BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 09:50 PM

And, a bit off topic since it's a site, and not a "commercial" per say. But let's put this one in the WOW category of commercialization of a product...
http://www.breitling.com/en/intro.php

In all fairness, for those that don't have Hi-Speed Internet connections with full stereo sound, you won't be able to see & hear the sheer impact of this site...Suggest you click on "since 1884" after you ENTER...Enjoy...BR

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 09:41 PM

Hi Kids: There are many. Steve/Mustang...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZzXHq7gKN8
BR

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 06:40 PM

John West Salmon.. definitely my favourite of all time

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 03:47 PM

that VW ad that was banned because the little girl was constantly saying bollocks.

brilliant!

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Wesley S
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 09:20 AM

Many years ago there was a Lifesavers candy commercial that warmed my heart.It showed a dad and a small boy sitting at the top of a hill watching the sunset. As the sun disappears below the horizon the dad says "Going....going.....Gone!" Whereupon the little boy looks up at his father and says: "Do it again Daddy"

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Gurney
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 01:07 AM

We get a good (US?) one here for Jeep, where a rodent, two birds, and a wolf jump through the sunshine roof and sing along with the driver.

We also get one for Twinings (English?) where a voluptuous brunette comes downstairs in her dressing gown, makes a cuppa, and goes back up with an arch look, "Best savoured in bed."
We've been trying to remember who she is. Was she Helen in 'All Creatures Great and Small?'

We have some exceptional Toyota ads made locally. English tourists recorded them to take home. Jasper Carrott would love them.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: GUEST,Comrac
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 08:11 PM

Lizzie, I bought a vhs video of the full set of Hamlet ads on ebay for £1.20 !

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 08:01 PM

Oh yes! Comrac, the Hamlet ads..they were just great, and so funny.

You did what, Walt?

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: frogprince
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 07:28 PM

I read a bunch of these before I realized there was a 5 year skip in the thread. I haven't sworn off TV completely, but I watch so little that people mention lots of commercials I've never seen.

Favorites? I'll add the bread commercial Liz Cornish linked to my list. I've always like the first Kodak "True Colors" commercial I remember, with what I considered a beautiful Choral arrangement.

Worst? in no particular order: Any feminine napkin ad; a pecker-picker-upper ad with "Bob", who looks like he must have an erection so big it stretches his face into a grotesque, mummified grimace; and two from radio years ago: one ad for a Chicago nightspot, which advertised all you could drink for the price of admission on party nights, and always mentioned that the location was convenient to the expressway; One ad for brake repair (Don Firth, I may hate you if you inspired this) would come on day after day, as I drove home in bumper to bumper dodgem cars on a Chicago expressway and hit you dead cold with the sound of screaming brakes. I never quite filled my pants before I realized the sound was from the radio, but I came close.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: GUEST,Comrac
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 07:03 PM

Hamlet Cigars were the favorites during the 1960's & 70's. They always had a new one at Christmas. Everyone has their favorite Hamlet ( mine was the footballers wall blocking the free kick).

VW has done some great ones over the past ten years.

Now the ones I hate, Bloody DFS and their leather sofa telling us they have another sale !

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Skivee
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 06:55 PM

I loved the Carlton Beer ad from a couple of years back. Thousands of people running across a vast New Zealand landscape while singing about Carlton to "Carmina Buranna". Eventually it became clear that the people were happy beer molecules. It made me want to take the corporate jet to sample a pint or two.
The current worst ad for me is a poorly done local chimney sweep ad. A ticking metronome beats out mercilessly while a woman sings an idiot stupid song in the key of E over high M about how nice it is to have your chimney swept. A creepy guy in top hat and tails rings the doorbell. The teen-aged girls stop playing their board game and open the door to this weirdo. Soon our man is at work. I expect that detectives from Law and Order to show up at the door next. The dumbass song continues throughout; ticking and screaching along. By the end of the commercial, I just want to brick the whole lot of them up in a disused chimney.
At the end the company info is displayed, along with that "Christian Fish" deal.
I'm left puzzling over two questions:(1) Did these folks think that this was a great ad idea, even after seeing it? I got the feeling that they shot it themselves...and (2) what does the particular faith of the company's owners have to do with your hiring them to clean your chimney?
I think I'll go have a Carlton.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 06:44 PM

"last stop on round was Ol' Ma Peggety's place

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 05:06 PM

My favourite is the one for a supermarket where there's a choir singing, a Christmas tree, lights and lovely food... Oh yeah, and I'm in it!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: kendall
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 04:10 PM

Commercials. the reason they invented the remote and the VCR. My favorite show is 60 Minutes, and this time of year they always let that damned ball kicking foolishness run over into the 60 Minute time slot. So, I tape it to watch later and run right over the commercials.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Ed T
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 03:44 PM

Anyone remember the Jim "the Hammer" Shipero from NY, a few years back?
Some say he made the world's worst TV Commercials.
Check one out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFZigCwRhI8&feature=related#

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Don Firth
Date: 19 Aug 03 - 08:33 PM

The cheese ads with the cow and the two horny bulls.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Peg
Date: 19 Aug 03 - 07:31 PM

I often watch the commercials when I watch TV because I do not have a remote.

I still hate most car commercials, and most ads for cleaning supplies, and definitely most fast food commercials (how come all those families eating at McDonald's on TV don't have obese kids?)

I like the Bass Ale commercial where the guy is describing the process of flirting with a woman in the bar; he is very appealing and it is clear he appreciates women.

I have come to hate the Verizon "Can you hear me now? Good!") guy.

That snowplow Volkswagen commercial is included in a tape of Classic Commercials that I show to my media students, along with a bunch of old Levis commercials and some memorable ones from Europe.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 19 Aug 03 - 12:58 PM

Most loved:

The Irish ad showing two fishermen trudging slowly to work, laden with ropes, nets, etc, while one comments: "Up at the break of day, every day, whatever the weather, on the sea all the hours God gave..." and so on - until they reach the pier, where - as the camera moves around to show a beautiful new yacht - his companion chortles: "You're full of it!" and the sign for the Lotto comes up.

The American ad for Alka Seltzer, a takeoff of Hitchcock's Lifeboat film, showing two men in a lifeboat, obviously dying of starvation, then cutting away to show a brassy sea, then in again to show *one* man in the boat, with the voiceover: "Alka Seltzer: for when you've eaten something you shouldn't."

Most hated:

All ads that sexualise children, especially cute little botties in cute little nappies - and *most especially* that horrid one where the little girl is whispering seductively to her father to phone her.

The Irish series of ads for not-dying-in-car-crashes, showing the horrific effects of not wearing back-seat seatbelts, of driving when drunk, of walking out on the road in front of cars while using mobile phones, etc. These are just sadism - and their only effect is on fitness, because any Irish person can get to the remote in .0000009 of a second of hearing the first notes of the music of any of those ads. Somebody tell those admen that reinforcement of a desired behaviour needs to be *instant*. We're not driving when we watch TV, guys!

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: beadie
Date: 19 Aug 03 - 12:02 PM

Beer commercial (Bud Lite?) with a bunch of draft horses playing football on a priaire with a couple of cowboys watching. The horses line up to kick a "point after" and one cowboy says to the other, "Do they always do that?" The second cowboy replies, "Naw, they usually go for two."

(You really need to understand the scoring process for American football to get the joke)

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: RangerSteve
Date: 19 Aug 03 - 10:22 AM

Wiskas brand cat food, with the housecat stalking a herd of water buffalo. You have to see it to appreciate it.

I'm getting tired of the freaky looking kid in the Mazda commercials, whose comment on everything is "zoom zoom". He's weird.

And damn those commercials for high priced cars that show everyone driving in the most irresponsible ways imagineable.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Don Firth
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 05:28 PM

Mea culpa and all that, but I gotta crow a bit. My four most favorite radio commercials are ones that I produced myself. In 1972-73, I worked for a radio station in Pasco, Washington (just down the road from JenEllen's stomping ground). I did everything: board announcer, newscaster (actually, news director for a time), copy writing, and commercial production. This is a excerpt from a draft of the "memoir" I'm working on; the hiatus between the late Sixties and the late Seventies when I was doing "day jobs" and not singing very much. With your kind indulgence:—

        One of my favorite activities at KORD was commercial production. This gave me a chance to exercise a certain level of creativity and ingenuity. The station manager often had serious doubts about what I was doing, but the clients—those who paid for the commercials to be produced and aired—seemed to like my stuff. In my general defense, I never ever did what I refer to as a "shouter" commercial (the type favored by many discount furniture stores and used car dealers) even when it was expected of me. I hate them. And although some clients seem to like them, I think most listeners hate them as much as I do.
        My first triumph was a commercial for a local floor covering store. The commercials that KORD had been doing for them were shouters, stressing that these carpets were bargains: "Buy now! Today! And save, save, SAVE MONEY!" I was assigned to do their next commercial. I was to write it from the fact sheet the store had provided, then record what I had written. I cringed.
        Then I read over the fact sheet. They were stocking a couple of new lines of carpeting, and although some of it was ersatz oriental, I could tell from the brand names that this was quality stuff. I decided that a shouter just wouldn't be appropriate. Although the fact sheet mentioned that they were selling for well below the usual price, in my copy I mentioned that only casually toward the end, and spent most of the time stressing the fine quality of the product. "Top quality for the usual low, low prices." [In commercials, prices are never just "low," they're always "low, low."] I dug through KORD's rather sparse collection of classical music records and selected a cut from the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra playing an instrumental arrangement of music from Madame Butterfly (by an Italian composer, but the most exotic and Oriental sounding thing I could find in the record library). I read the copy as a "prestige" commercial, with the music playing softly underneath. When I played it back, I thought it sounded pretty good. I dubbed it onto a cartridge, labeled it, took it into the control room, and put it in the rack.
        The following morning during my air shift, at the time appointed in the log, I stuck the cartridge in the machine and hit the button. That was the first time my commercial went out over the air. It still sounded pretty good to me. But a few moments later, Roger Clawson [the station manager] walked into the control room. He was not entirely happy.
         "That's not the kind of commercial we've been doing for them," he said. "It's not what they want. And where did you find that music! It sounded like a dirge!"
        He was warming up to give me a good chewing out when the intercom rang. I picked up the phone. It was Merna [office manager]. "It's Snow's Floor Coverings," she said. "They want to speak to Roger."
        Okay, I thought. I'm dead. I handed the phone to Roger.
        As the person on the other end spoke, Roger's eyebrows went up. After listening for a few moments, he said, "Okay, thank you. I'll tell him. And I'll see to it."
        I'm really dead, I thought.
        Roger hung up the phone, then looked at me with a crooked smile.
         "I'm sorry . . ." he said.
        Dead and buried, I thought. I guess I'd better go home and pack.
         ". . . for popping off like that," he continued. "I guess you knew what you were doing after all. They like it. In fact, they like it so much that they want you to do all their commercials from here on."

        Shortly after that, I got another exclusive from Hanford House, the big motor hotel up in Richland. They were introducing a new French menu in their dining room and they had a flamenco guitarist playing in the lounge. I started out with "You don't have to go to the Côte d'Azur to enjoy the good life . . ." and fortunately my high school French and my penchant for telling dialect jokes armed my well for reeling off a sample listing of the menu items. I wound it up with the something about dining to the passionate rhythms of Ricardo's flamenco guitar. I backed the whole thing with a chunk of one of my own flamenco records that I'd brought with me: the opening segment of a Soleares. The segment ran exactly thirty seconds, perfect timing for the commercial. Hanford House called a few minutes after the commercial ran for the first time, said they loved it, and they, too, asked Roger to be sure I did all their spots from there on.
        It's nice when you can make points with both the clients and the station manager by having fun putting something together in the production room.
        One I was really proud of was a spot I did promoting KORD's upcoming coverage of the Atomic Cup hydroplane race the year after I first went to the Tri-Cities. It was to be just a straight announcement. But that seemed a little bland to me. Too bad we didn't have any tapes of previous races, because sound effects would have made it a whole lot more exciting.
        But—Elektra, a company that got its start recording folk music, had recently come out with a set of a dozen or so sound effects records. The station had them on the shelves in the production room, but nobody ever used them. I rummaged through the records, found a couple of sound effects that made my eyes glow, and I went to work, making use of some fancy multiple dubbing.
        I read the straight announcement, with an appropriate degree of excitement. But in the background you could hear crowd noises and a voice saying, "And there goes Bill Muncey. He's pulling out of the pits and heading onto the course. . . ." It was my voice again, but slightly muffled and off-mike. Under this, you could hear the roar of a powerful engine coming to life, revving up, then moving swiftly off into the distance, with the sound of water sloshing against its hull. Beautiful! Exactly what I was aiming for.
        About thirty seconds after I first played it over the air, Bill Wippel (the new station manager) came into the control room.
         "Where the hell did you find that?" he said. "I looked all over for a tape of last year's race, and I couldn't find any."
         "It was just something I put together myself."
        He looked confused. "Put together? What do you mean?"
         "You know that stack of Elektra sound effects records?"
         "Uh . . . no, I didn't know we had any. You mean there's a sound effect of a hydroplane on the records?"
         "No. But I did find a seaplane starting up, taxiing, and taking off."
        He stared at me for several seconds with his mouth open, then burst out laughing.
        The magic of radio.
        I made good use of those records. One of my more startling commercials used an effect that, I learned years later, was one that Jac Holtzman, the head of Elektra Records, was most proud of. In his fascinating book, Follow the Music, in which he details Elektra's trek through the music world, he mentions the making of the sound-effects records. For this one particular effect, he describes how they took a old junker car out on some back roads, repeatedly took the car up to speed, then hit the brakes, recording the sound of screeching tires. Then they took the car to a junk yard, lifted it on a crane, and dropped it again and again, recording the sounds of the car being demolished. The result of subsequent editing was a long, nerve-shattering sound of tires screeching on pavement, culminating in a crash that seems to go on forever.
        A local car repair shop had a special on tires and brakes. For their commercial, I used the car crash track twice. The first time, I let it go all the way. It was starting and horrifying, and you wondered when it was ever going to end. The second time, I recorded about a second and a half of screeching tires, them put my thumb on the edge of the record, stopping the sound abruptly. I opened the commercial with the full-length crash. Then I read the copy, warning about the dangers of bald tires and/or faulty brakes and recommended a trip to the car repair shop to take advantage of their special—before it was too late. I ended the commercial with a brief screech of tires, no crash. I tagged it with, "Now, that's better, don't you think?"
        They sold a lot of tires and did a lot of brake jobs that week.

With this kind of stuff, it's a lot more fun to be the one behind the mike.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: PageOfCups
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 04:04 PM

My favorites, hands down (wings down?) are the AFLAC commercials. I loved the one where the duck went to Vegas and was out enjoying a lounge act (was that really Wayne Newton?) instead of disrupting a wedding-chapel ceremony with his screams of "AFLAC!!!!"

My least favorite commercial is a radio ad for an in-home appliance fixit service. Their jingle is sung by a woman doing an excruciating Betty Boop imitation, and her high-pitched squeal grates on my nerves to the point that I'll reach over and change the station the instant I realize it's That Ad Again.

PoC

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Beccy
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 10:58 AM

As an advertising agency escapee, I'd like to put forth my opinions on the following categories:

Most Hated:
1.) Coors Light football ads (you try explaining to 4 boys that most girls don't dress like THAT or look at you like THAT or wiggle their hips like THAT when they're standing in one place...)
2.) Miller Lite's "Catfight" ad for similar reasons.
3.) Dannon "La Creme" yogurt commercials. Ugh.

Most annoying for no particular reason:
Any Mentos commercial ever made.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: GUEST,John Hardly
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 08:40 AM

1. Herding cats
2. "Has that thing got a hemi?"
3. some people never grow up -- chevy commercial where the driver brakes every time his passenger just gets his coffee cup to he lips.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 03:43 AM

My vote (or several votes, if they let me) for the absolute worst are the eternal, tasteless, boring solicitations for contributions on Public TV and Radio.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 02:31 AM

Dave The Gnome's entry for worst, I think, takes the prize.
My current favorite: the beer commercial where the subjects of familiar bar jokes enter a bar (blondes, a hockey team, etc.). The bartender eyes them suspiciously and says "Is this some kind of joke?"

One of my alltime favorites is the Alka Seltzer commercial within a commercial - where a man at a table eats a meatball from a plate of spaghetti and proclaims "Mama mia, this is some spicy meatball!" Each time he does it, the director off-camera yells "Cut!" He has to do about a dozen takes, each time taking a big bite out of meatballs. Finally, he's holding his stomach, looking sick. The voice-over then announces Allka-Seltzer. I was fortunate in seeing one of the early runs of the commercial, before it was pared down to only showing the guy having to do three or four takes.

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: kendall
Date: 17 Aug 03 - 07:25 PM

I can't imagine anyone using up one brain cell on any commercial!

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: GUEST,JMRnKY
Date: 17 Aug 03 - 04:10 PM

My least favorite: The sappy "jest plain folks" commercials for Walmart, when you remember that Walmart shafts the "jest plain folks" who work for them and have put a lot of "jest plain folks" out of business in many small towns across the US of A.
Right up there with those are the Disneyland commercials where sappy old Grandpa and his sappy little grand kid are "makeing memories' at God only knows what expense, at Disneyland.
The Volkswagon, snow plow guy, commercial was not only clever, you also rememberd the product.
I change channels after the fourth commercial as by then I can't remember what I was watching. Part of the aging process.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Shelley C
Date: 17 Aug 03 - 02:52 PM

Favourtie commercial - it was for some type of tyres, Dunlop I think. Some very pervy images to 'Venus in Furs' (Velvet Underground). It just looked good.
Most hated one at the moment - the one where Micheal Winner has that car accident.

Shelley

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 17 Aug 03 - 11:24 AM

There's one on now (I forget what they are advertising, probably a loan company) where a man with a fake smile and sing-song voice shows off his house, car, pool, etc.......then says, "How do I do it? I'm in debt up to my eyeballs!"

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 17 Aug 03 - 11:09 AM

It makes me proud and happy to be able to announce that I am seriously weird. I have not voluntarily watched television in well over a decade. Commercials, what are they? I ain't gots to watch me no stinkin' commercials!

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Aug 03 - 10:14 PM

Barbara Feldman doing the shaving cream commercials (and then there was the "take it all off" Swedish model doing another shaving cream commercial) were both funny.

Most of the rest are too obnoxious to catalog here.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Don Firth
Date: 16 Aug 03 - 09:57 PM

Most hated:— any automobile, SUV, or truck commercial where they exhibit absolutely idiotic driving. Screaming along a winding road at ridiculous speeds, sliding sideways, off-roading where they're driving at excessive speeds about six inches from the edge of a precipice, any of that stuff. Running a close second are any commercials (usually locally produced) for used car dealers or furniture store dealers where the loudmouthed twerp doing the voice-over is shouting at the top of his lungs and sounding so excited about not having to make any payments for six months that you're sure he's gonna mess his pants.

One of my favorites:— a Japanese commercial not shown in this country. I saw it on a program of award-winning commercials (who in the hell watches a program made up of nothing but commercials? I do, 'cause [God forgive me!!] at one time, I used to produce radio commercials, and an especially good commercial can be a work of art—really!). It showed a very tall building—a skyscraper—with a wee, tiny ladder running all the way from the sidewalk to the top. At the very bottom of the ladder was a little toy fireman, maybe four or five inches tall, wearing the traditional fireman's hat and a yellow slicker. He also wore a back-pack containing what at first looked like a couple of toy size oxygen tanks, but a close up showed that they two double-A batteries—with the brand name plainly visible. There was no voice-over, and I don't recall any music, but there must have been—probably something kind of whimsical. Anyway, the whole commercial consisted of various shots of the little battery-operated plastic fireman climbing the side of this very tall building. A very long climb. As he—finally—approaches the top, you get a view from the side and slightly above. Right on the edge of the roof is a cigarette butt, still smoldering. When the fireman reaches the edge of the roof, he points a small fire hose at the cigarette butt, there is a little squirt of water, and the cigarette butt hisses and goes out. As the screen fades, you see the logo for the brand of batteries. End of commercial.

Beautiful!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Ely
Date: 16 Aug 03 - 08:29 PM

I hate the ad--I don't even know what it's for--where two kids bring their parents a pancake breakfast in bed, and the mother whispers in horror to the dad, "We don't have the stuff to make pancakes." Flour, eggs, milk, butter, baking powder, sugar--who doesn't have the stuff to make pancakes?? Do they eat McDonald's and Hamburger Helper at every meal?

Volkswagen must have a long history of good ads. I loved the newspaper ad Volkswagen ran when it released the New Beetle, whic said, "If you're really good in a past life, you come back as something better."

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Amos
Date: 16 Aug 03 - 07:26 PM

I can see I have left myself out of a whole important subculture of experience and significance by not watching television all these years. I have no idea what 99% of this thread refers to. But I do like the descriptions! I decided long, long ago not to have a TV-centric house, and it's been pretty much an occasional event ever since.

While my ignorance is not bliss, it is prefereable to the alternative!!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Joe_F
Date: 16 Aug 03 - 06:38 PM

I have escaped commercials for many years now. However, when I was little (1940s), my brother's & my favorite commercial was perpetrated by a southern California used-car dealer who called himself Madman Muntz. It was ttto Strauss's "Vienna Blood", but I have repressed most of the words.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: GUEST,green
Date: 16 Aug 03 - 05:31 PM

hate all the herbal essence organics (watch these women have fake orgasms ala Meg Ryan in *When Harry Met Sally.*) These commercials have been running for years now. Why? They were not funny or charming to begin with and they now lack a retro charm. I rate them as very high on the irritation chart.
All diaper commercials are revolting each in its own special way.
The KFC commercial with that gape-toothed nitwit child is irritating and, like bad sex, it is not over quick enough.
In fact most commercials involving children are annoying; I direct your attention to the SunnyD series.
An exception to this rule is the brilliant Sprint commercial featuring a baby phone phreak and the Born to be Bad music as the soundtrack.
I like the Mitsubishi/ecstacy series because it is not laborious and it is target age appropriate.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 15 May 01 - 08:25 AM

My favourite was one that ran here in Canada at least fifteen years ago. Featured a cow singing in a cheezy lounge lizard style, "You'll never know, how much I love you" and finishes with an Elvis style "Thank you, thank you very much". The tag line was "HP Sauce, it makes beef sing".

As much as I detest seeing the Nike slogan in Hockey, their ads a few years ago featuring NHL Goalies in full equipment, masks and all working at menial jobs because they had been put out of work by the Nike staff players. My favourite was the Chicago Black Hawks goalie working behind the counter at a burger joint. Two guys step up to order, say to him 'hey, aren't you so and so?' and he goes into a tirade about how he was an NHL star until that Mats Sundin exposed a weak glove hand. He is screaming "a weak glove hand, a weak glove hand" (think Arlo's Kill, Kill) and banging his hands on the counter. The customers turn to leave to get away from him and as they are walking to the door he shouts out "hey, I was employee of the month".

There was another one with a former goalie as a New York City cab driver that was also very funny.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: ddw
Date: 14 May 01 - 11:51 PM

I just saw Stan Freberg's name in another thread and it twigged on me. I'd been trying to think of whose ad agency did the VW commercial mentioned in my last post. It was his, as was the whole magazine campaign that featured a tiny VW in the middle of the pages of Life and Look with the caption "Think small." Freberg was a very creative guy.

david

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: ddw
Date: 14 May 01 - 10:44 PM

About 20+ years ago a beer which claimed to be made with water from artisian wells ran a series — one featuring a couple of truckers driving along a dark road at night and another of an old-coot/prospector type at a campfire — telling tales about encounters with Artisians trying to protect their water supply. Very funny.

There was also an Alka-Seltzer series with the line "I can't believe I ate the whole thing..." that at least rivaled the "Where's the beef?!" ads that came later.

Also, I think my all-time favorite was one for Volkswagen in the late '60s. It started with a long shot of a small village under a monster blanket of snow, zooms in what seems like a mile till it focuses on one house. The garage door opens and a VW beetle comes out. For about 40 seconds it follows the VW up hills and down, plowing through drifts that cover it until it pulls up in front of another garage. The driver gets out, goes inside, and comes out seconds later in a snowplow. The the only words of the commercial are spoken. "Did you ever wonder how snowplow drivers get to work?" Fade to black.

Great stuff!

david

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: NH Dave
Date: 14 May 01 - 12:25 PM

I have four favorite series, the Racoons for Lazeeboy, and the two guys for Jordan's Furniture, the Wendie's commercials, and a real oldie, the Chevron campaign when CALSO was just beginning to market Chevron Supreme gasoline in the north east US.

In each case the ad is subtle and doesn't try to embarras anyone or hammer the point home with a Mack truck. They also change the ads frequently enough so we aren't bored to tears. And of course for the Jordans and Wendie's ads, I have to admire anyone with the courage to put his own face up in front of his product. I also have a lot of respect for Dave Thomas, both for what he has done in business, and what he has done with some of his money.

Dislikes? The commercials that use footage or digitally enhanced footage of now-deceased stars to sell products that the stars would never have looked at during their lifetime. I think this is exploitive and cheap.

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: GUEST,Skivee
Date: 14 May 01 - 10:59 AM

Loved the 7-up taste test. Most hated...from the dim mists of antquity: The wife is happily dusting her lovely home The husband comes in to the home. As he passes she looks at the neck of his shirt (always the first place a woman checks. The previously cheery wife notices that hubby has.... "Ring Around The Collar". Sing-songy kiddy playground bully voices start chating " ring around the collar, Ring Around The Collar, RING AROUND THE COLLAR". The poor dear's day is ruined because she didn't use Wisk detergent... or was it really because Hubby doesn't know how to wash his neck! Some ad folks would consider the ad a success because I remembered the product name. I've never bought a bottle of Wisk in my adult life

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Dorrie
Date: 13 May 01 - 01:12 PM

i HATE northen upholtstery/dfs etc adverts cos they r soooooooooooo naff and annoying dorrie xxx

i loved j.r.hartley 1s

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 12 May 01 - 10:33 PM

You would have loved it, M. Without the exposure this commercial gave to the song, it would never have attained the worldwide popularity it enjoys today. And Frankie Miller had just about the best voice ever to come out of Scotland.

Murray

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: harpmolly
Date: 11 May 01 - 07:44 PM

Ouch. I adore "Caledonia." I'm not sure whether I should wish I'd seen this commercial or not ;)

M

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 11 May 01 - 07:15 PM

American TV has so many really funny commercials, compared to British TV. I don't watch TV nuch here but sometimes I am ROTFL.

However, artistically, the best ever commercial was the British advert for Tennant's Lager, which featured the late great Frankie Miller singing Dougie McLean's anthem "Caledonia". This was how "Caledonia" SHOULD be sung.

Murray

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Jande
Date: 11 May 01 - 06:54 PM

I hate 'em all!

(I'm a TV-phobe)

~ Jande

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: GUEST,Caitrin
Date: 11 May 01 - 12:57 PM

I hate that singing, flying biscuit in the Hardee's commercial. That thing is seriously disturbing, in fact.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: GUEST
Date: 11 May 01 - 11:42 AM

Kudos to VW for turning a lot of people on to Nick Drake who otherwise wouldn't have heard of him...and to Aiwa for running that "poolside" commercial with the Mylinda Farmer music in the background.

...seems like car commercials have the best rock music (excluding Chevy's "Like A Rock") - non-U.S. cars especially, like Honda and Nissan.

Target was mentioned..they ran a commercial a few years back featuring the dance troupe from "Stomp" which featured a really nice routine with a "school janitor" theme for one of their Back-To-School blitzkriegs. Very nice choreography.

A company knows they've really incorporated themselves into the collective consumer psyche when they don't have to feature their product in the ads, and the ad doesn't even have to have anything to do with what they're selling. At the end all they have to do is feature their logo (Nike).

Worst commercials: the ones for perfume, especially Calvin Klein, featuring anorexic Kate Moss. (You've got to wonder about an industry that touts heroin as a cosmetic boon because it relaxes the muscles which cause wrinkles).

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite or Most Hated Commercials?
From: Les from Hull
Date: 10 May 01 - 12:44 PM

Now if you're old enough to remember cinema adverts in the UK from Pearl and Dean (I know it sounds like a surf-sound duo, but it was an advertising firm), then you'll know crap at its crapiest.

They had a lot of stock footage with voice over like 'after the show, why not enjoy a lovely meal at' then in an entirely different voice someone told you the name of restaurent in your home town, and mispronounced the name of the street it was on! Laugh, I thought my trousers would never dry.

Les