Atrocious commercials on TV

[secretkeeper12]

It's no secret that adverts are the bane of commercial television. Entire stations are funded just to get away from them (thank you PBS!), but they won't be going anywhere. A well-made commercial can be funny, informative, and/or advertise a good service. A bad one.....does not.

What are some horrible commercials you've seen, whether in presentation, product or service? I personally detest the adverts by. LifeAlert. Not just the memetic "I've fallen and I can't get up" but aalso their rather disturbing ads on the Science channel. Hearing a person cry out for help scares me, and I'm not convinced that the service will help me at all. All it does is upset an individual like me. I have a lot of empathy, what can I say?

 

[RICHIERICAN]

like old vhs and dvr today you can fast forward the commercials or do some channel hopping!!

 

[Barbas]

I'll let Charlie Brooker help explain my annoyance with some of the sh**tiest advertisements ever to wipe their foetid, syphilitic loins up and down British television screens.

Spoiler: Watch and be amaz(ingly peev)ed.

I'd just like to add that infamously obnoxious and nonsensical anti-piracy "PSA", "You wouldn't shoot a policeman and then steal his helmet" to that list. F**k 'em right off.

 

[Rabbitboy]

Those Carglass commercials, especially that fucking annoying song.

 

[Solsbury_Grille]

Any political ad from any and every US candidate for public office.

 

[tm96]

Any perfume or deodorant advert. All they do is confuse me the living daylights out of me. But at least I have that R8 advert

 

[Lilani]

Any political ad from any and every US candidate for public office.

YES. This, good Lord. They're all the same and they're all insufferable. Even when they try to be different they're insufferable.

Also, I've never liked the eTrade baby. It wasn't really very funny or amusing in the first place, and the thing they do with the lips is...unsettling.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Commercials made sure I rarely watch the telly nowadays.
Not only the commercials are drivel, most programs are aswell.

Hard to chose which CM is the most annoying though.

 

[Drake the Dragonheart]

Progressive's commericals, but especially the ones with the flipping talking box. Urgh I just want to punt that thing into a roaring fire!

Of course any political campaign ad.

many more I am just not thinking of at this time.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

I'm certain that there isn't anyone in the UK who doesn't want to track this fucker down and silence him once and for all:

Car insurance? I'll ensure a car finds it's way parallel parked between your lungs and colon!

 

[WickedFire]

American drug commercials are just plain scary. I'm aware they have to list any possible side-effects to avoid being sued, but some of them just make me question how the drugs were even approved. I'm 90% sure that one of them I saw even listed anal prolapse as a side effect. And just about all of them include death on the list.

 

[Karthesios]

How about that "Jake from State Farm" ad? I like to think to myself that after the ad ended, "Jake" declined to grant the insurance policy telling the guy "We've determined your wife to be a clear and present danger to herself and others around her, and therefore you are uninsurable."

 

[Drake the Dragonheart]

American drug commercials are just plain scary. I'm aware they have to list any possible side-effects to avoid being sued, but some of them just make me question how the drugs were even approved. I'm 90% sure that one of them I saw even listed anal prolapse as a side effect. And just about all of them include death on the list.

It seems like half of them have side effects far worse than what they are supposed to treat.
Another of my favorites is the anti-depressant/anti-suicide meds that have the possible side effect of suicidal thoughts or even outright SUICIDE! A possible side effect is the very thing these meds are supposed to be preventing!

 

[Henkie36]

All perfume commercials, as illustrated by the well known meme I'm too lazy to look for: "This perfume advert makes perfect sense, said no one ever."

Those aren't annoying or obnoxious, they're just selling a product that's impossible to market. No, my personal hatred goes out to any commercials that have children in them. More specifically, talking children. Here in the Netherlands, we even there is a whole string of commercials advertising some sort of yoghurt with, and I kid you not, rapping children. I have sworn an oath never to buy that stuff in my life.

Then there is every commercial that feels the need to shout everything. There's an episode of Top Gear where James and Jeremy attempt to market a VW, and the first thing they are told is: ''Talk to your audience, don't scream, they can hear you.'' This message has flown past a lot of commercial directors, much to everyone's chagrin.

I don't inherently hate commercials, it's a part of TV that you just have to accept, like buying a car and then filling it up. Yeah, it sucks, but otherwise, it would be useless. But it's the sheer amount of annoying commercials, and those that feel the need to appeal to the lowest common denominator that I really hate.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

This ad, the guys who owned it must have been freaking rich because it was always on the telly during all the cartoons and everything, my friends and I can recite it on memory even today decades later.

 

[EyeReaper]

I think the worst commercial is that trix commercial. You know the one, where he actually goes to the store and just goddamn buys the cereal, and yet those little shit kids steal it from him anyways. Ugh. I hate those kids.

also this

although that one's less "atrocious" and more of.... wwhhhyyyyyyy

 

[RaikuFA]

The Blue Tax commercials. There's a bunch of videos showing the... thing from the commercial scaring children.

 

[TakerFoxx]

Well, it's not really atrocious, but that Folgers incest commercial is hilarious for all the wrong reasons.