TV Ads that Irritate Me
I just saw an ad for the Dodge Avenger and it reminded me of a post I wanted to write for a few days now — “TV ads that irritate me.” Number 1 on my list right now was the Avenger commercial I just mentioned.
In case you haven’t seen it I’ll recap it for you: It begins with a car driving down a road with a heat seeking missile following close on it’s tail because — get this — the car has a heated cup holder. The whole commercial tries to convince you that this is the must have feature which will determine whether or not you buy it versus another car. At the end of the commercial the driver turns the heated cup holder to the “cool” setting (it can do both) and the missile stops following the car. Finally, as if we didn’t get the point already, the commentator says, “Did we mention the heated cup holder?”
Did I mention that your car is crap? Who is going to buy that car simply because it has a heated cup holder. Dumb. Here’s what one reviewer of the Dodge Avenger had to say about the car:
“Struggling to find anything positive to say about the cabin, I’ve been reduced to mentioning the innovative double-front cup holder, which heats or chills drinks. Marvellous, except for the fact that only one occupant is allowed to benefit from this revolution in automotive engineering.”
The author of this article has many additional “good” things to say about this vehicle. My fave is, “[the car sucks] but at least there’s an interesting cup-holder.”
Another commercial that sucks a lot is this totally “gay friendly” Starburst ad with some homo singing about “berries and cream.” Seriously. You need to see it once just to know what I’m talking about.
View the Starburst ad now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkvhnRAd4V0
What keeps me up at night isn’t this ad, however, it’s the realization that someone had to 1) come up with the idea 2) pitch it to a decision-making exec and 3) ultimately hire someone to direct and act in it.
As a rule, pretty much any Sprite commercial that was ever created blows. Do people really start tripping when they drink Sprite? Why is Lebron being chased by aliens with paint-ball guns? Why are midgets jumping matrix-style into a pool? Seriously — wtf!? God!
Last one I’ll mention is not really a commercial, but instead the most annoying 60-120 seconds on TV — ever. If you ever watch MTV2 you’ll notice that they pepper their commercials with “upcoming concert” announcements. These are just screen images of text saying which band is touring where, and when. That’s the the bad part. What is annoying is that they include a constant high pitched hum and/or buzzing sound that makes you want to kill yourself. Why?! Why do that?? Why not play music? It makes no sense! I can’t figure it out. It serves no purpose. I just mute the TV or change the channel. Was that your goal?