What Commercials are the Worst?

hat commercials irritate you, offend you, or bore you most?
That’s a question of personal taste, but here are three categories that should be
considered that bring out the worst in the art and science (?) of
advertising.

The Superbowl. The commercials are anticipated as much as the game itself. They
are extremely expensive to air and costly to produce. They are talked about, rated
and dissected immediately. The favorites are the funniest and the most unusual.
They are getting better. A few years ago in the “dot com” era they were replete with
special effects, but the messages and the brand names were soon forgotten, lost in
the clutter.

Advertising on the Superbowl is an ego trip, a corporate morale builder for small
companies and newcomers. Budget busters.

The 2008 Olympics. I wore out my clicker switching from venue to venue, from
station to station. I really can’t remember one commercial from another. As with
the Superbowl, the benefit for the advertiser must have been that they were on the
Olympics! If advertising is effective, mustn’t be watched, paid attention to?

Election campaigns. Talk about overkill. Almost everybody shares the “I’m sick of it
and wish it was over” syndrome. But they always have tons of money coming in, and they have to spend it. I’m impressed with the quality of the production values of much of it. And the speed which they create it and get on the air boggles the mind.
The most serious knock on political advertising is that it is blowing in the wind. The
strategists look at what happened today, and then get on the air tomorrow to refute
it. And then, tomorrow night rethink and remake the whole thing. The last few
days before the election are the most important.

I guess when you are attacked, you must attack back. Turning the other cheek is
not a winner in this game. Even though we might hate political campaigns, there
will be an end. Somebody will win, somebody will lose. Then they will fold their
tents and steal away into the night.

So, what do you think and how can you judge? The worst thing you can say about
advertising is that it didn’t work, that it didn’t sell.