(reegmo)
With the exception of a handful of arguably entertaining commercials — and even those tend to grate over time — TV commercials are the bane of a TV watcher’s time in front of the boob tube. This is why we invent technology to skip over ads, or mute buttons to quiet them, or sudoku games to play while they are on. It’s also why Consumerist is announcing its third-annual Worst Ad In America awards!
So once again, it’s time to take all that hatred, anger, disgust, rage, nausea, dizziness and bleeding you might feel every time certain ads interrupt your favorite shows, and focus it into nominating those spots for any of the coveted titles available to these truly terrible TV spots.
Last year’s big loser was the “Poop, There It Is!” ad from Luvs diapers, which featured adorable cartoon babies competing in an American Idol-like competition — to fill up their nappies with as much excrement as they could hold.
We haven’t seen that spot in quite some time, so it’s time to find another ad that deserves the title of Absolute Worst Ad In America.
And there are other categories for those ads that may have particularly irritating features, but might not merit the big award.
Here are the categories from last year… We’re open to changing these and/or adding new ones, so don’t limit yourself:
Most Grating Performance By a Human
Group That Ought To Go Its Separate Ways
Trend That Needs To Stop Being A Trend
Most Irritating Animated Actor
Worst Abuse Of An Existing Song
Original Jingle That Should Be Junked
Celebrity Who Could Probably Use A New Manager
Creepiest Commercial Of The Year
In terms of eligibility, the rules are pretty simple. The ad must have aired on U.S. TV stations (cable or broadcast) in the last 12 months.
To nominate an ad, mention it in the comments below or send an e-mail to tips@consumerist.com with WAIA2012 in the subject. You can nominate as many ads as you like, in as many categories as you see fit.
All nominations must be posted or sent by 5 p.m. ET on Friday Aug. 31.
The one for a consumer survey service where the commercial starts out looking like a commercial for giant arm sleeve things to hang out of your car window.
Trend That Needs To Stop Being A Trend: Every commercial and movie trailer that uses Dubstep for it’s music!
Creepiest Commercial Of The Year: The “Just For Men” baby with the goatee who goes clubbing. It’s really creepy, especially since he had a full grown woman as his date!
Any commercial that DISPLAYS EVERY WORD ON THE SCREEN AS IT’S BEING SAID BY THE NARRATOR…
Yes, I’m looking specifically at you, FORD.
Worst Abuse Of An Existing Song: The Nissan summer sale jingle sung to the tune of “Summer Lovin’” from Grease. I want to shoot myself when this one comes on (usually about 35 times in the course of a single baseball game).
Group That Ought To Go Its Separate Ways: The FreeCreditScore.com band. We got rid of them once and then they came back…at the demand of exactly no one.
Trend That Needs To Stop Being A Trend: Slacker adult-children. Examples: the hipster adults who move back in with their “anti-social” parents, the sombrero-wearing, video game playing slacker who eats nothing but KFC, and the stoners in every Digiorno commercial.
I hate that nissan commercial more than anything I have ever hated, and hate is a strong word. I hate it so much, I automatically MUTE my television every time commercials come on. Ive even gone so far as to not watch channels that play it all the time.
Also, Most Grating Performance By a Human: Coupon Suzy needs to take her classically midwestern hairstyle out of my nightly Jeopardy!
I agree wholeheartedly. Also in the subject of coupons is one with two young boys searching Coupons.com for savings on their favorite “mac and cheese.” The littler of the two is very annoying. Then the mother comes to ask if they want more mac and cheese and they both say yes but their bowls still have plenty left in them.
Finally, why does the General hang out with a penguin? Why is a penguin wearing sunglasses? How can a penguin play baseball with no fingers? IT JUST MAKES NO SENSE!
And that awful jingle… ugh.
CREEPIEST COMMERCIAL: Cars.com The creepy inner person like the guy who’s inner person looks like an extra hand coming out of his back, or the woman with the extra head in her hair. She’s creepy on her own.
MOST IRRITATING ANIMATED ACTOR:Maxwell the Geico Pig. Bacon anyone?
ORIGINAL JINGLE: JG Wentworth. I probably hate it because when I hear it it stays in my head. (Although from an advertising perspective I guess that’s what they want).
MOST GRATING PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN. Anything with Norm McDonald. This includes his entire body of work. I would also include “The most interesting man in the world” from Dos Equis. It may be a personal thing though with me because every commercial sounds like my former boss describing his lazy ass son the first 20 minutes of every day I worked with him.
TREND THAT NEEDS TO STOP BEING A TREND: Negative campaign commercials.
How about a “obnoxious volume” catagory for comercials that blair, or a “played until you want to puke” selection?
The overly dramatic sobbing Verizon commercial with the mom sending her daughter off to college.
The one with the subtitles so you can figure out what they’re whining about?
THIS.
Mother: “Whmmmssufuufhsmmuuufufffufuushhhfuuu?”
Daughter: “ShfmmmfrrufuuuullflfshhhhoooffsssuuuuSkype!”
[my imaginary] Verizon Guy: “Aaaahh GO AWAY!”
The blue tax man.
That’s another commercial I find just creepy,
his laugh reminds me of a demented Pillsbury dough boy…
taxmasters.
Trend That Needs to Stop: Spanish-language TV ads airing on English channels.
ABC played a Spanish Ford commercial during the NBA Finals.
Spanish ads are airing on ESPN as well.
AMEN TO THAT!!! Also spanish ads for technical colleges. Do they go to school in spanish too? What the he%%!
Worst abuse of an existing song: The Nissan remake of that song from Grease.
Creepiest commercial of the year: The anti drunk driving one where the cops are camouflaged into the background and open their eyes when the drunks drive by.
The stupid Geico squealing pig needs to die, that’s probably an “irritating animated actor”.
A local car dealership has decided to whole-sale rip off that advert and use it for their own dealership (Kia of Bedford) – I don’t know why anyone sane would want to associate themselves with something that generates rage.
Worst Abuse of an Existing Song – lately, the Nissan *AND* Twizzler commercials that are using different covers of “Holiday Road.” That song belongs to the Grizwolds, dammit. I’m also sick of hearing it.
nearly all car commercials bother the bejesus outta me, however my nominee for CREEPIEST of the year goes to chevrolet. there is more than one ad so far in the series (using the same doucheb*g characters) but the most frequent offender features two or three car showroom salesman who seem to have an odd sort of commeraderie going on between them. there’s a dude mentioning to a potential woman customer something about “potayto potahto” and she corrects him saying “it’s tomayto tomahto”. the salesman looking on gives him a thumbs up and makes a stoopid face (cringe-worthy). i wish i knew why i find it so offensive…. WORST ABUSE OF EXISTING SONG goes to target (all the back-to-school genre are awful) for the hideous singing by the eacher doing thomas dolby’s “she blinded me with science”. i can’t understand a single word of it.
Ok, creepy commercials. Anyone see the commercials for Cenegenics? Not sure if its a drug or supplement but it features these old guys with the bodies of 20yr old body builders! U see these washboard abs and great arms, yumm! Then bam! Wrinkles! Grey Hair! Balding and…Granpa Glasses! Oh, nooo sooo wrong!! My eyes! My eyes! And then the lady in the Cars.com commercial– unless you are actually advertising a horror movie, your product should not make the viewer cringe and feel like they are watching The Ring. Oh, and just for sh*t n giggles, lets all band together and kill the T-Mobile girl all for the good of society….so annoying.
The “sounds of pertussis” commercial is about the worst one ever… I cannot stand the sound of the crying hacking gagging baby. I will mute and or change the channel the second I see it come on.
MOST IRRITATING ANIMATED ACTOR:Maxwell the Geico Pig. Weird.
NEEDS A NEW MANAGER: Jamie Lee Curtis
IRRITATING JINGLE: “It’s a pet, it’s a pillow, it’s a pillow pet!” Pillow Pet commercials
TREND that needs to STOP: Using the success of Pillow Pets to produce items like them and encourage grandparents to buy them: flopping eared slippers, stuffed animals sewn onto blankets, and Pillow Pets with lights stuffed in them.
Creepiest Commercial Nomination: the one for Cinnamon Toast Crunch, with the cereal bits licking and slobbering over each other. This goes beyond annoying and into actively repulsive.
With all the bad publicity and repetition of commercials, I would have to say Progressive.
Totino’s Pizza Rolls Freezer Commercial!
Not only is this kid so stupid he can’t see the food right in front of his face, he then leaves his cell phone in the freezer. I hate this commercial!
Are those lawsuit ads for “vaginal mesh failure” on nationwide?? Disgusting! I’m a woman- I’v never heard of this “”product” it is so repulsive and graphic that I walked away from the screen thinking to myself “although I’m not a man.. if I were.. it’s enough to turn me gay..”
Does your comment mean you have no feeling at all for the women who have had to have this product used medically on them and then had a personal and medical disaster occur? Your comment sounds pretty cold. And by the way you can’t “turn someone gay”. You are gay or lesbian before you even come into this world.
Just a friendly fyi…..people do not get “turned” gay. With as much prejudice and misunderstanding as there is regarding homosexuality right now, (yes) this is important to point out.
All of those Bounce Sheet vs. Bar commercials are insufferable. One example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuIN7l7sp1k (there are newer ones that I can’t find clips for)
I nominate Bounce for the “Trend That Needs To Stop Being A Trend” category. And the trend is: Making people look like complete morons so their product can solve a problem that doesn’t exist. Seriously, it is not cool to imply that busy moms become so forgetful that they can barely function.
Oh and I nominate this Prius ad for Creepiest Commercial of the Year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YHY0gGkXkQ
I get the willies every time I see it.
A Prius ran over a friend of mine’s foot after put on the emergency brake by itself.
It broke he ankle in 2 places and she just finished a skin graft. It is a creepy car.
Buy a Volt. It doesn’t try to kill you.
Cottonelle Care Routine. https://www.cottonelle.com/
I hate to nominiate another poo-related commercial after last year’s win, but…the Cottenelle Care Routine commercial is the worst! In addition to trying to convince us that we now need to use multiple products after using the toilet, they think they will engage us by holding a contest to name this new rear-cleansing suite of products. I thought the Cottenelle commercial about “respecting the roll” was bad, but they have outdone themselves with this clunker. https://www.cottonelle.com/
Possibly need a most offensive to target demographic audience category. I nominate this Klondike bar ad that seems to have enraged many women as being offensive and sexist. Don’t women like ice cream? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxC9-PJfyKo
It is totally offensive. Probably designed for and by men.
The Skittles Walrus commercial is pretty creepy.
I Nominated
Penelope Cruz Super Mario commercial …No girl “giggles” that way while playing video games..
Any commercials involving the no touch hand soap pumps. The germaphobia trend needs to stop. I personally have never touched a ‘dirty soap dispenser’ after washing my hands. When I touch it, my hands are usually a mess, so it doesn’t really matter if it’s dirty already. I wash my hands, dry them, and do not touch the pump again. Companies are just feeding this crap to scared, helicopter parents and they’re making a killing off of it.
The Nissan “Summer Savin’ Days” Commercial for WAIA in the category “Worst Abuse of an Existing Song”. The nostalgiabuse of hearing “Summer Lovin’” OVER AND OVER AND OVER makes me not only never want to BUY a Nissan, but never SEE one, and maybe not care enough to pee on one if I saw it on fire.
Agreed. I came here just to nominate that ad as well. Nissan would better hope that I never remember that stupid thing when it comes time for me to buy a new car.
Worst–The Little Ceasar’s “WOO!” commercial. Also, most grating performance by a human (or 3).
Most Irritating Animated Actor–the E-trade baby.
Worst Abuse of an Existing Song–NBC Olympics ad using The Clash’s “London Calling.” Did they even bother reading the lyrics?
Most Grating Performance By a Human: For me, this hands down is awarded to the guy who does the Charter “International Date Line” commercials. He has quite a body of work to support this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rEHLRKbAjM
Charter commercials are horrible in general, but this guy made me consider physical violence against my TV, as they are shown ad nauseum to current Charter customers.
I’m not sure what category these would fall under but….
the DirecTV ‘when you pay too much for cable’ ads. OMG those are just stupid *and* irritating!
I would like to nominate the recent Ragu Long Day of Childhood Commercial which shows a young boy opening his parents bedroom door early in the morning without knocking and seeing what his parents do for fun.
http://tinyurl.com/9twg7ko
I would also like to nominate it for Creepiest Commercial Of The Year.
I nominated that commercial for the very same category!
FLO for Progressive for Most Grating
NAPA Know HOW for worst song
Like Britney, LEAVE FLO ALOOOOOOOONE!
Another trend that needs to stop being a trend: parents stealing from their kids.
The GEICO goldfish ad
Kraft Mac & Cheese ad
KFC original recipe bites ad
Seconded!
Most Grating Performance By a Human: that guy who does the taste test ads for GEICO.
Group That Ought To Go Its Separate Ways: I was not thrilled to see the original Free Credit Report Score dot com band back together. At least the replacement band had been easy to ignore.
Trend That Needs To Stop Being A Trend: The parents being jerks to their kids in ads. Like the McDonalds ad where the teenage driver gets his license and takes the fam to the drive thru to celebrate, only to be denied the pleasure of eating with them because he has to focus on his driving. Jerks.
Most Irritating Animated Actor: The Steak and Shake talking hat ads have been re-aired a few times. They weren’t that cute the first time.
Worst Abuse Of An Existing Song: Nissan Summer Savings abusing the hell out of the Grease soundtrack.
Original Jingle That Should Be Junked: The 1-800-411-PAIN jingles, ready to inspire eardrum sporking in both rap and country versions.
Celebrity Who Could Probably Use A New Manager: Shannen Doherty for doing those Education Connect commercials.
Creepiest Commercial Of The Year: The Feed the Pig ads. That anthropomorphic piggy bank, complete with slot in the forehead and wearing a pink leisure suit, stepped right out of the uncanny valley and into my nightmares.
AMEN!!! I was waiting for someone to mention the 1-800-411-PAIN ads!!! Whoever thought that was cool and hip is just delusional.
I’d rather listen to 1-800-ASK-GARY (lesser of the two evils).
Most Grating Performance by a Human nomination: the NFL Network “Serious Fun” guy. It’s not that the ad is so bad; it’s just another spokesdork trying to convey information in a “cool” manner. What elevates him to a contender here is the frequency with which we have to SEE said spokesdork. Maybe it’s just my TV-watching schedule, but that ad seems to pop up on nearly every commercial break, and frequently twice within the same break. I probably would sign up for NFL Network if it would make him go away!
Purina Dog Chow “Strong and Healthy”
This ad is both unintentionally hilarious and terrifying. The actor playing the father is the worst. The “Don’t grow up without me” dead-eyed stare. And finally commanding the dog to “keep them safe” over the phone is just creepy.
The Subway commercials where grownups sound like kids…even KIDS don’t sound like that!
The Commercials for the Hopper where everyone in the South Boston household has to say “The Hoppa” like a million times
The Direct TV when you wait for cable ads…
I absolutely despise the Blue Tax commericals:
I especially hate their spokesgremlin Max and how he attempts to headbutt the viewer through the screen at the end of the ad.
I hate any and all of the commercials from Progressive insurance co.
That ding-bat woman would give Edith Bunker a run for her money.
Well, that actress is making out like a bandit on residuals
from those “ding-bat” commercials. And I would rather be around
the Flo character than a bunch of regular people I’ve come across.
Those commercials are entertaining and she has nailed the character
but the insurance sucks.