, marked N-B-C, which get tapped to sound the three tones that NBC has always used.  The slogan is something like, "same chimes, different channel."  The actual tones are G-E-C (low, high, medium), which would be made by keys in this order:  long, short, medium. 

But in the ad, the xylophone keys go G-C-E, long, medium, short and are tapped left to right -- which would produce this tune instead:  low, medium, high.  It KILLS me that they tap them in order to make the NBC chime, even though that would make an ascending chime that is not at all the tune. 

I know nobody else in the world is aggravated by this, but the cognitive dissonance between watching the keys that are tapped and hearing the tones that are produced makes me want to hit something. 

Edited January 10, 2017 by Archery
messed up edit

[TattleTeeny]

4 hours ago, mojoween said:

This commercial is saying that because the dog has stomach problems you have to get rid of it?!?  That's all sorts of bullshit right there.

Oh it is, and it's infuriating; I can tell you that people ditch pets for health issues all the time, even easy-to-solve ones--not that these people even know half the time that it's easy, as they seldom bother to try to find out. I've never seen this commercial but if I were a vet, I might be a bit offended! 

Quote

Last time I was on WW, it didn't allow you unlimited anything, just things you liked in moderation.  That was part of the appeal; you didn't have to eliminate foods, just moderate them.

This confuses me: if WW customers can still eat what they like in moderation, then what is the point of paying for WW in the first place? Why does a person need WW in order to do something he or she could do without paying for this service? Or is the draw to join more about prepared-food or workout plans, or meetings that give people a helpful vibe of camaraderie and encouragement? Or even that paying for a service might help some people stay on track better than being left to their own devices?

Edited January 10, 2017 by TattleTeeny