Oh. My. God. Those singing Quiznos creatures are just nightmare inducing. This is supposed to entice me into buying sandwiches how, exactly?

Can I please express my hate for the Bank One personalized credit card commericals? The guy gives up the beautiful perfect model because she has middle of the month payments and he has beginning of the month. I'm sorry, but what-the-fuck-ever. Oh, I really like you, but you pay your bills on a different day than me, sorry but we are forever incompatible. Stupid Stupid Stupid.

If anyone knows why the Pepsi Gladiator ad did not air, please spill! I'm sensing some sort of scandal here, since that should have been the flagship ad of the entire Super Bowl. It was at least positioned and hyped as such. And yet there is no mention of its absence in any of the Ad Bowl round-ups. Hmmm....

K-Mart is having their Dollar Days! And you know what that means? They're selling Martha Stewart pillowcases for...(wait for it)...$3! Didn't Dollar Days used to mean that things were on sale for ... a dollar?

Because it was made for release in the UK. I think someone may have mentioned that upthread. Seems kinda dumb to me to make such a big deal about the thing being made and not show it in the US, but, go figure. So the only way we will likely be able to see it is to download it.

Okay everyone - this has been bugging me for the last couple days, hoping someone here knows the answer.

There was a commercial that ran maybe two years ago around either christmas or valentine's day. There's some guy who comes to the door and he's been out in the rain/and or snow. This girl opens the door, to see her poor wet sweetheart, and he gives her some gift (i wanna say it's a sweater or maybe a bright shiny object) and she melts. In the background, there's this mellow techno song that was on the radio a TON back in 2000-2001.

What was the commercial for?
AND (for bonus points) what was the name of the friggin song?

Thanks!

First time ever reading this thread, but I had to comment on this. I, too, am cursed by Billy Fucillo's non-stop commercials. It is a regional thing, Central NY, since his automall is by Interstate 81. They are SO ANNOYING. I had never experienced anything like this, being from out of state, but as soon as I got to school, I had to tell all my friends back home about this freak that played his commercials 24/7 on EVERY CHANNEL.

Actually, I heard the other day that the reason Billy Fucillo hasn't been in the commercials recently is b/c he's in jail for fraud. I wish they'd take his pictures off the sides of the buses next. No, not just the sides of buses, but the ENTIRE BUS is an ad for his automall. At least with the "cancelled winter" bullshit, we don't have to hear the obnoxious "It's HUUUUUUUUUUUGE!"

On a more pleasant note, where in CNY are you, mrsstroh? Because it was a high of 31 here in Syracuse today, and they were calling it a heatwave on the news. God, I just read what I just typed and got really depressed.

Auuuugh! I just saw the Quiznos Creatures again. They are hideous and nauseating, like a biological experiment gone wrong. I just want to stomp them flat like cockroaches.

Regarding the Heineken commercial, I was actually afraid for a second (just a second, I know no commercial would do this - I hope) that the guy was going to take advantage of her in her drunken/sleeping state. I swear he looks down at her chest for a second and I was like, whoa! That is not something you should do, even in emgencies! But word on the good interracialness.

Ugh... I saw the Quiznos' commercial just this evening, and it totally looks like someone's beta. Not just any beta, but a beta of a beta of a beta. We're talking brain debris from an amateur. Total. Random. Crap. It was frightening.

Anyway, I just need to express some love for the cute kids singing 'My Girl' in the cafeteria, in the Little Debbie commercial. It was really sweet, and they actually got kids who could carry a tune. I give it a good solid 3 days before I hate the living crap out of it.

Not at K-Mart. "Dollar days" means that stuff is on sale at prices rounded to an even dollar amount. So a widget that usually sells for $39.98 goes on sale for $35.00, or a thingy that is usually $1.89 has a sale price of 2 for $3.00. Or at least that's what it meant when I worked there. Hey! Stop snickering!

Liked these super bowl commercials:
* Fergus, Bud Light!
* The donkey clydesdale
* The FedEx alien
* Homer? Priceless.
* Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
* Office supply godfather

The rest were pretty yawnworthy. The less the Charmin people talk about my "end zone" the better. Also this is the first year that I can remember not being blown away by any of the car ads.

I'll wrap this post up with a bad joke.
Q: "Hugh Jackman in that movie?"
A: "No. Just a normal sized one."

Can't remember the product, but the commercial featured "Porcelain" by Moby, just like every other freaking ad on television that year.

All the superbowl ads sucked. After all the hype, I was expecting to be blown away. Budweiser and Pepsi basically took over all the ads. Bud had 9 different ads and Pepsi had almost that many. But these were commercials that I would be expecting to see any day, not on Superbowl sunday. Wasn't the guy in the Bud Lite horse carriage the same guy in the tampon boat commercial?

Btw, what does "verklempt" mean? I've been seeing it on all the boards.

It's (???) Yiddish (???) for "having tears in your eyes". Popularized by Mike Myers as Linda Richman on Coffee Talk on Saturday Night Live. Ex.:
DramaHubby: I'm going to clean the cat box out today, and then I will buy you chocolate.
Me: How sweet! I think I'm getting verklempt.

Don't forget them announcing you'll get a dollar off for any coupon, and I mean any coupon you bring in. Those things were just. nasty.


Dooh! No WONDER it wasn't on. :-(


Nothing wrong with having all your clothes smell like cheeseburgers, is there? Mmm, cheeseburger goodness!


I've been seeing those stupid ads for some time now. I absolutely hate them all, with the possible exception of the one where those nasty looking guys decide that including explosions would be cool, followed by the obligatory tiny legal print at the bottom of the screen... What the hell are those ads about anyway?


Word to the choir! Why was Pepsi glorifying those thieves anyway? I suspect Pepsi would be singing a different tune if it were their product's symbol that were being stolen.


Springtime For Hitler?


Unscheduled, my arse.


I have no doubt the only reason they didn't air it is because of the response to their recent smear piece on Ronlad Reagan. I didn't quite understand the Shards-O-Glass ad though; are they saying that people are too stupid for their own good? It was funny, though.

Speak ye not unkindly of the Quiznos...things. They are the product of my favorite...nutcase? dunno... Joel Veitch. They were born here (as far as I know). (Caution: Immedate, loud sounds. Work-safe if your boss smokes dope.)

I'm torn between being sad that my little...things...may have sold out, and being thrilled that they're getting their moment in the sun.

I still hate Quiznos' sammiches, but I have to love their marketing department for recognizing the genius that is Veitch...even if it won't sell any sammies...

Levitra, Bud and Bud Light and other ads are discussed quite humorously on The Daily Show which repeats today at 10am and 7pm ET. I laughed a lot, cause Jon agreed with me. Jon also gives a funny take on Nipplegate (tm poster in the WTF thread!)

Oh! My Lord! They look like … mangled gremlins or something. Make it go away! Buy our sandwiches, or these little bastards'll come to your house in the middle of the night! And Vermicious Knid, I would be ascared to stomp on them like cockroaches. They look like they would eat the hell out of your toes or something.

Ew. What bothered me about it was the smell got him "in the mood." That's just weird, and a little more information about this couple than I needed. Also, she didn't notice her sweater smelled like a cheeseburger?

But then they have a really funny line! After the next girl says, "I like Pilates," he replies, "I love lattes". Hee!

I don't care -- those Quiznos things are Free.Kee. I figured they had to come from an influenced mind...

And the McDonalds ad is just...ew. Not only would you notice that everything smelled like grease, there would be little grease spots on your clothes too, as well as ketchup (I have never seen a clean wrapper!). Grease is not an aphrodiasiac, McDonalds.

Actually, I think what the guy says is "I love drinking those". Which, IMO, is more funny, because you're not sure if he misheard the girl or if legitimately thinks Pilates is a drink. I kind of like the ad, though.


I think the point is that's what cigarette ads would be like if they had advertise what was actually in the product. A person wouldn't seriously eat popsicles that ythey knew had shards o glass, would they? The ad implicitly questions why would someone smoke something where basically every ingredient is a poison, a carcinogen, or an irritant? I liked a Truth ad a while back where they talk about a couple years ago the government stopped a shipment of grapes because there were traces of cyanide in them, yet 1 cigarette contains 10x or 100x (whatever the exact amount was, I can't recall) the amount of cyanide as the entire shipment of grapes.

Now setting aside the issue of smoking itself, this is exactly what Truth is trying to point out. It's ok to smoke tons of cyanide, but not eat traces of it?

And, presumably, because it's three minutes long, which would make for an awfully expensive Super Bowl commercial, even for someone with as much money as Pepsi.

Genius, I saw the Pepsi Gladiator ad last night (UK) and to quote my mother: It was piss. It was hyped up a bit here and did nothing for me. They also murdered We will rock you.

You're not missing anything.

Has anyone seen the ads for Mint credit cards? The one with the office worker "riding bareback on the word Mint" cracked me up.



I need to use this in everyday conversation from now on.

I so do not need to see Kermit the Frog ogling Jessica Simpson. Ew, ew, ew. Stupid Pizza Hut.

I miss Jim Henson.

Those Quizno's things did nothing but ruin my appetite. Good job, guys. That rathergood.com site also inspired/spawned the VH1 kitties, so it's not all bad. Quizno's must have only been able to get the rights to the mutants.

Oops, thanks Tornado25! That explains why after I typed it out it didn't seem nearly as funny. :) Yup, the subtlety is key.

Coming to you from cold Clinton, just down the street! I actually didn't wear my mittens and hat to work today! Woohoo! Of course, that's just until noon when the next storm hits....

skittl3862 and mrsstroh:

more CNYers fed up with Billy Fucillo! I'm a Syracusan, too!! And hee! I believe it if it were true for him to be in jail on fraud... FOR NOT following thru w/ cancelling winter!! Snowfall is freakin' measured in feet over the past week or so- yet "winter is cancelled?" sure...

The ad that's really been bugging me the most though lately is the Chips Ahoy ad. The characters are stop motion animated & look a lot like the Puffs tissue kids. A little girl is having her birthday party and all the kids are happily blowing horns & have big glasses of milk. Next to the little girl is an animated chips ahoy cookie, who asks "Where's the cake?" Big pause and the girl smiles and answers "We're not having cake..." The cookie goes from smiley and happy to fearful, then the screen covers with a graphic of a bag of Chips Ahoy cookies. The bag is then chomped into graphically as the ad ends. This is just wrong. I get all upset about cannabalistic children who would blatantly invite a cookie to eat it up like this and worry about the poor cookie. Yeah, my thought processing over this ad is a bit in overdrive.

Marketing people- this was not the way to go. It is just laziness and lack of creativity putting arms & legs on whatever you are selling. Any dolt can do this! Case in point- this past Halloween, my workplace had a pumpkin decorating contest, using little pumpkins. Out of 15 entries, maybe 10 had arms & legs added & looked like the California raisins or something. Out of the remaining 5, 4 were just regular pumpkin faces- then mine, done up like a jeweled Faberge item. No one got my take on the creativity and one of the army/leggy things won the prize. Think outside of the boxes of those before you- and don't creep us all out!

You know what bothers me the most about that cookie commercial? The cookie's still alive. That's just wrong. You don't bring live pigs to a barbeque, do you?

Axl Rose did, further lending support to that commercial's wrongness.

I understand that, but is there really anyone in the world who doesn't know cigarettes are bad for you? I say "No".

jennifuh: Dang what were those things!!! Saw those last night. As I was getting stuff from below the TV, I look up and those things creeped me out!! What were they? Mice? What the heck!!! What does those things have to do with the product!!

Well, where I come from (the South) there is a plethora of barbecue advertisements with live smiling pigs, or worse, live smiling pigs dressed as chefs. But your point about the wrongness of the cookie being alive is well taken.

Man, call me crazy, but I thought the Quizno's things were HILARIOUS. What a weird freaking commercial. I thought it was really cool that it was so unique. Out of all the commercials I saw last night--and mind you, it was Monday night, BFOFiance and AJ2, and my 70's show reruns before that so I watched a lot of TV--it's the only commercial I remember, and I can tell you exactly what product it's for and what the deal was. Then again, I'm a western NY native, where I grew up with Jim "the hammer" Shapiro (546-7777!!!) and the Record Archive man, so I guess I'm used to horrible commercials.

Mutant mice. From hell. Don't feed them after midnight. Or before midnight.

No, I know companies do that all time. "I'm a chicken! See how good I am all breaded, deep-fried, and slathered with sauce?" What disturbed me was the cookie's (perfectly understandable) reluctance to be eaten, and the fact that he was lured to the party under false pretenses.

The classic is from when I was a kid for Ballard's--they made sausage. Animated dancing pigs, wearing aprons and chef's hats, singing: "B, A, double L A, R D S spells Ballard's. Ballard's brings the Best! to you-oo." The pigs were also on all their semi trailers.

RJ Reynolds and Phillip Morris?

This is my biggest problem with the commercial. What kind of cheap ass birthday party only has Chips Ahoy?

The ad that bugs me is for a bath product (Avedo?). A woman says "Talk about multi-tasking! Relieving stress while taking a shower!"

Huh? I think taking a shower is one of the few stress-free activities left in this world, so how exactly is that multi-tasking?
Now, checking my emails while in the shower, or relieving stress while driving carpool....now that would be multi-tasking!

I thought I WAS having a nightmare when they jarred me out of my sleep this morning! I kept groping around for my glasses on the nightstand while asking my husband, "What ARE those things?" Words failed him. He couldn't tell me what they were saying, either.

So, they're moving around and making noise? Eep! And I thought that picture of them was bad.

Heh. There's that too. Cheap asses.

Well, judging by the millions of 14-16 year olds that start every year, I'd have to say apparently. But, then again, the cigarette companies don't tell the 14 year olds that the Marlboro Ultra Lights have arsenic and cyanide in them, do they? My point isn't that "geez, good thing we have these ads to tell people cigarettes are unhealthful", but rather, "without these ads, the extent of the knowledge for most people is smoke gives you lung cancer", when it's a whole lot more than that.

I'm certainly no saint on this subject, as I have the occasional cigar, but no one I know who smokes now started when they were 21--my sister and her friends (all the same age) started at 15 or 16. Why? As for adult smokers, feel free--just keep it away from me. I honestly couldn't care less about someone else's health when they voluntarily choose to worsen it.

It's a choice. I began smoking as an adult, my fiance began smoking in his 30s--it's a choice. The knowledge that cigarette smoking is harmful has been out there as long as I've been around, printed on the packs themselves.

Yes, teenagers are suggestible, but that doesn't mean advertising is to blame for teen smoking. Peer pressure, absentee parenting-there are lots of factors. Teens drink for the same reasons, yet alcohol ads are allowed on television--how many ads did Budweiser have during the Super Bowl? Nine? Cigarette ads have not been allowed on television for almost 50 years, so teens aren't smoking 'cause they saw a cool Camel ad on TV.

I find it odd that I see these Truth commercials, and anti-pot ads, but when was the last time we saw a commercial for AA? Ads warning us that our livers are wasting away with drink? People with severe jaundice and cirrhosis looking into the camera with yellowed eyes, telling us how bad drinking is? Nope. We get farting horses and crotch-biting dogs. Look, kids! Beer is fun!

Have you seen the latest anti-drug ad? Shows a girl drowning in a lake, screaming for help. Her friend (a young Christina Ricci look-alike) is standing on the pier just watching her, then she turns her back.
Tagline: if your friend needed help, wouldn't you help her?

Sooo creepy! Effective for scaring teenagers into never going swimming again, but it's a bit of a reach to equate drowning with recreational drug use. And, if you had a good friend who was really a total addict on the path to suicide, you would probably be a stoner yourself, and in no real position to help. Besides, what are you supposed to do? Drag her to a re-hab clinic? Call the cops?
But the ad is really disturbing, none the less.

I think the shards o'glass ad was more about the sheer hypocrisy of cigarette companies sponsoring supposed "public service" announcements about all the great things they are doing when they're actually producing a dangerous product that kills the people who use it. So what if they're all nice people who work with the handicapped? They're still manufacturing a dangerous product that kills the people who use it. So what if only adults "should" eat the shards o'glass popsicles? They're still eating a dangerous product that kills them. So there's nothing socially responsible about the shards o'glass company and they should just stop pretending that there is.

Incidentally, I don't think advertising makes teens smoke either. I smoked when I was a teenager and I did it because I was an asshole and never failed to prove it at every opportunity. Fortunately, I outgrew smoking. Unfortunately, I never quite outgrew the asshole part.



You're not the only one. There was a terrible, terrible, ad out a few years ago with all these animal crackers running to get back into the box before the bratty little kid ate them. Just as they reached the box, the monkey stumbled and fell and the kid scooped him up. All the other animal crackers were whimpering, "She's gonna eat the monkey! She's gonna eat the monkey!" I still get sad when I remember that poor little monkey cracker.

phxchic, you're absolutely right. And I don't think advertising is responsible for teen smoking. I honestly think it's unfair to blame tobacco companies for "targeting" teens or trying to get them to smoke.

My sister and her friends started smoking because all of their friends did. I think it was 100% peer influence.

The point I AM making is sure there are warnings on cigarette packs--just like there are warnings on beer cans and every other bottle of alcohol. But they suck. Tiny print with nonsense like "quitting now greatly reduces the risks to your health" when labels in other countries (the UK for one) take up half the pack and say stuff like "cigarettes kill" (seriously). So it's not a matter of how hard the companies market and to whom they market, but how hard they try to keep people that shouldn't smoke from smoking.

That is a hard job--how do you effectively market to ensure your survivial, but show a corporate conscience and discourage smoking at the same time?

Alcohol companies have the same problem--convincing <21 set not to drink and all of us not drink and drive. Some of those ads are good, but even then, it hasn't completely stopped me from drinking and driving. And it never stopped a lot of my friends my drinking under 21. I would say a sizeable number of 16-20 year olds in my town regularly drink. How do you stop that in a society where alcohol use is implicitly encouraged?



BWAH!


Eliot, I think that was a milk ad! It was great. Except from the monkey viewpoint, of course.

Hasn't heard it? No. Doesn't believe it? Yes, very much so.

Eliot, I think you've got the intent of the "Shards of Glass" commercial right. I read a study a while ago that said the Truth commercials were actually effective at getting teens to not smoke, while the anti-teen-smoking ads run by the cigarette companies are horribly weak and ineffective. I think it's because teenagers know when they are being talked down to, and the cigarette company commercials are aimed right at them (My favorite: "Smoking is Whack if you're a teen."). But the Truth commercials are aimed at adults (young adults, but adults nonetheless), and I think the teenagers are more compelled by commercials where adults are trying to get other adults to stop smoking.

I hate that Chips Ahoy commercial, too. Something about luring the animate food item to the party under false pretenses is deeply disturbing.

Personally I hate the Truth ads. They assume everyone is a complete moron and need to be constantly reminded that smoking is bad for you. And yes, everyone knows that smoking is bad for you, EVEN the 14 year olds.

And they completely exaggerate the facts. Even though this wasn't a TV ad, I saw a Truth ad in a magazine where they said that cigarettes contained all these carciogens. While some of the items on the list may be true, they included fructose (which is the sugar found in fruits, something that has been shown to prevent cancer) and glucose (the sugar that occurs naturally in the human body). Since the Truth people are claiming something as outlandish as this, it made me realize that a lot of the other chemicals on the list with long, scientific names were probably many other normal chemicals with very little proof that they actually cause cancer.

As for the under-21 drinking, it's really not the fault of the alcohol manufacturers. The only reason that's it a big deal is b/c America happens to have a law against drinking when you're under 21. If you have a drink, it's not like it's any more deadly for 20 year olds than it is for 21 year olds. And I don't think society needs to stop this, it's just a random law that's only applicable in America. I mean, 16 year olds drinking in France is not even considered to be a problem. In fact, America has more of a problem with alcoholism than any other country. It's not the drinking that's the problem, it's how society perceives drinking based on something as trivial as age.

ETA: I just saw the Chips Ahoy commercial and agree, it's completely wrong.

The singing is creepy as hell too.

I know what they were mutated from!
http://www.cartoonsvillage.it/hamtaro/char...rs/boss/002.gif -->

http://www.quiznos.com/images/contest_creatures.jpg

Ack!!!!! """ Hideous!!! And the singing couldn't understand them. Reminds of this local commercial with Dolphins singing for Dolphin Limousine and can't understand any if the singing.