Annoying March Madness Ads

So it turns out I’m not the only one out here complaining about ads. The Sports Page on Business Insider just posted 5 Companies Whose March Madness Marketing Will Make Viewers Miserable. Good to know that even if no one is commenting on my blog, at least there are some similar-thinking people out there!

Six Flags – All commercials with dancing, old guy

Dairy Queen: Guitar That Sounds Like Dolphins

Can you say rip-off?! This ad is trying to sound JUST like the Old Spice Man commercials! That doesn’t automatically make it an annoying ad I guess, but it manages to do that on it’s own. For some reason marketing people have got it in their head that inserting some completely random/ridiculous thing into their ad, while having the actor keep a straight face and pretending it is serious, is hilarious. While at first this might have been funny because it caught you off guard, at this point it’s become overplayed. Not to mention, a guitar that sounds like dolphins is just plain IDIOTIC (and annoying!)

Update (3/23/11): This guy agrees!

Carnival Cruise – Mom Just Caught Air

Let me start by saying I’ve been a huge The Office fan since day one, even back in the UK version days, but recently the show seems to have jumped the shark a bit. There’s only so many jokes you can make between the same group of characters and relationships. With Michael (Steve Carrel) scheduled to leave the show this season, I’d almost prefer if they just ended the show instead of trying to drag it on with a new boss. Maybe I’m wrong and it works out though.

ANYWAYS…back on topic…the Carnival Cruise ad, which is narrated by The Office’s Jim Halpert (John Krasinski). His storyline on the show is one of the most played out at this point, so we don’t really need extra-Jim in between commercial breaks, do we?

Then annoying part is not that Karsinski narrates the commercial though…the annoying part is the whole “Mom just caught air!” part. Maybe it’d be funny if Mom was Amish or a member of some undiscovered tribe in the rainforest, but otherwise, a middle aged woman riding a jet ski and “catching air” isn’t amazing/funny/cool! They’re on a cruise…of course the family is going to do water sports. Does this mom just sit at home reading books and cooking meals all day? Why is it so crazy that she would do something like ride a jet ski.

To top it off, would she then deny it to her book club?! Is she embarrassed that she “caught air”? I don’t understand this. Maybe they should have had her cliff diving or base jumping or something crazy. Even para-sailing would have been better than simply jumping off a wave on a jet ski.

Song used in the ad…annoying.
Everyone’s face in the ad…annoying.
“Let’s be honest. Mom just caught air! Now there’s a first.” ANNOYING!

Let’s rate some annoying ads!

Come on, I know at least some people are visiting the site, so let’s start rating the ads! Right now the McDonald’s Caramel Mocha hand dance commercial is the leader with a 5 annoyance rating, but that could just be because people are scared to voice their true feelings. If you think an ad is annoying, just click the “thumbs up” under the post title. If you actually like the ad for some reason, you can give it a “thumbs down”, meaning you didn’t find it annoying. Now let’s start rating some annoying ads!

State Farm – Magic Jingle Bob Barker (and Panda)…annoying!

I started off today thinking about putting up a post about those State Farm ads with the creepy Tom Cruise-wanna-be guy in them, but I’ll save those for another day. While searching YouTube, I came across this annoying ad that I remembered was definitely the WORST in this whole “magic” series, which is the emo/hipster-ish kids that come out of their house to find a huge piece of concrete pipe that had crushed their car

This ad is like a “genie will grant you three wishes” gone horribly wrong. Is the idea that these kids are trying to be funny and ironic (I know it’s the wrong word, but couldn’t think of the right one) by asking for ridiculous things that make no sense? The guy who asks for the stuffed panda bear is the worst and the face the girl makes when the other kid asks for Bob Barker (why?) is annoying. The car makes sense obviously, but Bob Barker is the one that asks for that.

Maybe I’m just getting old and this type of humor is amusing to younger drivers who think it’s funny to get an old game show host (whoa, look how cool I am asking for a talk show host that was popular during my parents days and it makes me cool because I know who he is and know that he was a fan-favorite back in the day) but it’s just ANNOYING!

5-Hour Energy – Have a Great Morning…depressing and annoying!

Talk about a depressing commercial! The combination of the sad/carnival music (or whatever it is) and the guy who seems like he wants to kill himself already at 6:08 in the morning, makes me feel bad about life (and this one isn’t much better.)

Let’s do a quick play-by-play…

“I don’t wanna get up” – rolls up sleeves
“I don’t wanna go to work” – gets out razor
“I HATE mornings” – finds veins
“Greeeaat, I have 20 minutes, no time for coffee” – about to slit wrists
“Hello, my friend” – but wait!
[drinks 5-Hour Energy shot] – makes annoying face
…
“Let’s do this!” – makes another annoying face while adjusting tie, but lives another day…in his depressing life, where 5-Hour Energy is his life support system
ANNOYING!

The funny part is that he sets his alarm for 6:08 (unless he hit snooze a bunch?) yet he complains that there isn’t enough time for coffee. Shouldn’t he just set his alarm for a little earlier? Maybe he should go to bed earlier? Does he eat breakfast? Any way you slice it, this guy isn’t living a healthy lifestyle. Also, these shots are about $2-3 a pop, so his weeks could get fairly expensive if he’s downing them on a regular basis.

I’ll admit though that I do like 5-Hour Energy at times. Normally I use it as a caffeine boost before going on a morning run, where I don’t want a cup of coffee sloshing around in my stomach. But that isn’t all that frequent and I never drink it on work days.

Bonus: McDonald’s Simple Joy – Fine China…on-the-radio annoying!

Just wanted to point out an annoying radio spot I’ve been hearing recently (someone track down the audio please!) I listen to Boston’s WEEI sports radio on the drive to work in the morning and of course McDonald’s (noticing a trend with them on this site) has a pretty annoying ad campaign running. The ad is saying something about the “simple joy” of their food and goes something like this…

(something about fine china – maybe eating McDonald’s on fine china? not sure)

“What do people in China call fine China?”

“Whoa…you just blew my mind!”

Voice over: “Enjoy the simple joy of McDonald’s something-or-another”

Sooooo lame.

Anyways, I’m still trying to figure out who McDonald’s target demographic is for any of their ads. I’d like to meet some of the people in one of their test audiences and see what kind of sense of humor they have (or don’t have) that led them to believe that this was a great ad that just HAD to be on the radio.

Their “I’m loving it” campaign has to be one of the worst of all time…and this “Simple Joy” one almost as annoying.

JG Wentworth – It’s my money and I need it now! Screaming annoying!

Of all the annoying things with the JG Wentworth “It’s my money and I need it now!” ad, the worst part for me is how every person has to put the emphasis on different words when they’re screaming out their windows. The absolute worst of the bunch though is the woman towards the middle, who sounds like she’s speaking IN ALL CAPS! Does anyone really talk like that when yelling anything? No. Annoying.

Of all the bad parts of the “recession” that our country is in, one of the most annoying side effects has to be the increase in cash-for-gold and sell-your-structured-settlement type ads…like this one. The commercial looks like it cost about $50 to film…so at least you know they’re not stealing your money and putting it into their marketing campaign!

Making matters worse, the website looks pretty shady. There’s no way in hell I’d enter any personal information into those text boxes and hit the submit button. Also, I just realized that JG Wentworth has their own YouTube page (bus opera? seems annoying), where it appears that they may actually have even MORE annoying ads than this one if that’s possible!

IT’S MY MONEY AND I NEED IT NOW! ANNOYING.

By the way, there are some interesting spoofs of the commercial on YouTube if you look around. I found a good/serious post about this advertisement as well, if you’re really interested in what JG Wentworth is offering.

T-Mobile Final Countdown…rip-off annoying!

First of all, have there been many commercials that are as blatant a rip-off of another companies ads? These ads are exactly the same as the annoying Mac Guy/PC Guy ads…yet they somehow may have managed to make them even more annoying, if that’s possible. I have to give the girl (Carly Foulkes – a Liv Tyler impersonator?) credit…she manages to act just as smug as Justin Long did. The iPhone and AT&T guys are WAY worse than the PC guy though!

There are plenty of other annoying ads in this T-Mobile marketing campaign (PLEASE put your shirt back on!) but this one sticks out in my mind as the worst of the bunch. What is that “concert” she is referring to? Two guys called NASA with turntables and lame lights? The Final Countdown is a slightly-annoying song to begin with, but the AT&T guy manages to make it one of the worst.