Stupid and Annoying Ads and Commercials

Discussion in 'Free Thoughts' started by Giambattista, Aug 17, 2010.

  1. Giambattista sssssssssssssssssssssssss sssss Valued Senior Member

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    What are the stupidest advertisements or commercials you have witnessed through the years?

    I hope this is interesting. I've been dreaming about this thread lately, so let us begin with something I saw while not logged in to sciforums.

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    WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

    What kind of ad is that? It had no text. No spiel. No link to click on. No nothing.

    The second picture made me think "There is an alien outside my house."
     
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  3. GeoffP Caput gerat lupinum Valued Senior Member

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    I did see one about Russian brides the other day.

    We have achieved new depth.
     
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  5. Giambattista sssssssssssssssssssssssss sssss Valued Senior Member

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    On Sciforums?

    I did notice some racy advertisement here and was wondering what new depth was being plumbed. I don't remember if it was Russian brides, but still. I was a little disturbed.

    The Company is hard at work generating revenue. Or not. Can't figure it out.

    Was it clickable? This ad was not. It was just cartoon woozy-floozies. Just a picture. I wasn't able to save it on my hard drive through normal means, so I took a screenshot of it and transferred it to a Sciforums picture album.
     
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  7. Giambattista sssssssssssssssssssssssss sssss Valued Senior Member

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    This thread is not about Sciforums in particular, I just started it out with an example from the forum.

    Overall, the commercials on TV that have annoyed me most are alcoholic beverages and car commercials.

    Beer commercials always have some uber masculinity they appeal to. Or just depicting a bunch of twenty or thirtysomething yuppies all just having a great time acting like zombie consumers.

    Car commercials always use some ridiculous rhetoric about how fine and sleek the engineering or shape is, and how luxurious the interior, and how discerning their prospective customers must be. I don't know. It's hard to put a definitive price tag on it, but car commercials have usually annoyed me for one reason or the other.

    Like the recent one about Mercedes or BMW and a bunch of little kids declaring how THIS is the car they're gonna drive when they grow up.

    Question: will it be older than 10 years and used?

    Other commercials that are annoying are those that blatantly appeal to sexuality to sell a product. Girls Gone Wild commercials are a given.

    "I just turned 18! I'm nearly brainless, and I'm like, on Spring Break in Cancun!!! YAY!!!!! And just for you, I'm gonna strip down and show you my p***y and stuff, like you can't get that kind of porn for free! I'm soooo willing to be exploited it's like, not even funny, and like, such as..."

    Spring Break must be year round for some of them. What a surprise!

    On that note, I heard an interview with a guy who wrote a book about informercial products, and if I remember correctly, he recounted a story about some girl down in Mexico who was accosted by the Girls Gone Wild people, and she didn't want to be in their video. Apparently, that unscrupulous company harassed her through the Mexican police.
    So there may be some criminal coercion involved in some of their videos.

    Extenze. Again, really fuckin' stupid. They spend alot of money on half hour infomercials on very late night TV selling a product that supposedly "Makes that certain part of the male anatomy" bigger.

    Well, on a whim, one night I decided to look up Extenze and see what I could find about claims for the product, etc. After wading through a bunch of fly-by-night "blogs" that are set up only to peddle and promote products like this, I came across a website that was devoted to infomercial products of every stripe.

    Of course they had an Extenze page. Most of the comments were complaints about how the product did nothing, or how they were milked for as much as possible. Yes. Something must be milked. Though it apparently isn't what you would think.

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    The major complaint was with the billing. People kept saying how the product advertised a free month supply or something like that, but that they received a few packages in the mail, and were immediately billed for several more weeks' supply. And that it was almost impossible to cancel. They kept getting the runaround.
    "Oh, I'll put you in touch with the billing department."

    It was monotonous: they kept getting people who didn't seem to have a clue about who was in charge or how to stop excessive billing for a product that wasn't wanted.

    One guy said he talked to a "sales rep" who sounded like he was sitting at home with his girlfriend/wife and told him he would get back to him. And never got a call back.

    But anyway..

    What kind of commercials bug you?

    It can also be campaign ads and what not. Or public service messages.

    There's alot of them around.
     
  8. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

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    All adverts are stupid if you aren't interested in buying their product, the only advertisements that make any sense are if there are specific events occurring like concerts, expo's etc

    I do admit for the short duration of using facebook, I found a number of their adverts annoying. In fact I realised that the adverts you see on the site when you are logged in are actually coordinated with what information you add to your profile (public or privately). If you say you are a single guy and looking, you get a whole bunch of adverts for dating sites, if you change it to something else the adverts change respectively.

    (Suddenly all the guys turn their status to Female, homosexual and looking)
     
  9. Giambattista sssssssssssssssssssssssss sssss Valued Senior Member

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    Well, kind of. But does that make the other advertisements that more appealing?


    So people actually changed their status to female and homosexual?

    That's silly. And what were the results?
     
  10. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

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    Well obviously guys end up hooking up with online relationships to lesbians (which are obviously also men in drag)

    Seriously though, depending on what sex and status you applied defines what adverts you are subjected to. while I was stating what could be done for comedic value, it's still a significant find in regards to watching how online adverts are tailored to your experience.

    An example of this is peoples concerns for "Tracking cookies" which can identify where you have been, this cookies can be used to identify what advertisements you are more likely to respond to based upon the sites you've previously visited.

    So if you see nothing but porn adverts, we all know what you were doing this summer.
     
  11. Dywyddyr Penguinaciously duckalicious. Valued Senior Member

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    What do you mean "turn their status to"?
    Mine's been on that since I joined, only because I couldn't find "sad, single, nerdy male" on the option list.
    Er, just in case any of my friends wanted to use my login, you understand...
     
  12. InTheFlesh77 Set the controls... Registered Senior Member

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    Go compare, anyone in the UK i guess has the same feelings as me and think that the podgy fake Italian guy needs a good kicking.
     
  13. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

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    Sounds like you should start the "Facebook should include the 'Sad, single, nerdy male' options in the profile group" and get everyone to 'Like' it.
     
  14. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

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    While that is annoying, the one that has annoyed more than a few is the Febreze advert with the girl that goes "mmm.... Fresh!". I mean how many people walk into a persons house and go "mmmm..... Fresh!"....

    I mean you might hear the "erm... mate, your flat's minging" or "open a window, it smells like something gone and died." or how about "what is that repugnant smell that is slowly eroding my nose tissue and making my eyes sting" but not "mmm.... Fresh!"
     
  15. Lori_7 Go to church? I am the church! Registered Senior Member

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    the brawny tv commercial gives me the creeps BAD. a cartoon lumberjack looking white dude singing a motown song...trying to have soul. it's bad...really bad. disturbing even. and if the entire aisle of brawny towel graphics came to life and started singing "lean on me" while you're grocery shopping? what a nightmare that would be!
     
  16. superstring01 Moderator

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    12,110
    Wait.

    You get adverts on this website?

    Huh.

    I don't.

    ~String
     
  17. Dywyddyr Penguinaciously duckalicious. Valued Senior Member

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    The ads only appear if you don't log in.
     
  18. superstring01 Moderator

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    DOH!!!

    I shoulda' read that post more clearly.

    ~String
     
  19. Lori_7 Go to church? I am the church! Registered Senior Member

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    i also can't stand the swiffer commercials where inanimate objects have romantic inclinations.

    sings..."who's that lady?" *shudder*
     
  20. superstring01 Moderator

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    Indeed. I have TiVo, but always seem to land on those annoying ads. Worst part is: they are catchy and undoubtedly do their job. Every time I stroll through the mega-mart and see the Swiffers I start singing that damned song.

    ~String
     
  21. Kernl Sandrs Registered Senior Member

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    645
    HAH! good ones. I was on Facebook a while back and saw an ad, and I was so taken back by it, that I just had to take a sceenshot of it, and make a poster out of it. Here it is:

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  22. Doreen Valued Senior Member

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    Now I am afraid the image took over my brain because I see nothing in your post.
     
  23. Ahem embrace simplicity Registered Senior Member

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    This isn't an annoying ad, but it is an ad I saw in this forum; and when I saw it, I wondered if this is where Sandy got her blond avitar. (she had a brunette one, too) Out of curiosity, is this "her"?

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