Does anyone else out there feel that commercials insult the hell out of our intelligence as people?

Question

Honestly... it starts off with the fuc*ing creepy Burger King commercials with the terrifyingly monstrous-looking "King" with the big head and builds all the way to the utterly moronic Wendy's "Soquid" commercial. But it doesn't end at fast food. It goes all the way to wireless telephone companies, home and garden care products, feminine hygiene products, mouthwashes, and even trailers for upcoming movies.

Does anyone feel that their intelligence is degraded when these commercials air? I just want some feedback from others.

Give me an example of a commercial that pisses you off, too... please. :-p

Yeesh. I agree with every one of you. Insightful, yet honest for what it is. Maybe we should all write to Yahoo! about putting in an "unpopular commercials" category... lol.

jsbrads: I'll try that. It seems effective... :-/

curiositycat: I agree with you when you say how annoying the tenacity of the commercials can be. Carl's Jr. commercials make me sick, too... especially the one with the biggest slut of all time... Paris Hilton. I want to projectile vomit every time I see that commercial. Thank goodness, it's not around anymore now...

I should go and buy that type of beer, so I can end up in a good relationship with a model, as opposed to being unhappy and alone for the rest of my life. Damn commercials...

Scozbo: I'll try that too. Though I don't know how long the habit will last with me. I'm notoriously OCD, lol. If I start a crossword puzzle... I MUST FINISH IT!- even if that means abandoning my program. Then again, I have to make the effort to prioritize between watching that oh-so-special program... and trying to find a 7 letter word for so-and-so. :-p

daisyprincess78: I agree. Plus, VONAGE SUCKS CHOCOLATE, SALTY BALLS!- BIG ONES!

chuckles82791: I'm not rich. I don't have the DVR-recorders. :-p

I'm an old-fashioned basic cable kinda person, lol. :-)

Zo Show: EXACTLY!! "We got everything! Our selection is extensive! Toyotas! Fords! Lincolns! (fragments... lol). AND HERE WE SEE A NISSAN ALTIMA FOR 'fifteen-ten' (wtf does that mean?!). WE OWN OUR OWN FINANCING COMPANY! WE'LL GET YOU YOUR CAR IN UNDER 15 MINUTES! GUARANTEED! Hablamos Espanol!"

...Just shoot me in the head, why don't you.
The guy I was referring to above was the moron from the Worthington Ford commercials... Ugh. Yeah, I might've improvised, but the bastard really does advertise to me that way. Just yell at me and make me feel like I can't possibly survive without your car. I'll buy it ASAP... jackasses.

LeBo: I feel insulted when I see that commercial ALL the time. I'm not a meat-crazed bastard... There's this other commercial which generalizes men to all be meat-worshipping porkers. I forget what it's for... probably TGIF or Ruby Tuesday or something. It's group of guys "singing" about their meals. It's like, "Ribs!"... "Pork Chops!"... (I'm improvising) and then this one guy says, "Vegetable Medley!" Everyone looks at him as if he's some retarded pansy. He then sing-yells, "Sausage!" and all the guys cheer him on and agree with him. Horrible, if you ask me.

BTW, you said something that was absolutely cute and adorable... but oddly sexual, lmaoo. :-p
"Besides, that burger is a little too spicy for most people."

How gorgeous. Lol. :-p

Cat: I WHOLEHEARTEDLY AGREE with you when you say that women will practically demonstrate the feminine hygiene products on television one of these days. I've noticed that over the years... their clothes have constantly disappeared and the camera has slowly made itself a long-term cast member near the lower-abdominal area.

As for the ED medication... in American society, it's normal, I suppose. Kinda like moving the leak from your nose to your butt, lol (referring to allergy medication which causes diarrhea).

msbjbxb: lmaoo! SO TRUE! I'm not doggin' on Macs, but we still live in a pretty PC world. Sure, I can't stand the goddamn PC... but if I switch to a Mac, who gives a damn? It's not as if everyone else will switch. I'll still have to rely on a PC to aid me in my daily antics and adventures.

I love your observation, though.

david_pugsley: I agree. That commercial annoys the hell out of me. I hate the way the guy talk, though. His face seems to contort to every imaginable direction when he says something. It's pretty unappetizing. Then there's also this horribly geeky-lookind dude on the left (who looks sorta like Milton from Office Space) who's forced to "milk a cow..." which HAPPENS to be a bull. The point? If you don't buy their insurance after hearing how much money you'll save in a year... poor old Milton will have the advent of masturbating a bull. The slogan?: "No bull."

Fuc*ing disgusting-*** sons-of-bitches. Ugh.

ma_isa: No way... That's absolutely terrible, by all means. Cheap commercials have a way of striking us all, though.

Spicoli: I utterly loved what you had to say. You described the insipidness of American commercialization and it's stupidity... which happens to only apply (and appeal) to the general demographic.

Guelph: Incredible... "taste buds illin'"...

wow.

tenacity2go: DITECH!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! I HATE THAT COMMERCIAL!!!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!


"Let me open up the shades to let in a little light..."

UGH!!

some other chick: I'll check out the British Advertising Awards. It seems fun, because I'm quite partial to smart advertising, myself. :-p

I've noticed that commercials around the world can all be cheap and poorly done. But there are quite a few places where the adverts are really intelligent. America seems to be the only place where advertising is blatantly offensive, insulting, and incredible STUPID!

Besides that, some subgenres can exist when dealing with American advertising... such as commercials that are too creepy. Case in mind: the Burger King commercials with the scary-looking King-dude. I mean, honestly... it's pretty creepy.

bloody_gothbob: I agree with what you have to say, except we (in the USA) ARE forced to sit through commercials. We can even do something else to take our attention away from the commercials, but the subliminal messages they throw at you force you to stop what you are doing and acknowledge the commercial's existence.

I'll try some of the stuff you wrote, though. I won't be able to heckle my siblings or do art at all, because my house is full of noisy, rude family-members... who are more-than-willing to annoy you with their own agendas.

Lauren B: All-State commercials are too condescending, patronizing, and as$-kissing. They enwrap you with their 'loving' two-hands of 'care'. Yet when you look in the wrong direction, they try to strangle you with those two hands.

Progressive commericals are too "modern" and pop-culture. They seem to make you think that they're more honest than the guys next door. Honestly, they still do whatever they can to rip you off. It's all a government conspiracy, in my opinion. Insurance is an entire industry in the United States.

Answer 1

YES I HATE INFOMERCIAL AND COMMERCIALS I WISH THAT WE COULD WATCH A PROGRAM AND NOT HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL THE COMMERCIAL IS OVER..

Answer 2

No.
Marketing is brilliantly designed by corporate think tanks to appeal to their audience. Yes, some of them are very stupid, but they either lack funding or appeal to a stupid audience. While some advertising is pure effrontery, some is pure genius. Take, for instance, Apple Computers. They have changed the way that we think of marketing by using popular music in their popular iTunes commercials. Don't tell me that "Feel Good Inc." did not gain massive amounts of popularity partly because of its being featured in an iTunes commercial.
Consider, also, the new Nikon ads starring Kate Moss. Those are eye-catching and sultry, suggesting that you can be too by owning a Nikon camera. The association of the camera with the model is a powerful sell.
Have you seen the Full Throttle commercial? Or the new beer one about the finger in the beer? Who are those targeting?
How about all of the cool Volkswagen commercials? They exude youthful playfulness and cool. For example, there is the one where the passengers turn on music, and everything goes to the beat. There is the one with the people who move from the apartment to the house.
Coke has long been marketing using cool music as well. The Diet Coke commercial featuring "The Way You Move" by the Bodyrockers definitely sells a lifestyle. And what about the one featuring Fritz and set to "Via Con Me" by Paolo Conte? That cracks me up. There's the one where the people are skating to "Starry Eyed Surprise." I want to be one of those skaters. Coke also appeals to your sense of originality. I love the one where the guys are making the movie and the one where the girl gets the boy haircut and the one where the girl walks down the street handing out Cokes.
And don't forget the Fanta commercials.
Or the M&Ms one with "Such Great Heights" and the one with "Color My World" and the "groovy M&Ms" one.
Go to the links below to see what I mean.
Embrace marketing. It rocks. :-)

Answer 3

I think it's mostly American commercials, which have to appeal to the lowest common denominator of a country of 360 million people. The high costs of developing and placing an ad on network television means that there aren't many chances to take any actual artistic risks.

Some of it is the genre of the products being advertised - Burger King or Miller Light isn't meant to appeal to the urbane or educated, and their commercials don't either. In comparison, the commericals for an upscale product like a Volkswagen car tend to slightly riskier, being less flashy, more abstract, and using small independent bands for their soundtracks. Advertisements for more middle class items like Toyota or UPS straddles between the two.

Some of it also has to do with the format that it's being presented on, as daytime radio ads tend to be even more insipid and for even more intelligence insulting items, such as debt relief or ambulance-chasing laywers, considering that it's often labor workers and people without work who have the opportunity to listen to the radio during the daytime.

In the end, commercials are meant to make you feel like you're "missing out", that there's something happening and you're not there, to create a void in you that you feel must be fulfilled by running out and buying a new car or a Big Mac. Once you realize the psychology behind it, it's all pretty insulting.

Answer 4

Yes, many commercials out there insult the hell out of our intelligence as people. But I don't feel my intelligence is degraded. However, I DO feel my intelligence is ignored at times, taken for granted other times.

There are no longer commercials that incite me to riot. However, there are some that I watch and react with, "Puh-leeeze. Give me SOME credit."

Example: the vehicle commercial where the guy kisses his wife goodbye, walks out the house, jumps off a cliff and parachutes to his waiting vehicle and drives away happy.

He's dressed for work but he's carrying neither a briefcase nor a travel mug. Where's his cell phone and laptop? His suit is totally not wrinkled after the parachute jump, and he takes no time at all to fold and pack up his parachute.

It's a completely impractical living arrangement. How does he get back up to his house? How do they get groceries there? Does she parachute, too? How do they have friends over? Isn't it a pain in the butt when he forgets his keys, or leaves something in the vehicle that he has to go back down and get? How is the mail delivered?

There's absolutely no basis in reality for that commercial.

Aha! You exclaim. "But you remember it!" Yes, I remember it but I don't recall the product. I know it's a vehicle and it's an SUV, but that's it.

Answer 5

I had to get rid of my cable TV because commercials, with a few rare exceptions, make me want to scream and throw things. It's not that they insult our intelligence. Keep in mind, you can insult the intelligence of one person while at the same time talk over the head of another. It's that they manipulate our emotions and prey on our worst insecurities and prejudices. Advertisers will do anything, say anything, profane anything to sell anything, usually something we don't need and have no use for.

What's more, they're a complete waste of memory. We have a finite amount of "space" to remember things, and commercials are designed to chew their way into your mind and never let go. For example:

"In the dairy section there's a snack that's chillin'
For all you homeboys with taste buds illin'."

That's the rap jingle to a Polly-O String Cheese commercial from the early '90s. I have no need to know it. Knowing it has never come in handy or benefitted me in any way. I curse the white ad execs that wrote it (because let's face it: no self-respecting black man ever could or would bust rhymes that lame) yet there it is, stuck in my brain like a rotting piece of steak in between your bicuspids; and whenever I'm trying to remember something important, like where I parked my car or if I locked the door to my house before I left, there that stupid animated parrot is, dropping his inept science to a bunch of way-too-impressed child actors who are probably in their 30s by now.

Wow, that was cathartic. I should rant more often.

Answer 6

Well...everybody here has given such good answers...lol.

But what we all seem to be forgetting, is, that one point of a commercial is that you remember the product, and all of us that complain about commercials, are able to be very specific on what the product is That Burger King ad with the monsterous fake king that appears in your window, in your bed, on the corner...is just about the stupidest thing I've ever seen, but...I remember the super duper omelette sandwich and the other stuff the ad wants me to buy. Yep...sad, huh?

I don't know how old all of you are, but in the past, there have been stupid and not so stupid commercials that still linger on, becaise of catch phrases or songs...like "Where's the beef?"..."Don't squeeze the Charmin!"... "Are you ready for some football...???". Stupid or not, we remember them, so the ad has accomplished what it set out to do.

Here's a fun link for anybody who's interested...

http://www.tvparty.com/comjing.html

Answer 7

I'm not a big fan of the Vonage commercials.....though I don't suppose they actually insult our intelligence.....kind of, but not really.

Anyway, my solution is to turn off the TV. See, if enough of us did that, a lot of the networks would go out of business. The only problem with that is, the networks have brainwashed so many generations at this point that they know they can put whatever crap they want over the airwaves and it WILL get watched. TV - the great babysitter.

Answer 8

I can't stand that commercial with all the little kids running the bank and they don't know what they're doing. My grandma loves it and won't shut up about it. She thinks it's so clever. (Shows how intelligent she is, eh?) Everytime someone says "Yes I did" she starts in on how cute that fat little boy is in the commercial.

I do enjoy smart advertising. Every year I go to the British Advertising Awards to see what real commercials should be like. They're a lot better and more intelligent than the stupid American crap we get here.

Answer 9

Every year it's a new product. A few years ago, it was exercise machines. Then, hair renewal shampoos and the like. Now, diet pills and matchmaking websites. Honestly. What if your true love wouldn't use an online dating service? Would they just issue a replacement?

Yes. Commercials. Dulling the minds of people everywhere. They are the new Paris Hilton.

Answer 10

Oh my God I have the exact same opinion as to the way commercials are being sold to what they think to really slow and simple minded dolts like the AIG commercial with the kid in the back of the jerk in front saying that he is going to milk this cow and the cow was a bull and the guy says "No bull" they are degrading to men! degrading to intelligent people but you have to remember that unfortunately our president has an IQ of 89. That is below normal. And he has to understand what the commercial is about.

Answer 11

I hate the one where Volkswagen has the 4 people in it when all of a sudden CRASH. I've been in a head-on before, that kind of stuff isn't funny. Thank God they stopped showing the commercial after so many people started to complain. Love the Geico Commercials.