Commercials you hate

[Ryda Wong, EBfCo.]

Especially with the Superbowl last night, I figured we'd have plenty of new commercials to be annoyed by.

First off was the super-rapey and creepy Audi Prom ad. Really? It's heroic to grab someone and force a kiss on them?
Barf.

It goes without saying that GoDaddy's hot girl as reward for geek was disgusting.

The Dodge Farmer commercial. Could you have worked harder to ignore people of color and women?

[GenYus234]

I think the second person pictured in the Dodge Farmer commercial (about 30 seconds in) is a woman and there is a black man at about 50 seconds so they could have worked harder.

[Simply Madeline]

At the party I attended, the Audi commercial was the one that set everyone off. Courage? To commit sexual assault? And the girl's boyfriend/date beats him up? Because the girl is his property, right?

Ugh. So awful.

Missed the Go Daddy one. And everyone was too busy doing (bad) Paul Harvey impressions during the Dodge commercial to pay much attention. (Page.....TWO! good DAY!)

Also, while the Doritos goat ad was pretty funny, a goat will eat anything. The fact that the goat liked Doritos isn't really a big selling point.

[snopes]

I just find the conceit of the "God created the farmer" speech grating. If we're supposed to wax sentimental about people whom God supposedly chose to spend their lives performing the drudgery of farm work for the benefit of others at little reward to themselves, then let's see a photo montage featuring slaves and sharecroppers.

[JoeBentley]

Or a photo montage of people that work hard but don't recieve billions in subsidies every year just so we can pretend "The Heartland" still matters.

[Beachlife!]

I'm not sure what you mean by saying the heartland doesn't matter? In what way are you saying it doesn't matter?

[DrRocket]

I thought the Audi ad was really strange as well.

I found the Godaddy ad REALLY creepy.

I will say that Dodge knows their customer base. It's been my personal experience that people who buy American pickups tend to be pretty conservative, culture-wise. I did have to clean all of the saccharine that spilled out of the TV off of the carpet afterwards.

What a mess!

[Zorro]

The Godaddy ad was universally hated by everyone here.

[Jay Temple]

Originally Posted by Ryda Wong, EBfCo.

It goes without saying that GoDaddy's hot girl as reward for geek was disgusting.

I didn't pick up on the "reward" part, but I was disgusted even without that. Even we dorks don't find it a turn-on to see a hot girl sucking face with a dork.

Originally Posted by Simply Madeline

At the party I attended, the Audi commercial was the one that set everyone off. Courage? To commit sexual assault? And the girl's boyfriend/date beats him up? Because the girl is his property, right?

I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on that one. It's perfectly reasonable to interpret it as the boyfriend/date beating up the protagonist because he's committing sexual assault. (unless there was an undertone in that very quick scene that I missed)

As much as I like Kaley Cuoco, her ad did nothing for me.

[Spamamander]

I knew I could come here and find people who found that Audi ad as "rape-y" as I did. It might have been SLIGHTLY better if she'd left with him- at least then we would have the idea she'd already maybe been secretly attracted to him and finally dumped the football player, even if the actual kiss was assault-ish. But calling it "brave" to risk the black eye to kiss the girl? It basically was saying getting to assault the girl was a prize of some kind and she had no agency in it all. Puke.

[Morgaine]

Hated the GoDaddy one. Way to perpetuate the stereotype that one can't be smart & attractive.

[Hero_Mike]

The Hyundai Santa Fe commercial - where the kid collects a football team comprised of weightlifters, a welder, a bear wrestler, and a kid saving an adult from a fire - was probably the best one of a bad lot.

[ganzfeld]

Apparently girls are incapable of playing football (or doing any of that other stuff?), on any team.

[Lainie]

Originally Posted by Jay Temple

I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on that one. It's perfectly reasonable to interpret it as the boyfriend/date beating up the protagonist because he's committing sexual assault. (unless there was an undertone in that very quick scene that I missed)

What Spam said. Still leaves the rape-y aspects, still leaves the girl with no agency, still leave the assaulter the "hero" of the ad.

But maybe now we know why he didn't have a date for prom.

[Meka]

Originally Posted by DrRocket

I will say that Dodge knows their customer base. It's been my personal experience that people who buy American pickups tend to be pretty conservative, culture-wise. I did have to clean all of the saccharine that spilled out of the TV off of the carpet afterwards.

What a mess!

They may well have overreached this time, particularly with the similar Jeep ad (with a theme of support for returning soldiers) airing first. The consensus of the party I attended for both ads was "Really? You're exploiting our feelings to sell us cars?" It was to the point that it drew jaded remarks for a genuine ad for the Wounded Warrior Project - we were expecting it to be another car ad.

Originally Posted by Hero_Mike

The Hyundai Santa Fe commercial - where the kid collects a football team comprised of weightlifters, a welder, a bear wrestler, and a kid saving an adult from a fire - was probably the best one of a bad lot.

I'd have to go with the Budweiser Clydesdale one myself, with the horse remembering and reuniting with its original owner.

[Mad Jay]

So, exploiting feelings to sell cars - bad. exploiting feelings to sell beer - good

[Meka]

Completely different tone to the respective ads. Budweiser has used Clydesdale horses for ages in its ads, and company logos were prominent throughout the commercial - it was immediately apparent that you were watching a Budweiser commercial, and the ad made no attempt to be anything else. The car ads hid the fact that they were car ads until the final seconds. Virtually no mention of their product was made until then - cut those last seconds off, and you have a completely different commercial with a different message.

[Bettie Page Turner]

Originally Posted by Meka

The consensus of the party I attended for both ads was "Really? You're exploiting our feelings to sell us cars?"

That is what advertising does. Are you just now realizing this?

[Not_Done_Living]

Originally Posted by Simply Madeline

At the party I attended, the Audi commercial was the one that set everyone off. Courage? To commit sexual assault? And the girl's boyfriend/date beats him up? Because the girl is his property, right?.

I was watching "I Love you, Beth Cooper" during the waste of broadcast bandwidth -- which is about a nerd who announces to the school that he is in love with the head cheerleader during their graduation ceremony. That was probably what they were going for here -- and failed.

[Meka]

Originally Posted by Bettie Page Turner

That is what advertising does. Are you just now realizing this?

When the ad in question has nothing to do with the product, and then shoehorns a product placement in at the end, I think I'm allowed to call them on it.