‘Tis the season to be jolly… Unless you’ve got to sit through hours and hours of the same holiday-themed commercials over and over again.
As an adjunct to our Worst Ad In America Awards, Consumerist is asking readers to get out their end-of-year frustration by nominating the worst holiday ads currently airing on TV.
We’re guessing that we’ll see a number of nominations for car and jewelry ads as both of those industries are making their annual holiday sales push.
In addition to nominating national commercials, we’d also like to hear about any oddball or horrid regional ads running in your area.
Leave your nominations in the comments below or send us an e-mail at tips@consumerist.com with “WAIA” in the subject.
Nominees will be accepted through 5 p.m. ET on Friday, 12/17.
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ANY of those Target ads where they show that blonde woman “working out” for the black Friday sales.
Oh yeah! That lady creeps me out, she’s like one of those robotic stepford wives.
Her name is Maria Bamford and she is a hilarious and very pretty stand-up comic but they made her terrible and ugly in the commercials.
So that’s who it is! I knew she looked familiar.
osiris73 is correct. Thread over.
Ohhhhh no! I love those commercials!
No, has to be the BMW commercials with the whiny, picky little boy (and yes, he still is a whiny, picky little boy when he picks his beamer).
I can’t understand why those run more or less constantly on both MSNBC and ESPN.
YES. Or that show her being high for Christmas at all…
However, the Robot Santa ones are awesome.
I nominate whatever that horrible thing is in the picture. Yaaaah! What is that, Christmas Hulk? Bleah!
Apparently, the Christmas Rulk.
It’s just Red Hulk being festive.
More like the Jolly Green Giant after popping the roids and donning a Santa hat, IMHO.
“Red Hulk” is a spin-off Marvel Comics character that is based on a much older one, General “Thunderbolt” Ross, that appeared a few years ago. A lot of fans hated him and Marvel has lately shown him getting the crap kicked out of him by other superheroes.
The Jared Charm Braclet commerical where the tween says, They were so cute at that age. DIAF!
I hate that commercial too, but more for the one girl going “He TOTALLY went to Jared.”
I hate the Jared commercials, every time I hear one it reminds me of a girl who dumped me in High School.
Every jewelry ad ever, plus every Jared ad x10.
Reggie the Elf or whatever it is in those Best Buy ads. Specifically the whole ‘training’ montage “I’m streaming! YAYYY.” It feels weird and it’s just… ergh. I can’t describe it, but it really tweaks my switch in the wrong sort of way.
YES. Came here to post that. The Best Buy Elf commercials freak me out.
YES. Came here to post that. The Best Buy Elf commercials freak me out.
The undisputed champion should be Macy’s, for using a song about living with AIDS (“Seasons of Love”) in order to sell diamond tennis bracelets.
But isn’t not having diamonds kind of like having AIDS?
Lol, so true. So true.
How do you measure a year? With diamonds, dammit, DIAMONDS.
Agreed.
I am not a big fan of the new Best Buy spots where the employees talk about how much they love Black Friday or want to make you happy. I think they bother me because I work retail and that is some of the most insincere crap I’ve ever seen.
^this!
Working retail you quickly learn to hate holidays. The sales are just a horrible rancid cherry on top.
It’s not an ad but it’s worth reading. It says Best Buy’s present and future doesn’t look good.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704694004576019272298673158.html
They should have purchased an extended warrentee on their shitty business model.
“But analysts noted that Best Buy has passed a period of easy market share growth that came after last year’s collapse of archrival Circuit City”
Very astute observation. BBY has been living off the death of its only real competitor, and has failed to remain competitive as rivals begin to emerge.
Yes, it looks like after BBY won game, the game has changed.
We’ll have to look for a new worst electronics retailers to ridicule. LOL
I guess there is nothing illegal about selling stuff at MSRP, but it certainly explains BB’s fortunes. After CC went belly up, BB stopped discounting. They used to have several laptops on sale at any one time. Now they may have one low end one on sale. Their TV prices are ridiculously easty to beat.
I go there to look at the merchandise, but order it online. Even paying for shipping, it’s usually cheaper.
I know this doesn’t count, but I am taking the opportunity to post this rant.
I nominate any commercial that sings different words to Christmas carols. As if Christmas carols weren’t annoying enough already.
I liked Garmin’s rendition of “Carol of the Bells”, if only because that’s one of the few Christmas songs I like.
I’ve always hated those! There are Honda ads and ads for malls and everything else that use their own words instead of the real words. I hit the mute button as soon as these come on.
What’s even more offensive is that they’re completely unoriginal. Are companies just too lazy or cheap when they produce exactly the same ad each year? Who sat in a conference room and said, “I have a GREAT idea for a commercial…” that resulted in another one of these? Why does this person have a job?
Same people who came up with their own “Got…” slogan. Got Realtor? (I actually saw that one)
Same people who are now putting a hip chick/dude next to a frumpy dude in front of a white background.
But more likely probably the same ones who write the “two people having a conversation with a lame joke/comment at the end” commercials.
The Pennsylvania Lottery likes to air an annoying “12 Days of Christmas” rewrite commercial on Philly stations, though it doesn’t count for this list because they’ve been recycling it since (apparently) 1992.
Overstock dot com’s singing employees?
Overstock dot com is definitely not what I am thinking about when you mention the “Big, big, ‘O’”
I always hear that song as “Big big ‘ho”. I don’t think that’s the message they want to get across.
Same here!
Yeah, this might even be better than my Target suggestion.
I second the singing from Overstock.com. That is annoying enough to have it stuck in your damn head all day. It is enough to make me want to shove an ice pick through my ears.
YES. They are freaking HORRIBLE and make me cringe
ALL of the Jared commercials should be nominated. However, if I had to pick one, the Jared commercial where the guy is proposing to his girlfriend on the football jumbotron, and you’ve got the football player who is supposed to sound all mushy and sentimental but the actor sounds like he would rather puke than actually say the words he is saying.
Has anyone figured out what Jared’s line “the galleria of jewelry” means?
The mass marketer of jewelry?
The big jeweler so big you can’t find anything?
I am really clueless on that one.
When I was shopping for an engagement ring, it meant “overpriced and unimaginative jewelry”
“We use fancy words so it looks like we have some style. And by using the fancy words you hopefully won’t notice how boring, unimaginative and pricy our products are”.
Jared’s deserves to be on the list of worst any for any time of the year. That “You could only mean Jared’s” jingle is one of the most gut wrenchingly horrible pieces of noise ever broadcast, and made that much worse by the sheer number of times I hear it on the radio every day.
all of them…..
I detest all of them which bastardize a classic Christmas song, turning it into a shopping jingle.
Walgreens and Overstock.com are the worst, but there are many others. I’m completely, totally, 100% serious that those involved in those ads should face the death penalty for their egregious anti-social acts.
Any commercial featuring the ambiguous “Holiday – best time of the year” song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qUY9RW3HOI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B15j9Xs_CE
Vampire Weekend! But they’re a good band
Kay Jewelers. Military Dad on an aircraft carrier. “Wingman” son gives mom the necklace, or chain, or whatever, while dad watches via some sort of video telephony device.
I’m waiting for the parody of that where the wingman son gives his mom some sexy lingerie, courtesy of dad.
“Our son helped pick it out”
yes that and the “Intruder” marital aid.
Ya, that one is puke worthy for sure.
That TJ Maxx commercial with the carolers going up & down the escalators in the shopping mall, singing about how much money they saved. Grrr!
Unfortunately, I can’t participate. I haven’t had ads on my TV for several years (hooray netflix). Seriously though, I was listening to the radio the other day and those ad breaks have become RIDICULOUS! No wonder I listen to pandora and my ipod. O_O
That’s why I can’t stand to listen to radio any more, either.
#1: Honda’s “Holiday, oh Holiday” commercial. It’s on like every 5 minutes, the stop motion is annoying, and the song is annoying. The lyrics are “Holiday, oh, Holiday! And the best one of the year”. After years of being told “don’t start sentences with And”, it’s just grating to hear it in a commercial. The blatant PCness of it is gutless and disappointing. Finally, the song by Vampire Weekend has nothing to do with the December holiday season.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qUY9RW3HOI
#2 Acura’s “Oversaving” commerical. I’d like to know what magic world these advertising people live in that spending $500+ / month on a vehicle is *not* overindulging? The irony of the advertisement is truly stupefying. How much exactly am I going to “oversave”? 20% 50%? Oh wait, they don’t say.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKaFEN_Hjgc
+1 for the Honda and Acura commercials.
Horrible, absolutely horrible!
The HHGregg commercials…they keep playing them over and over. If I hear “$199 Teeeveee’s” one more time, I’m going to scream.
That or the Sunggie “Macarana” commercial.
Oh god yes. I submitted the Snuggie commercial early on an open thread.
Not one I hate, but one I like.
The new Michael C. Hall Dodge commercial is really good. Doesn’t hurt that I love his voice either…
The terrible Radioshack ‘Holiday Hero’ commercials.
I’m going to nominate that Overstock christmas ad, simply because it was the very first one I saw this year. November 1st.
You know, those Bestbuy ads with the CG elves including the one super douch elf complete with goatee and thick rimmed nerd glasses single handedly SAVING CHIRSTMAS THANKS TO BESTBUY
Has got to be one of the worst things I think I’ve ever seen.
Makes me want to invest in that new eye bleach product.
Radio Shack ads.. Holiday Hero crap
+1
It is simply annoying and the “intentional bad” style doesn’t fit what it is trying to say. Hell, actually it doesn’t really feel intentionally bad. It is just… bad.
I second this nomination.
It was also nominated 2 comments above this one. I added my +1 to the other +1 reply.
Yes, yes, yes. I’m not shopping anywhere that makes me dress like that and dance suggestively in front of children. Ew!
So they’re for Radio Shack. I’ve been so appalled by them, I forgot to pay attention to the vendor’s name. That’s a fail on their part.
The horrible target commercial with the monkey singing “electronic santa claus”. That stuff is what nightmares are made of…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGhiYCJADXw&feature=related
really?! I LOVE that commercial, it makes me want to get up and dance and I find myself nodding my head to the beat. That one and the other Target one where the kids do everything backwards with the cool song are pretty good.
The one I hate is all the stupid diamond commercials that basically tell you (and women!) that if you don’t “buy her a diamond” you’re basically a thoughtless, careless, grinch who hates her and christmas. I really hate those. . .
All of Target’s holiday ad music is online for free. “Toy Jackpot” is the one in the other ad you mentioned.
http://www.target.com/b/ref=sc_iw_o_holmusic/?node=2492229011
I love that commercial, even though, yeah, admittedly, the robot is a fright and those kids have gotten a shitload of expensive toys /pointless bit.
I can’t believe no one mentioned them yet…but the Snuggie holiday commercials where they’re standing around a piano singing carols badly rewritten to talk about Snuggies. The Hanukkah one almost made me wretch.
It has already been mentioned, but I want to expand the category. I loathe any of the commercials that showcase employee testimonials and how they “love” working on Black Friday. One of two things are true in those commercials: either the employee is flat out lying, or they have serious issues. I cannot think of anyone who would love to work at a Buy More store on Black Friday or Boxing Day.
The heavy rotation of the Tommy Hilfiger ad and whatever car company’s ad that uses the song “Holiday” by Vampire Weekend have driven me mad b/c that song won’t get out of my brains.
Just a rant. Any ad for the “Holiday Season” that features: reindeer, Jolly old fat guys in red suits with beards, a decorated tree in the background or a song that is obviously a Christmas song with new words to make it religiously neutral.
These ads have NOTHING to do with the “Holiday season”. They are neutered Christmas ads. If not offensive, at least irritating to many Christians for being neutered and Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and many others by playing up this not a big holiday season as if it is the most important holiday for us also.
Many non-Jews in our society are shocked that Channukah does not even make the top 5 most important Jewish Holy Days. It is played up in the media so we spend money on gifts and don’t feel left out. The event that Channukah celebrates isn’t even in the Bible.
So, please, call it what is is. These are ads celebrating the birthday party that Christians throw for their Savior a couple of months early based on what I have read. Just don’t think I am a downer for not getting into the “Holiday spirit”, since my holiday is not as religiously important to the Jews as Ascension Day/Feast of the Ascension is to Christians.
+1
The worst offenders I can think of this year would have to be Hyundai and Honda. Both feature completely obnoxious music that makes me change channels. But the Hyundai one is far worse with some insufferable hipster couple who, to the best of my reckoning, must have traded their meds for the day, with the grubby, bearded man hopping around like some kind of toddler on a sugar high, in a very forced rendition of jollility while the the chick is so completely emotionless that I half expect she’s some kind lifelike automaton. It’s really quite disturbing.
Those are the ads that come to mind for me, anyway. I’m sure there may be worse examples but that I’ve sort of forced them into the deep dark recesses of my subconscious.
Oh, and I still chuckle when I think of Kohl’s ad from a year or two ago with a christmas-y rendition of the Le Chuck’s theme from the Monkey Island games. It wasn’t a bad ad by any stretch. The Music just caused a major collective WTF among my geek kin.
You mean Pomplamoose? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIr8-f2OWhs
KILL IT WITH FIRE
Nuke it from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure…
oops. didn’t mean for that to be a reply. sorry.
Best Buy CGI elf commercials. Hands down. Worst Christmas ads of the year.
The Hundai commercial with the hipster folk singing couple that play various instruments in and around the car, I cant stand this commercial it’s too sappy and cutesy for my taste
Those smug hipsters are reason enough to hate that commercial..
It’s always so hard to choose from shitty diamonds, shitty car bows, and shitty fake carols.
I did find it interesting that one of the shitty car bow ads featured what could very well be a real interracial couple that is not “Asian woman-white guy.” Granted, they might be a Latin or South American couple with different skin tones, but you never know!
I know that advertisers need to dumb down their content to the most bland, non-controversial white Americans but just for once I’d like to see a night of commercials that reflected the couples I see in my Brooklyn neighborhood.
oops, did not mean that to be a reply to this thread. but just to add, even shitty hipsters hate ads directed toward shitty hipsters.
I concur.
I agree wholeheartedly. It’s stupid, obnoxious, and doesn’t make me want to buy a car from them.
The name of the band is Pomplamoose and they are wildly popular on YouTube. I agree that’s it’s an odd choice for a mainstream commercial though.
I put that that little nugget of information into a very specific part of my brain labeled: Stuff I wish I never learned.
OK, Pomplamoose, enjoy your spot on the shelf next to Joana Newsom’s gratingly obnoxious singing in the LG optimus ads. Call me back when you learn how to flex your diaphragm.
LOL
Preach it. I hate those ads.
Yes. That girl creeps me out.
One I like: the Gamestop ad where the dad slowly becomes “cooler”. That one is so cute to me.
Yea I saw that ad for the first time a few days ago. It was the first one I saw that made me happy and not sickened or enraged.
The DSW singing boot: “Jingle bells, your gift smells; you really laid an egg…”
That has to be the most materialistic, boorish and insulting ad I think I’ve ever seen. It takes degradation of the Christmas spirit to a new low.
I have to go with Overstock.com. It makes me cringe.
Also the insurance ad where the guy who was on gritty prison drama Oz is a Christmas tree and says he smells like making love to a lumberjack.
The “Lexus December to Remember Sales Event”
I stole this from another commenter on another site about this commercial…
“The joy of Christmas, as seen through a little girl’s eyes. Her uber-materialistic father is actually deigning to spend time with her — and not on a cell phone while he’s doing it! — only to systematically and repetitively crush her dreams as she points out a Christmas tree she likes. “Not big enough,” says the closeted size queen. “But it’s the biggest one they have,” says the girl, in a tone normally reserved for finding out her favorite pet is dead.”…
I vote we stack them all in a pile along with pop-tune Christmas songs, any mangling of a classic hymn or carol plus some fruitcake for tinder, and set the whole mess aflame.
On the flip side, the ads I have enjoyed the most so far are the talking ornaments.
“I’m a fish. On a tree.”
That Kay Jewelers commercial where that that one woman gets scared by the lighting and the dude she’s with has a voice that doesn’t fit his face saying “I’m right here…and I always will be…”
Yes!!!! Diamond ads always have some underlying sexism, but to have this woman who is terrified of lightening and her big strong man who comforts her with jewelry. Ugggg!
That ad makes me want to vomit!
Any commercial with a re-written christmas song as the jingle. That or all car commercials that imply people can actually afford to buy a luxury car and wrap it for christmas.
I’d like to nominate any commercial for an expensive car that involves a big red bow.
I second that nomination. So predictable it was funny 10 years ago, now it’s just sad.
Thankfully only the folks in Ohio have to be subjected to the torture of the Ohio lottery Christmas Commercials. Always dreadful but this years are terrible since it’s Ohio Lottery “The Musical!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruZ_n2xeNr4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-i3IjEf82A&feature=related
My poor husband works at the local race tracks and has to listen to these everyday….
Any ad that’s louder than the ambient volume of the show I’m watching. Hoping for good things to come from the current legislation making this illegal, but sleazy companies always find a way around these laws.
Oh well, on a related note, thank GAWD for DVR and my precious fast-forward button.
The Best Buy Elf ads.
I loved a Target commercial a couple years back that had a little boy squeezing through his family at a huge holiday gathering with a gift. You see all the chaos and the weird uncles and he finally finds the little girl he’s looking for to exchange gifts.
That was really cool. The fugly ones are too numerous to count.
I’m with “Murphy1908″. I didn’t think it possible to make some Christmas songs worse, but retailers have succeeded in doing so. Please spare us this pain.
UhThankyouverymuch
/elvis
Any commercial that suggests buying that special someone a luxury automobile. Nothing says “christmas” like a $60,000 Lexus! Good grief.
Second place is any commercial that suggests the product in question is the perfect gift to get EVERYONE on your list. I remember one ad from a few years ago: “Sports Illustrated? Great idea! I’ll get subscriptions for my father, brothers and all my male cousins!”
Any luxury car commercial that suggests a $50,000+ vehicle makes a perfect Christmas present…
Dont know if it’s been said yet or not – but the snuggie ad where they are singing
“we wish you a snuggie christmas”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKd4xBe6ZGM
correction on my last post – this is the correct link!
WE WISH YOU A SNUGGIE CHRISTMAS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpfHzD2_8m0
The K-A-R-S kars for Kids car donation commercials. I hate them. They have basically destroyed radio for me.
The Halloween ad with that monstrous lady hawking Snickers. I know, it’s not an XMas commercial, but I keep watching DVR’d episodes from earlier this season and I keep accidentally watching that ad. Ugh. F’in grad school.
I can’t quite put my finger on WHY, but oh god do I hate the Best Buy elf commercials.
I also really hate the diet Dr. Pepper “nobody thinks it’s real” support group ones (if those count, since I think both the Easter bunny AND Santa are in them)