That's the most accurate description I've ever heard. I'm going to start referring to it as such. Maybe we can come up with a snarky acronym for it.



God, I know. Chalupas aren't even that good. It is a step up from that stupid dog from a few years back, though. Unfortunately, I was obsessed with that dog. Man...I do not miss my junior high school years.

Has anyone seen the new Swiffer ad with housekeepers from various sitcoms? First you see Alice from The Brady Bunch in slow motion bobbing up and down in front of the camera. Then there's a wider shot to reveal that she is on a diving board. I didn't recognize all of them, but I saw Benson surrounded by bikini clad women (IIRC) and they also showed Florence (The Jeffersons) and Geoffrey (Fresh Prince of Bel Air) sitting together in beach chairs. They are all on vacation. The tagline is something about cleaning and responsibility. I only saw it once after the Superbowl. I think it is for the Swiffer dusters with the extended handles.

Spongemonkeys? Hate 'em, but not as much as the Lanacane arm-scratching jackhammer sounding guy. That commercial skeeves me out in the WORST way! Ick!

And this? Have not seen it, but cracked me the hell up!

Argh! Could you please drop-kick the actors involved in the commercial as well, MisterIdol? That annoying-as-fuck dance of assitude they're doing in the car, not to mention the "Oooweeeeee, Oooweeeeee... Oooweeeee, Oooweeee!" It's like Taco Bell is incapable of doing an ad that doesn't make me homicidal. Nasty-ass chalupas.

Cleo256, I am in love with this ad! They played it about 27 times during every Mariners game on FoxSportsNet and I would just laugh and laugh and laugh. "If you can't start for me, I'll find someone who can!" I love when she says "You're killing me!" and daintly kicks the headset so as not to ruin her shoes. And my family now yells "We got a good game going, Ref-- you should try watching it!" at the TV during football games.

Now that Super Bowl is over (at least the game), I'm starting to see some of the commercials used last Sunday. Last night the mule who wanted to pull the Budweiser wagon appeared again. I believe I enjoyed it even more. Of course, some of the more egregious ones are appearing, too, and making me cringe even more.

I miss Wegman's, too!

Fellow WNYers, what was the name of the sleazy-even-for-a-used-car- salesman used car salesman whose horribly cheesy ads used to plague the airwaves in the 80s? Dan Creed? Dan Creedy? He finally got sued for something and went away. And there was much rejoicing.

I saw it, Pepsi Princess! The dark haired woman at the end is the actress who plays Rosario from Will & Grace and it is for the Swiffer Dusters with the telescoping handles...

<defensive voice> I love those Swiffer gadgets!</defensive voice>

A little late, but let me please chime in on the Truth ads. I hate them also. All of my friends' friends (non-smoking teenagers who think they deserve a prize for it) love these ads and can't possibly understand why the shock tactics offend me.

I'm digging the new Pepsi ads. Much better than weird Britney/Beyonce music videos.

I searched and searched to see if this ad had been discussed, I know it's been around for a while.

A man and a woman are lost in a car, he calls his destination for directions and his wife is scrambling for pen and paper, she produces the pen, fumbles for paper while hubby begins drawing the road map on her SPIDER VEINS. *argh!* It's for a clinic called Vein Solutions, and I found they have multiple locations, including Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, Mass., Indiana and Texas... any thoughts?

I like the one where the bear steals a mountain man's clothes and ID and uses it to write a check for some Pepsi. I can't remember if the bear ate the guy or just scared him away, but the way the clerk looks back and forth from the ID picture to the bear, wearing a hat and Raybans just cracks me up.

hagreene80, I'm in Ohio and I remember that ad, but I haven't seen it in a while. It was pretty gross and mean.

I found a buttload of tapes from the late '80s and quite a few from 1997! I'm in commercial heaven! Or hell, depending on what ad I'm watching. Oh, is that the Burger King Kids' Meal Crew? Hell!

I too hate the Taco Bell Chalupas ad. I thought it was dumb. Then, I went to Taco Bell and order my new love, the Cheesy Bean and Rice Burrito. Well, imagine my rage when I was informed, "We discontinued those." I must assume they discontinued them in favor of the dumb chalupa. Especially since they lady continued, "Would you like to try the new blah blah blah chalupa.. they are really good." I was very upset. So, now every time I see those guys go "clubbin" I get mad all over again. Dumb Taco Bell.

I finally saw the spongemonkeys, and I like 'em. If our town had a Quizno's I'd go buy a sandwich right now.

You would think that with our technology we'd be able to make faux snow by now...

I plan on finding some Fleet Enema coupons and using them.

THAT'S the spirit! :-)

Ragarding how someone a couple pages back mentioned how behind the cultural curve some advertisers are, I can not help but think of those lame "At The Roxy" guys from SNL when I see that ad.

Damn my aphasia; I continually keep reading this as "Spoogemonkey".

Preach it, glstx. If I wanted to eat a club sandwich, I'd go to Subway. I want the ever-so-tasty, perfect-at-any-time-of-day-or-night, always-bought-one (when they sold it) Cheesy Bean and Rice burrito. I guess it's kind of ironic now that Subway makes sandwiches that look like burritos (Atkins wraps) and Taco Bell makes a chalupa that tastes like ass.

Okay, I guess it's old news here, but I just saw that Quiznos add again. What the hell are those things? And who's the advertizing genius who said, "You know what we need to do? Teach people to associate our food with freaky, baffling little animals with scary teeth!'

Here's the deal with Quizno's: they have NO market awareness, especially next to similar restaurants like Panera Bread (which is starting to get really big around the country) and Subway. So they do these ads which will totally be memorable (for better or worse, but I love my Spongemonkeys from rathergood) and will give them a sort of underground cult following. I say BRAVO Quizno's. Even if the ads are really bizarre.

Yeah, I get that advertizing can be effective even if it offends. I might even be amused by these things if they were selling something else. But food? Eating is that last thing I think about when I see those bizarre little creatures bouncing around on my tv screen.

But people! They have A PEPPER BAR!!!
But Subway is closer to my house. I am influenced more by distance.

I hate these people already, and I haven't ever been to the restaurant or seen the commercial. A pepper bar. It reminds me of King of the Hill where there were nine kinds of ketchup and five kinds of catsup.

I haven't seen a Blimpie's commercial in a long time, what's the current campaign, anyways? We have one that I know of, it's inside a Circle K at a 5 way intersection that scares the heck out of me, and the car-crash debris (always fresh) lets me know I should never drive that way, ever.
The Spongemonkeys definitely are the talk of the town, everybody I know has mentioned them. Back in my first post about them I referred to them as "mutant rodent things."

What the hell is Panera Bread? Am I just in the wrong part of the country? I've heard of Subway since I was a little kid, and I've heard of Quiznos for at least a couple years, but Panera Bread sounds like a shampoo.

Of course, I want a hoagie or a gyro, I don't go to a chain. But still.

Well, when I think of Panera, I think Pan, which is the Spanish for bread, if I'm not mistaken. Is it Spanish bread?

Panera Bread is a bagels/coffee/sandwich-type place. Very good stuff- but no spongemonkeys!
There, I said it ;-)

Panera is awesome! They are soup, salad, and sandwich restaraunts with a bakery section inside with bagels and bread and sweets and coffee. It's kind of like fast food, in that there are no waiters and such (you just order at the counter and find a seat) but the food is yum-um-ummy!

We have them in Indianapolis. But as far as I know there are no commercials.

Expedia ran that commercial where the guy is imagining terrible scenarios while scheduling vacation-type activites. And a hairy, beer gut was revealed. And painted on I'm so glad I haven't bought HDTV yet.

Dear Heinekin:
I stopped watching the Grammys when your stupid anti-piracy commercial came on. Thanks for turning me off to you and other CBS advertisers. You're a beer company. You don't make music.

Tusk! by Fleetwood Mac. Anyone remember that song? Cuz apparently several advertisers do.

There are two commercials in rotation now using identical music that sounds like Tusk. One is the GMC Envoy SUV commercial with 9 SUVs lined up in rows of three. The drivers get out and slam their doors, re-arrange their seats, open their tailgates and open their moon roofs in unison to the drum beats of Tusk.

At the same time, the commercial for Chex Snack Mix uses the exact same music for it's animatron commercial featuring the Chex Mix Tribal King banging his Tribal Drum until the Chex Volcano spews forth Chex Mix lava all over the Chex Mix Village people. Truly disturbing.

And what's with the sudden resurrection of 867-5309? We have the cell phone commercial with Jenny using that number and another commercial for Milky Way candy bars featuring a driver singing that song with his mouth full of Milky Way. Disgusting. Did the commercial makers run out of music or something? You'd think they'd take the time to check and see if someone else was using that song.

Finally saw the Quiznos ads on TLC. Frightening.

Tusk! by Fleetwood Mac. Anyone remember that song? Cuz apparently several advertisers do.

There are two commercials in rotation now using identical music that sounds like Tusk. One is the GMC Envoy SUV commercial with 9 SUVs lined up in rows of three. The drivers get out and slam their doors, re-arrange their seats, open their tailgates and open their moon roofs in unison to the drum beats of Tusk.

At the same time, the commercial for Chex Snack Mix uses the exact same music for it's animatron commercial featuring the Chex Mix Tribal King banging his Tribal Drum until the Chex Volcano spews forth Chex Mix lava all over the Chex Mix Village people. Truly disturbing.

And what's with the sudden resurrection of 867-5309? We have the cell phone commercial with Jenny using that number and another commercial for Milky Way candy bars featuring a driver singing that song with his mouth full of Milky Way. Disgusting. Did the commercial makers run out of music or something? You'd think they'd take the time to check and see if someone else was using that song.

Finally saw the Quiznos ads on TLC. Frightening.

May I just say that I love love love the Saturn Ion commercial with the running clowns and the jazzy 70s copy show-style music? Thanks.

And by the way, "Clocks" is Record of the Year? My ass.

The shitty commercial during the grammy's about downloading. Too awful for words.

Ditto on the internet piracy commercial at the Grammys - it was so lame, yet people felt obligated to [weakly] clap after that.

But if I download some music by Pink I can make people stop having a really really weird party, and damn it, we can't have that going on! What a godawful concept and excecution. ell, Heineken's was fucking stupid and was slightly more humorous than the RIAA-sanctioned one.

[ot]Yay for "Clocks" but more YAY (or HEY YA) for Outkast as Album of the Year[/ot]

I know I shouldn't, but every time the guys slams into the back of the 7-Up truck trying to slam-dunk, I just crack up.

And yeah, the RIAA downloading commercial could have been way better. At least the Heineken one had the cute asian guy from CSI.

Saw a great ad for a local (NYC area) hospital. It shows Noah loading up the Ark and all the trouble he has getting all the animals. You see him being dragged along and all kinds of things. He finally finishes and he's sitting on the Ark and you hear buzzing and then he slaps his neck. See him look over to the dead mosquito, sigh, and walk out into the rain to find another one.
Tagline is something like "We know it's hard to keep a promise".

Very funny and original!

Oh, and pages ago someone asked about the seewhathappens.com site for the end of that car commercial. I tried several times to check it out, and I only get the audio, no picture, and then my internet freezes up. Yeah - I'm rushing out to buy a Mitsubishi now.

I have seen the spongemonkeys. I did not even hear them (the TV was on mute), but I was frightened nonetheless. I have never turned the channel so damn quickly in my life.

That? Is just awesome.

Ouch. Now THAT is mean.


But...it's an awesome song!


Ok, maybe I'm just dumb...but what exactly is the difference between record and album of the year? Is a record a song? And an album is an album? Why don't they call it song of the year?

Oh and RIAA? You get about as much love from me for your piracy-crybaby act as smokers give to Truth. I'm actually against illegal downloading (can't bring yourself to pay iTunes .99? A lawsuit will do a person good) but good God, you've got an image problem and the "woe is us" act doesn't help. At. All. Oh and lastly, [ot]I cannot get that Milkshake song out of my head--I love it! That's the kind of stuff that makes me buy music. Are you listening RIAA? Make easier to buy music instead of harder to steal it. I'll gladly buy.[/ot]

P.S. I want a Quizno's near me--just so I can eat a TASTY sandwich.

Tornado25 - record of the year is one specific single that was released for radio, and album of the year is the whole album. It always annoyed me that they called it "record" of the year, too - I automatically associate record and album. Why NOT just call it song???

Also, to the RIAA commercial - couldn't they have come up with a better commercial with a better message than that? Seriously. Like, you download music, people can't dance in clubs...right? That's the message? Because I don't understand how downloading music affects clubs. Are they somehow directly related so if people DO download too much music, clubs will just shut down someday?

If I'm not mistaken, don't they ALSO have a Song of the Year award? Didn't Luther win that? So, what's the diff between a record & a song?

ETA: Thanks, Ernos. I just searched and was coming here to add the site. It still makes no sense though - especially that Luther won (general) Song of the Year, and his album won R&B Album of the year, but his song did not win R&B Song of the Year!

Topic? word to the love for the new Swiffer ads featuring famous sit-com maids/servants. Please God, can this mean the end of those horrid Swiffer ads with Mom so excited to be dusting her neighbor's house?
And Kudos for Swiffer for getting "Alice" - I heard she's a minister or something now and doesn't usually want to associate with her Growing Up Brady years. Money must have been good....

At the Grammy Awards site, the difference is explained (scroll down to the very last FAQ).

My husband got to do it again yesterday. Seriously, (spongemonkey) the guy was revving his truck and we could hear it inside. Hubby starts going "Sunday! Sunday!..." The ironic thing was right after I posted about it, we saw the commercial. I take that as a big cosmic shout out.

What? That really makes no sense. I can see song of the year in each genre, but I still don't think record and album are different. Seems to me it's a good way to hand out an award to as many people as possible.

Thanks, Ernos, for the link. Difference between album and song of the year makes perfect sense, now.

Please talk about the Grammy Awards on the appropriate thread -- which is not this one.

You love them, you hate them, you can't get enough of them: please come ogle my entry in this week's Pixel Challenge

ETA: I am sorry, Jeebus, for whatever trauma the picture I posted earlier in this thread may have caused you. ; )

I just saw a new McCains add with even more people standing around muttering gibberish, including some children who exclaim "Doggie-doo!" Who in the hell gets paid to think this shit up? As if the original commercial wasn't annoying enough, now we need more people and a reference to canine excrement? I may not eat french fries ever again.

Re: Quizno's and Panera

I actually prefer Quizno's to Panera by a landslide. You can special order the hot sandwiches at Quizno's which are freshly made while the hot ones at Panera are pre-made every morning.

No, I don't work for Quizno's, I just haven't seen much support for them here.

And the spongemonkeys are hilarious.

Those Quizno's ads delight and baffle me. You do realize, of course, it's only a matter of time before Weebl and Bob land a pie endorsement deal.

"Delight and baffle" is exactly the right way to describe it! Of course, my husband told me I should be ashamed of myself for laughing at it. I can't help it. It doesn't matter how many times I see that commercial, I still say (out loud), "What the hell?"

It's a sister of the Atlanta Bread Company (ABC), which is basically an upscale Subway. I eat at ABC on occassion but am always put off by their "ABC special" as it reminds me of the "Want some ABC gum?" joke we said as kids. You know, "Already Been Chewed"? As for Quiznos, we have one in town but I'm not willing to cross town for one.

On Topic? Why does every truck ad now seem to be about the hemi?

What's up with the Angel Soft commercials talking about how much toilet paper a person uses in their life? What poor loser got stuck doing that research?