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The Four Worst Commercials on TV Right Now
I wish I could watch TV commercials with more patience and understanding. I thought that being irritated by TV commercials was something I'd grow out of once I got older and realized things like this just aren't that important. So why do I find myself more annoyed than ever? Maybe it's because I watch TV for a living and I see a lot of the ads several times a day, but there are many spots that just bug me to the point where I just start clicking random remote buttons. And I'm a guy who actually likes commercials.
After the jump are my thoughts on four commercials that are currently running on your TV set. Watch them here so you don't have to watch them when you're watching television later tonight.
1. The Cisco System ads with Ellen Page. I picked these spots as number one not because there's anything massively annoying about the ads, like irritating music or bothersome camera work or tortured plot lines that make you roll your eyes or throw your remote at your TV screen. But here are the two questions I have: Why do these commercials exist, and why is Ellen Page in them?
I guess if those are the two questions you have about a commercial -- questioning its very existence and the celebrity in it -- then the commercials fail. I wonder why Cisco even has to advertise. What consumer are they trying to attract? I'm semi-geeky and into technology, but I don't care about this. It's more of a business-side thing, I think.
And then there's Ellen Page. One of the ads has Page coming into a classroom and all the kids are excited to see her. Really? Are the kids that into 'Juno'? Maybe if Michael Cera walked into the room because the kids would know him from other movies and TV shows, but Ellen Page? Endorsing Cisco? It's a massive disconnect, like they were grasping for any celeb they could find.
2. Boost Mobile. Is there something about the ad below I don't understand? Is the woman trapped in some 'Twilight Zone'-ish world where everyone is different and even though the woman is "normal" she is still the "abnormal" one, a la the 'Eye of the Beholder' episode? To put it bluntly, what is going on with the two airport workers? I don't understand if this is Earth or what exactly is going on.
I mean, the kid in the cage dressed like a dog is the most normal thing in the ad.
3. Six Flags and "Little Six." When I first saw this ad -- the newest ad in the long-running series featuring the bald Six Flags Guy -- I thought it was cute. When the kid version of the guy shows up, all bald and dressed in a suit and wearing big glasses, I said HA. But then it sunk in: We're going to have to watch this commercial 20 times a day, every single day, until the day after Labor Day, and then I got sick to my stomach.
4. Verizon FiOS. I've already complained about this ad in-depth here, but I will add this. Not only does this ad make Verizon customers seem like jerks (after a bunch of ads that made the Verizon tech guys look like jerks), but it also assumes that everyone watching is going to side with the customer who opens the door, shoves the cable box in the Comcast guy's hands and says "good riddance." I don't side with that guy, so this commercial irritates the hell out of me.
Of course, I'm choosing this ad because it's on the air right now. In reality, all of Verizon's ads irritate me.
Which current commercial drives you up the wall?
[Follow Bob on Twitter.]
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