Seems kind of a no-brainer question, doesn’t it? Commercials are meant to sell stufff. They can also entertain and inform and brighten our days, but the primary purpose is to sell.
So why do so many seem to be designed to turn off potential customers?
Take the Cox commercials featuring the cute teenage kid and his smarmy, creepy dad. Do I know exactly what they’re selling? No, other than some sort of TV service. Why not? Because the father makes my skin crawl, so every time it comes on, I change the channel as quickly as I can. Was that Cox’s intention? I don’t think so.
Remember the freaky Burger King commercials with the guy with the giant king’s head? {{shudder}} I still can’t stomach the idea of eating at BK.
There’s one — don’t know the product name because the ad just irks me — for one of those energy drinks, where a woman pretending to be a professional holding a huge stack of professional papers says in a very professional voice that they asked over XXXX doctors and over 70-some percet of them would recommend a low-calorie energy supplement to their patients who use energy supplements. Um, they didn’t say they would recommend YOUR energy supplement. Hello, this is NOT an endorsement!!
There’s another whole group of commercials that run here in northeastern Oklahoma that aren’t a turn-off. They’re just kind of puzzling. They’re paid for by various tribes here in the state, and they talk about the great things the tribes have done. Okay, no argument from me. But . . . why are they advertising? It’s not like the viewers can say, “Hey, wow, I’m really impressed by the (insert name) tribe! I’m going to join them!” Since they’re not recruiting new members, wouldn’t that money be better spent on accomplishing more good things?
If you’re of a certain age, you’ll probably remember Florence Henderson’s commercials years ago for Wesson Oils, in which she sang (rather annoyingly), about “Wesson-ality!” I saw her on Johnny Carson one night, and he asked her why the company did an ad that so many people made fun of. She asked, “Do you remember the name of the product?” He replied, yes, but the commercial’s really annoying. She said, “But you remember the name of the product. That’s the point.”
Uh, that’s what the BK people say about the horrid King commercials. But you know what? Besides never eating at Burger King, I’ve never bought Wesson Oil, either.
Entertain me with your ads. Entice me. But don’t turn me off your product forever.
Ditto on creepy old dude in the commercial, esp when he admits to checking his son’s browser history concerning the girlfriend–feels very pedifile-like. I don’t know why Cox doesn’t just keep using the cute little Cox avatars–they make me smile.
And I love the one with the little avatar dog!
I don’t love the little spaceman looking guy, but I do love his dog!
Ugh, that’s the one that made me start grabbing the remote. I wanted to grab both kids, too, and get them far, far away from him!
I feel the same way about Carl’s Hamburgers. 1st commercial I saw, the actor is shoving this big, sloppy burger in his mouth, spilling contents everywhere. Yeah, I remember the name, but I don’t buy because I spill enough on me when I eat now!
Exactly! Who wants to associate food with something gross and sloppy and icky?? (Or, in the Burger King case, just downright hair-raising creepy.)
IF the BK king had appeared at the end of my bed and scared me like that, I’d be on trial, or fined for shooting that big head. I used to sell and write ad copy, even did a few radio commercials. Gotta grab the audience. My favorite commercial is still the cowboys bringing in a herd of short-hairs (cats).
That was my thought with the BK guy, too: my S&W 9 is always handy.
I love that commercial — and the cell phone one where the guy orders 200 oxen and gets 200 Dauschund. And I think it was the Cherokee Casino here in OK that did the “Do you feel lucky?” ones. My faves were the mutt who winds up in the animal control van with two beautiful French poodles, and the guy who wakes up from a coma to find the Family From Hell waiting for him, then discovers there’s been a mixup in his name. Love ‘em!