Some More of the Worst TV Ads

I guess I just can't leave well enough alone. I keep viewing what I think are the worst TV ads. I've carried on about this topic before here and also here. Bear with me while I vent once more.

Mannequins selling clothes. Old Navy has a series of ads that use mannequins as the stars. I understand that this may reduce costs, as I doubt mannequins have an actor's union. However, when you first glance at the ad, you do a double take. Something is just not right. This is not a 1980's romantic comedy movie featuring Andrew McCarthy and Kim Cattrall. There is something creepy about the figures frozen there, with what are supposed to be their voice overs. And a most recent one features one of the crash dummy mannequins complete with the yellow and black impact X's. C'mon, crash dummies are sacred.

Screaming in the Staples Store. The first ad featured an office supply store. Weird looking guy bends down, looks at the price tag of a box of rubber bands or something and screams "WOW, THAT'S A LOW PRICE!" Ok, I guess if your life depends on finding a box of rubber bands for cheap, I'll give him that. But over and over again for the push pins, staple removers, ball point pen refills and white out? The sequel has the same guy yelling out with a hapless customer in the same aisle grimacing at each outburst. Instead of backing away, second customer succumbs to the urge to look and screams "WOW, THAT IS A LOW PRICE!" Proves some folks are just easily entertained.

Coach Jimmy Johnson for ah, hmmm, that product. The American male must really have a problem with intimate encounters. We know all about the heartbreak of erectile dysfunction. Now a football coach is a spokes-huckster for a product that "enhances a certain part of the male anatomy" to quote a similar ad. Johnson says it works for him. Glad he is so happy. Oh, and not only is the product name appropriate, "Extenze", but the pitchman's name kind of fits as well, don't you know. At least there are no bathtubs in these ads.

Street clothes Ninjas in a car ad. The Ford Fiesta: Cute car, good mileage. Ridiculous ad starts with guy starting car without a key. Then in the unnamed, European looking town folks start leaping off four and five story buildings and landing just like Ninjas. Airplane overhead disgorges skydivers. Windows turn into a gas gage showing "full". And throughout it all you are subjected to a disgustingly cute tune sung with "da de da de da" lyrics that you can't get out of your head. Did I mention the unicyclists with the umbrellas that spell something? Or the sky divers whose parachutes end up spelling Ford Fiesta? Can one ad get any more ridiculous?

And so you will know I am not cynical about all TV ads, I do like a couple of the Gieco ads. Gunny as a therapist is clever. So is the answer to the question "Do woodchucks really chuck wood?"

Source:
Continued personal aggravation