Commercials That Annoy, Irritate or Outright Enrage

[Zevious Zoquis]

saw a Nissan ad last night which was promoting the computer assistance in their cars.  The ad features a woman making her morning commute to work.  Of course, she's in heavy traffic.  Luckily she has a computer to help her out!  She switches the magic computer assistant on and we are treated to one of those lovely shots of her car in a lane with a nice magic digital laser show painted on the road in front of her.  Flash back to our heroine in her magic car and now she has a cocky grin on her face as the computer magically makes cars in front of her disappear from existence (since I can't think of any other way this can actually work) and she gets to work in excellent time! Thank you magic computer!,

its a pet peeve of mine in ads when some feature or product is presented doing something way outside its actual parameters.  There's an ad for a Gillette razor in which a fireman talks about having to shave every day in order for his safety mask to seal properly to his face and how this one gillette shaver does the job without irritating his sensitive skin.  he's then shown heading into a blazing inferno! lol.  every time I see the ad I say to myself "Gillette - Saving lives one shave at a time!" 

Edited March 20, 2019 by Zevious Zoquis

[Tom Holmberg]

8 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

How germy can your dishes get during dinner?

I always go with the theory that they're not bad if they're your germs.

[tanyak]

3 hours ago, Ubiquitous said:

I think the dishwasher soap you use makes a big difference, at least experience and Consumer Reports indicates it.

I think it's both. I use Cascade Platinum tabs. My dishwasher is a mid-range Whirlpool that is at least 12 years old. It was in our house when we bought it and it definitely wasn't new then. Since I switched to the Platinum four or five years ago, I've been able to tell a difference. It even keeps my dishwasher door cleaner. That said, I still have to scrub and effectively wash bakeware that I make mac and cheese or lasagna in. My dishwasher doesn't do a great job on baked-on stuff like that. Maybe newer/fancier ones do.

[LoneHaranguer]

18 hours ago, Katy M said:

I actually think she raises a good point.  I've never had a dishwasher, but I had a friend who washed the dishes completely before putting them in the dishwasher.  Like, the same way I would wash them and be done. So, if that's what you do when you have a dishwasher, I really just don't understand the point.

Is your friend trying to sterilize the dishes? The dishwasher can use hotter water than a person can in a sink.

[smittykins]

12 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

My brother seems to think his DW will last longer & he won't have to clean out the filter/food trap so often if he washes the dishes first. His wife likes the DW for the sanitizing feature. I dunno. How germy can your dishes get during dinner?

Confession:  My apartment has a dishwasher, and I’ve never used it(and I’ve lived here almost a year).  I live alone, and it would take probably at least a week to amass a full load like they recommend, and it’s just quicker to wash them by hand.

[Browncoat]

I don't own a dishwasher.  I am the dishwasher in my house.  LOL

[Brookside]

Frito Lay snack packs.  Obnoxious little girl does a stupid dance, wearing cleats on a hardwood floor.  Even worse is that I'm pretty sure the coach would ask parents to provide nutritious healthy snacks, not fat-saturated salt bombs.

[Ubiquitous]

1 hour ago, Brookside said:

Frito Lay snack packs.  Obnoxious little girl does a stupid dance, wearing cleats on a hardwood floor.  Even worse is that I'm pretty sure the coach would ask parents to provide nutritious healthy snacks, not fat-saturated salt bombs.

I hated the one in which everyone was making an excuse for the mother distributing them to get one.

[Bort]

I hate the one where the dad's kids yell at him that he can't call dibs on every bag of chips in the pack. Excuse me, I bet he paid for the damn thing, he can so call dibs on all the chips if he wants.

[margol29]

Toyota Jan and her "Let's get ready to RRRUUUMMMBBBLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! I can't hit the mute button fast enough.

Why do commercials think that they have to SCREAM at us to get us to buy their products. Hate. Hate. Hate.

[crazycatlady58]

41 minutes ago, margol29 said:

Toyota Jan and her "Let's get ready to RRRUUUMMMBBBLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! I can't hit the mute button fast enough.

Why do commercials think that they have to SCREAM at us to get us to buy their products. Hate. Hate. Hate.

I think some of them believe you are plowing the back 40 and want to get your attention.

[janie jones]

19 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

 How germy can your dishes get during dinner?

What could possibly be on your dishes that hand washing with soap and hot water can't take care of, so that you need your dishwasher to function as an autoclave? 

1 hour ago, kariyaki said:

I hate the one where the dad's kids yell at him that he can't call dibs on every bag of chips in the pack. Excuse me, I bet he paid for the damn thing, he can so call dibs on all the chips if he wants.

I disagree.  If he purchased the chips with the intention of sharing them (and with the understanding of everyone in the household that they are to share), then he isn't entitled to all of the chips.  If he bought them with no intention of sharing them, then it isn't calling dibs, it's eating the chips he bought for himself, and he needs to just tell his family that these chips are not for them. 

[bigskygirl]

The one commercial for the one exercise machine where sweat is dripping off the person’s nose while exercising is gross.

Edited March 21, 2019 by bigskygirl

[Bort]

1 hour ago, janie jones said:

I disagree.  If he purchased the chips with the intention of sharing them (and with the understanding of everyone in the household that they are to share), then he isn't entitled to all of the chips.  If he bought them with no intention of sharing them, then it isn't calling dibs, it's eating the chips he bought for himself, and he needs to just tell his family that these chips are not for them. 

Well, actually, they were telling him that he couldn’t call dibs on two bags in a row, which is when he retaliated by calling for the whole pack. I’m just not liking that the kids are dictating snack rules to their parent, who should be the one making the rules about the junk food.

[janie jones]

32 minutes ago, kariyaki said:

Well, actually, they were telling him that he couldn’t call dibs on two bags in a row, which is when he retaliated by calling for the whole pack. I’m just not liking that the kids are dictating snack rules to their parent, who should be the one making the rules about the junk food.

Well, that's not what I was responding to, but now that you mention it, I wonder whether the advertisers intended the children to be dictating snack rules to the parent or simply stating the rules of "dibs."  As in, if your dad tries to cheat at Monopoly and you point it out, are you bossing your dad around or reiterating the rules?

[Bort]

23 minutes ago, janie jones said:

Well, that's not what I was responding to, but now that you mention it, I wonder whether the advertisers intended the children to be dictating snack rules to the parent or simply stating the rules of "dibs."  As in, if your dad tries to cheat at Monopoly and you point it out, are you bossing your dad around or reiterating the rules?

The dad seemed surprised by this dibs rule, so it seemed to me like they were making up their own rules.

[janie jones]

That's dibs as I know it, so I wouldn't argue with the kid. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Ubiquitous]

13 hours ago, margol29 said:

Toyota Jan and her "Let's get ready to RRRUUUMMMBBBLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! I can't hit the mute button fast enough.

While marginally better than their "Enjoy the go" campaign, that one annoys me b/c it's obvious they didn't pay that guy to say his signature quote or anything close to it, so what's the point? 

[Prevailing Wind]

19 hours ago, smittykins said:

Confession:  My apartment has a dishwasher, and I’ve never used it(and I’ve lived here almost a year).  I live alone, and it would take probably at least a week to amass a full load like they recommend, and it’s just quicker to wash them by hand.

Before the comic Paula Poundstone adopted her kids, she used to keep take-out menus in her dishwasher.

[LoneHaranguer]

12 hours ago, janie jones said:

Well, that's not what I was responding to, but now that you mention it, I wonder whether the advertisers intended the children to be dictating snack rules to the parent or simply stating the rules of "dibs."

I wonder whether they intended to highlight that the bags don't have many chips in them (why else would he be wanting at least three of them?).

[mmecorday]

The people trying to pronounce Rakuten have succeeded in getting on my last nerve, especially the guy that says, "Ra-COOT-ten!" Not even close, genius.

Edited March 22, 2019 by mmecorday
to and that are not the same word

[Tom Holmberg]

2 hours ago, LoneHaranguer said:

I wonder whether they intended to highlight that the bags don't have many chips in them

The thing about serving sizes is, what size the package is, is one serving.  (But those little bags just whet your appetite for a really BIG bag.)

[TattleTeeny]

I like the emu!

[Brattinella]

Children should not be in charge of a thing.

[Katy M]

17 minutes ago, Brattinella said:

Children should not be in charge of a thing.

What?  Of course, they should.  They should be in charge of doing their homework. M aking sure their room is clean.  Spending/saving any allowance or money they earn. How are they ever going to learn any responsibility if they're not in charge of anything?

[Tom Holmberg]

26 minutes ago, Brattinella said:

Children should not be in charge of a thing.

They should be in charge of amusing themselves, if at home, quietly, if outside, not in the street.

[Brattinella]

My comment was badly worded, it appears.  What I meant was, children are NOT THE BOSS.  In anything except their own person.

[Suzn]

13 minutes ago, Brattinella said:

My comment was badly worded, it appears.  What I meant was, children are NOT THE BOSS.  In anything except their own person.

ITA  So very many commercials show children ruling the house, the family, everything!  The children decide what food they will be served (so many little snowflakes will only eat chicken nuggets); they decide what they will wear (the little girl who will only wear her princess dress or sheriff costume); they even have say so over the choice of the family vehicle.  I don't mean that children should not have some input in areas about their own lives, but what we see non-stop is children dictating to their parents in all matters.

[Silver Raven]

4 hours ago, mmecorday said:

The people trying to pronounce Rakuten have succeeded in getting on my last nerve, especially the guy to says, "Ra-COOT-ten!" Not even close, genius.

Here's an idea.  Make a name for your product that people don't have to guess how to pronounce

[LoneHaranguer]

17 minutes ago, Silver Raven said:

Here's an idea.  Make a name for your product that people don't have to guess how to pronounce

Or at least make the official pronunciation a top guess. Maybe "ra-cute-n"? I would have never put the "k" with the "ra".

[Prevailing Wind]

Rakuten is a Japanese company, so, yeah, we'd have trouble pronouncing it correctly until we're told the right way.

[janie jones]

19 hours ago, Brattinella said:

Children should not be in charge of a thing.

What commercial is this referencing?

[LoneHaranguer]

14 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

Rakuten is a Japanese company, so, yeah, we'd have trouble pronouncing it correctly until we're told the right way.

Since it's a Japanese company, doesn't that mean they had a choice in how to translate their name from its native script into a Latin character set? Pronunciation shouldn't have been an issue if their marketing department/company had gotten it right.

[Tom Holmberg]

20 hours ago, Silver Raven said:

Here's an idea.  Make a name for your product that people don't have to guess how to pronounce

The Japanese say the same thing about Lumber Liquidators.

[Deni]

I’m annoyed by the Huggies commercial where the woman is bouncing her baby on her lap on the subway train, saying that her baby isn’t wet after 5 stops. If you look at everyone on the train, they are wearing long-sleeved shirts. The baby is wearing only a diaper, and a short-sleeved shirt. Does the mother really take her baby out in cold weather like that?

[LoneHaranguer]

3 hours ago, Deni said:

If you look at everyone on the train, they are wearing long-sleeved shirts. The baby is wearing only a diaper, and a short-sleeved shirt. Does the mother really take her baby out in cold weather like that?

Maybe everyone is dressed for working in air-conditioned buildings and the weather isn't cold.

[peacheslatour]

40 minutes ago, LoneHaranguer said:

Maybe everyone is dressed for working in air-conditioned buildings and the weather isn't cold.

God, I hated working in an air conditioned office. Goodbye cute sundresses and strappy sandals and hello sweaters and boots on 80 degree days.

[Tom Holmberg]

4 hours ago, Deni said:

I’m annoyed by the Huggies commercial where the woman is bouncing her baby on her lap on the subway train, saying that her baby isn’t wet after 5 stops.

Maybe urine keeps the baby warm.

[theatremouse]

9 hours ago, LoneHaranguer said:

Since it's a Japanese company, doesn't that mean they had a choice in how to translate their name from its native script into a Latin character set? Pronunciation shouldn't have been an issue if their marketing department/company had gotten it right.

There's a pretty standard transliteration between Japanese and English. It doesn't really require any creativity in the English spelling. Generally Japanese characters are a syllable rather than an individual letter. So it doesn't really have the same concept of "these characters are sometimes pronounced this way or sometimes pronounced that way" that English does.

[LoneHaranguer]

13 minutes ago, theatremouse said:

There's a pretty standard transliteration between Japanese and English. It doesn't really require any creativity in the English spelling.

So it's a standard transliteration that's at fault? Longer representations of each syllable would have reduced, if not eliminated the ambiguity.

[theatremouse]

I don't really understand what you mean? I don't think more (English) characters would help. But I'm probably the wrong audience since I can read Japanese (ish) so I know what the possible vowels are. There's only one way to pronounce ra-ku-te-n. If it were supposed to be ra-kyu-te-n it'd end up spelled that way. If the question is about which syllable gets the emphasis, the spelling doesn't help there either.

The thought bubbles on this chart might make it make more sense (the company name isn't spelled in hiragana but this illustrates the vowel issue):

http://www.textfugu.com/resources/hiragana-chart/

[Kemper]

I posted awhile back my distaste for the truck commercial...the "tailgate" one.  The one where everyone is singing "nah nah nah nah hey hey goodbye" ... and congregating on a hill.  Well.  They are playing it continuously during the NCAA tournament.  March Madness, indeed.

[smittykins]

[small voice]I love that song.[/sv]  The whole song, not just the part they sing at stadiums.

Edited March 23, 2019 by smittykins

[Neurochick]

20 hours ago, LoneHaranguer said:

Maybe everyone is dressed for working in air-conditioned buildings and the weather isn't cold.

That's what I thought too.  No one on the train was wearing a winter coat, so how cold could it be outside?

[andromeda331]

1 hour ago, smittykins said:

[small voice]I love that song.[/sv]  The whole song, not just the part they sing at stadiums.

Love the song. Hate the commercial.

[kirinan]

I swear, I am not a grump. I love Universal, I love Disney, I love everything Harry Potter. But every time the Universal Studios commercial where the guy says, "We are literally going to Hogwarts right now" comes onscreen, I yell at the TV, "NO, YOU ARE NOT LITERALLY GOING TO HOGWARTS! If you were literally going to Hogwarts, you'd be going to the real Hogwarts! And there IS no real Hogwarts!" 

Why couldn't they have just had him say, "We're going to Hogwarts right now" so it wouldn't mess with my last nerve every time I hear it? (I have started to lunge for the remote every time it comes on, so I'm doing better now, LOL.)

[Katy M]

33 minutes ago, kirinan said:

I swear, I am not a grump. I love Universal, I love Disney, I love everything Harry Potter. But every time the Universal Studios commercial where the guy says, "We are literally going to Hogwarts right now" comes onscreen, I yell at the TV, "NO, YOU ARE NOT LITERALLY GOING TO HOGWARTS! If you were literally going to Hogwarts, you'd be going to the real Hogwarts! And there IS no real Hogwarts!" 

Why couldn't they have just had him say, "We're going to Hogwarts right now" so it wouldn't mess with my last nerve every time I hear it? (I have started to lunge for the remote every time it comes on, so I'm doing better now, LOL.)

That reminds me of a local radio commercial that always made me scream my head off.  It was for a smoking quit line.  They asked someone how he decided to call the quit line and stop smoking. He said "ironically, I heard one of these commericals. and called."  I swear screamed "That's not ironic" every time that commercial ran.  Jeeze louise, that's the exact opposite of ironic.   I'm demanding everyone take a remedial vocabulary class.

[Bort]

2 minutes ago, Katy M said:

That reminds me of a local radio commercial that always made me scream my head off.  It was for a smoking quit line.  They asked someone how he decided to call the quit line and stop smoking. He said "ironically, I heard one of these commericals. and called."  I swear screamed "That's not ironic" every time that commercial ran.  Jeeze louise, that's the exact opposite of ironic.   I'm demanding everyone take a remedial vocabulary class.

It’s ironic if he was buying cigarettes at the time. 

[peacheslatour]

33 minutes ago, Katy M said:

That reminds me of a local radio commercial that always made me scream my head off.  It was for a smoking quit line.  They asked someone how he decided to call the quit line and stop smoking. He said "ironically, I heard one of these commericals. and called."  I swear screamed "That's not ironic" every time that commercial ran.  Jeeze louise, that's the exact opposite of ironic.   I'm demanding everyone take a remedial vocabulary class.

You mean it's not like raaaain on your wedding day?

[Katy M]

53 minutes ago, kariyaki said:

It’s ironic if he was buying cigarettes at the time. 

It's ironic if he decided to buy cigarettes because of the commercial.