Now that the nominees have been announced for Consumerist’s First Annual Worst Ad In America Awards, it’s time to get your vote on!
Click here to read a bit about the nominees and download the printable PDF here.
Below are poll for all 6 categories in WAIA 2010. You can only vote once, so choose wisely. Voting ends at 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday, 9/28/2010.
Remember, the main reason Consumerist can hold a contest like this is because we don’t take outside advertising or corporate sponsorships and we are 100% supported by consumers. Please consider supporting independent blogging. $5 you give us is $5 we don’t have to get from a corporation. CLICK HERE TO DONATE!






Thank you, Tivo and Netflix. I’ve never seen any of these ads.
Augh I hate the Apple’s new iphone campaign. ALL of them are so creepy, hope they lose hard.
THANK YOU! My wife and I are both creeped out by them. I don’t need to see a wife tell her husband she’s pregnant, but the dad talking to the daughter about her braces. Ewwww, seems like a pedo to me.
The dad…is asking his daughter about her braces. What part of that is offensive or “ew”?
Because you don’t know it is a dad until the very end, up until then you think: Is it a boyfriend? Wait is he a pedo? I can totally envision a pedo watching that commercial and thinking “hey I can use that phone the same way I use chat roulette to talk to kids.”
Or to quote preyfar who commented on the subject earlier: “Oh god, that Apple commercial just seems like an advertisement targeted at pedophiles.”
That is why that phone commercial is creepy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2-pVU5wNqs
The braces commercial with added creepy music.
Ha!
I wish I could vote for the Geico pig more than once. Oh god, that thing is horrible.
I make my own ads at home.
What’s wrong with you nominators? The Geico “Squealing Piggy” is the funnest commercial of the year.
WHEEEEE! WHEEE WHEEE WHEEEEEEEEE!
This is tough, I always flip channels during commercials. I never watch them because I hate them!
I don’t know why Mike Rowe isn’t on here doing the actual dirtiest job in America of trying to sell Fords to every man, woman and child, every five minutes.
really? The girl from the esurance commercial isnt on here? Well this poll’s crap..
How did the Macarena Snuggie commercial not make this list?
Also, I really hate the Totino’s “Kids in America” spots.
What about that god awful NBC show “The Event” This show was a complete marketing cluster fail….
A translucent sphincter opened up and swallowed a plane amongst ten separate yet some how tied together subplots? With a jumping timeline story that would have a schizophrenic dizzy! Back this up with a media blitz that was a wonder to behold how to burn through money as fast as humanly possible.
Commercials. Not programs.
I was just reminded that this vote was happening when the Cinnamon Toast Crunch commercial with the female blogger came on.
The pig is supposed to be annoying
That’s what I was thinking. In some of these commercials, the whole POINT is that the character is annoying. That’s why I ruled out the Staples commercial–it’s annoying on purpose, which isn’t nearly as horrible as being unintentionally annoying.
Is this a 365-day-year contest or a calendar year contest?
Because I think that Kay Jeweler’s commercial set in the rainstorm got in under the 365-day wire as the hands-down the creepiest commercial.
“I’m right here… and always will be.”
Dude… put down the knife!
I can’t believe Marcus PSP is not in any of these. By far the most obnoxious thing on television at the moment.
What about the Drivetime guy?
Approved!
Approved!
Approved!
They were all mostly easy to vote for, especially the grating human. That McDonalds coffee guy needs to be pushed into traffic. If you need your coffee so bad, go buy a coffee pot you idiot.
The only one I had trouble with was grating duo/group. I HATE the Sienna couple now, but they started out ok. Went with Chase couple. Come on, seriously. You’re on your honeymoon. Months of stress and frustration in planning the wedding, and you’re going to sit and take pictures of checks? No. Just no.
I’m sad that the Car Fox was left out.
I am shocked that the Zestra ads aren’t on there. Those are so bad, I have to change it every time they come on.
“Zestra makes me feel…. OH WOW!”
*sigh* I’m only 30 but I remember when you didn’t see ads during every commercial break for sex jelly. I miss those days.
That god damn Samsung Fascinate commercial for Verizon is killing me. It’s on every 5 minutes and that music screeches into your head.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyTV_lK7VzE
I am shocked that the Zestra ads aren’t on there. Those are so bad, I have to change it every time they come on.
“Zestra makes me feel…. OH WOW!”
*sigh* I’m only 30 but I remember when you didn’t see ads during every commercial break for sex jelly. I miss those days.
People who think that the Apple commercial is creepy need to get their perverted little heads examined. If the first thought you have when seeing an older man talk to a child is “pedophile” and not “father” you’re sick.
1. Flo is awesome.
2. Mayhem is hilarious.
3. The squeeling pig make me laugh.
4. The Consumerist, which I usually love, has failed on this one big time.
where is the AXE ball washer ad?
I really wish I would have caught this before the nomination process ended. Anyone who has spent any time in Tampa can tell you how annoying ‘Roz’ from the 1-800-ASK-GARY ambulance chasers is.
Even worse the Ford Amphitheatre has now been renamed ‘The 1-800-ASK-GARY Amphitheatre’. I would have given them TARP money just to prevent this from happening.
I never saw the catheter commercial before, gross!
O.K.
First off..
I like the J.G. Wentworth opera viking commercials and even find myself singing to them.
I like the Capital One Vikings guys. Amusing and unique.
When it comes to Progressive, I like Flo, shes cute, and reminds me of Abby from NCIS.
And I enjoy the guy, “Does Charlie Daniels play a mean fiddle ?”
(plus all the other ones with him)
Mr. Mayhem is cool, and the ads are so true and active.
” Roni Deutch ” ads are weird, but shes not that bad to look at (she could be worse).
I’m not a FORD fan, but MIKE ROWE is cool, so I’ll tolerate his commercials.
The “Charmin bears” are kinda cuddly, …unlike the nappy “SUNGGLES” bear. !
And then there are…..
The Geico ‘CAVEMEN”., They are washed up, and should be retired.
Ben Stein is uhhh well…. Ben Stein ! You either like him or hate him !
The ‘ Old Navy ” manikins are a bunch of dummys ! ( pun intended )
Can’t stand the piggy going “Weeeeeeeeee” all the way home. (MUTE button)
Another MUTE button candidate is the Quiznos commercial ‘singing kittens’.
That McDonalds coffee guy needs a pot of hot coffee dumped on his arrogant head.
The ” Marcus, PSP” commercials are horrible, obnoxious and annoying.
The AXE ball washer ad is just wrong, and shouldn’t be on t.v. where children can see it.
but the number one BAD, and CREEPY, and down right most STUPID commercials are…..
DRUM ROLL PLEASE…..
BURGER KING COMMERCIALS…
Which Ones ? ALL OF THEM !
ANYONE with the KING in it !
The first one where the KING surprises the guy in his bedroom,
Or is standing outside the window, when the shade is pulled up,
The KING being chased by guys in the white coats,
or the KING breaking into Mikey D’s main office !
And now especially, those,
” I was smart buying breakfast, so now I can be stupid “” !
The guy up on the roof in the lightening storm,
the guy in the tire rolling down the hill. etc..
But don’t worry..
I’m sure there will be more and more and more and………
I love the Mr. Mayhem commercials! But yeah, the rest are pretty bad.
Women can’t poop unless they eat the right brand of yogurt.
Gha Mr. Opportunity! He is the bane of my existence!
Thank god for DVR’s!
The staple’s ad makes me mute or change the channel, so that’s the worst from the advertiser’s point of view. I love the geico pig, although the human intro grates, also like the ” Honest Abe” and R. Lee Ermey’s sympathetic psychiatrist. “You jackwagon!”
No Roni Deutsch?
I love Flo, I think she’s pretty. I will say that I like the iPhone 4 commercial. What’s creepy about a father sharing a tender moment with his daughter and her new braces?
One commercial that SHOULD be on here is the car commercial with the hampsters dancing to hip-hop music. That ad is just scary.
Not living in the US, I hadn’t seen any of these until viewing the links. As such, I don’t get the “on-every-five-minutes-makes-me-want-to-tear-my-eyes-out” effect that may have put some of the blander ones on this list.
Absolute worst: State Farm, Mr. Opportunity and Flo were just bland. Staples was loud and obnoxious, while Quiznos was gratingly horrible and just cheap-looking. My vote: Quiznos.
Annoying person: 5-hour Energy and Nationwide were kind of bland and boring, but not that bad. 1-800 Dentist was dumb and mildly annoying. Pico de Gallo guy is obnoxious, but Coffee guy is a dick. My Vote: McDonalds.
Animated Spokesperson: The General wasn’t bad at all, the scientists were bland and badly animated. The piggy was intentionally annoying (the guy at the beginning was worse, IMO). Happy roadkill was kind of cute. The Charmin bears, however, turned my stomach. My vote: Charmin.
Celebrity: I’d forgotten who that Jimmy Johnson was until I read the Youtube comments. My vote: Ben Stein, partly because it’s a scam service, but mainly because I just can’t stand the man.
Creepiest: Mr. Mayhem was funny and clever. Kittens was weird enough that I give Dodge points for being original. Modelquins wasn’t creepy at all (it would have been if they were animated). The catheter ad was kind of creepy, but mainly just smacked of trying to stir up false outrage with a bunch of half-truths. ‘Smile’ should have been re-titled, ‘Grooming’. My vote: Apple.
I hate that Flo commercial where she says you don’t get a discount for agreeing with me and I wanna just punch her in the face. Oh and the McDonald’s not before I have my coffee guy is an asshole who I want to punch in the face as well. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Catheter commercial is very odd. I was waiting for the cast of SNL to appear… Where is “Oops, I crapped my pants” that’s a classic… even my 70 year old mother laughed
Has anyone mentioned the Snuggie commercial with the jingle to the tune of Macarena? That was is AWFUL.
Is anybody else freaked out about the Dodge commercial with the George Washington that looks like Robin Williams?
Thank God for TiVo… I’d seen barely any of these terrible ads. Thanks for nothin’, Consumerist!
And for the record, I think that the Michelin ad with the ‘cute roadkill’ is totally miscategorized: it is easily creepier than any of the ads nominated in that category, including the manequins, and I HATE those.
The irrational and naive Travelers Insurance ads drive me nuts, even though they’re visually appealing. In one, a rattlesnake shakes its tail as a warning to CG bunnies, but once the long-ears see that the snake has a baby rattle attached to its tail, not the typical rattler’s noisemaker, they fall over laughing, and the snake slinks off, humiliated. In real life, that snake would then pounce and fang the bunnies to death. The rattle is meant to protect prey, not empower the predator–it makes a noise that warns vulnerable creatures that a deadly serpent is near, so they should scram. The baby rattle the snake has in the ad, however cutesy, still performs that function. So the ad’s premise– that getting the wrong replacement part is bad news–makes no sense.
The second irrational and naive Travelers Insurance ad that drives me nuts shows a baboon frisking with a cheetah, a zebra drinking at a watering hole next to a lion; meerkats riding on crocodiles, and so on, while a peaceful reggaeish song plays. The idea is that you’ll enjoy traveling more if you ‘take the scary out of life,’ whatever that means. I’m all for adventurous foreign travel, even in a fearful age; but in real life, that cheetah would attack the zebra, and the meerkats would be devoured by their crocodile transport in seconds–crunched to bits, and gulped down like popcorn. I fear for any traveler who embraces visible threats as foolishly as the animals in this ad do.