Is Anyone Else Irritated By These Ads...

[Backdrifter]

...in which some corporation spins us a mushy soppy supposedly heartwarming story as a remote tenuous link to their services. e.g. Nationwide and that stupid scarf, now we have Vista Print and their long-winded piece of nonsense about the family bakery. And I'm sure there are others in the same mould but maybe just not as interminable as those two. Every other ad seems to have some winsome-faced kid trying to raise a tomato plant or set up an insect zoo in their garden or some other gratingly whimsical thing to convince us how soft and warm and human this monolithic organisation is.

Or is it just me?! Judging by the tidal wave of gushing comments on Twitter these ads attract, it might well be just me. But I find them intelligence-insulting.

[237SJ]

The "happy family" ones get on my nerves. They usually feature a middle class family, husband is a metrosexual and the wife is wearing Boden or something from John Lewis. They probably live in SW London and the kids are neat and tidy and we are supposed to find it all very sweet and endearing. Maybe they could liven it up a bit and show some chavs in a knackered old BMW, wife`s wearing Primark with her bra straps showing, husband`s got those jeans with the crotch round his knees, kids have ADHT and are tearing around swearing. I liked the ad`s in the 1970s - you couldn`t beat the Hamlet ones and the cheesey aftershave ads featuring a lantern jawed man.

[EcclesCake]

I don't really notice the Ads.

Having said that, after reading 237sj's post I cannot get the image of the bloke with a hairy chest in the Denim aftershave advert out of my mind :-(

[237SJ]

Is that "Denim, for the man who doesn`t have to try too hard"?

[EcclesCake]

STOP IT!!!!!!!

[Khandro]

The specsaver ad. I liked best was the couple who somehow got onto the fight deck of an aircraft carrier asking for the duty free shop, and I used to like the VW ad with lady and the squeaky earing - anyone remember that?

[237SJ]

I like the Specsavers ones as well. They manage to be funny and that doesn`t happen much these days. I used to like the one with the little kids with broad Yorkshire (I think) accents who talked like adults. I think it was a car ad.

[Mamyalynne]

.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI_rU7_AJnQ

[Backdrifter]

@237SJ - very funny post and very true. Oh to see an ad with the Primark Chavs as you say. Ads are so ultra middle class, the ad writers are terrified of straying beyond that cosy world. They give the impression of the whole world consisting of happy heterosexual couples.

[mccfluff]

yes the stupid nationwide one bugs the **** out of me, most adverts do, im glad i have FF

[Khandro]

Thanks mamyalynne, that gave me a laugh again - never used to fail !

[Bazile]

//...But there you are - proof they work..//

Andy - indeed - as i stated in my post

[thesecondlaw]

I love the Nationwide advert. Everyone that sees it, knows what it is advertising, so the advertisers have done their job.

[Backdrifter]

How are vague recollections of an ad but not the actual brand, and knowing that a really annoying ad is for Nationwide, "proof that they work"? What is it the ad-makers are aiming for? The Nationwide one doesn't even advertise any product as far as I can tell, but attempts to show us how lovely Nationwide staff are. Don't we have to be clueless morons to think "Oh aren't Nationwide wonderful" as a result of that? That cat and budgie one irritates the hell out of me and I can't even remember what it's advertising. Is THAT what advertisers are after?

[vulcan42]

Surely the advert only works if you go and buy the product, if it only annoys it hasn't done its job?

[sue11]

Some really great answers on here. Thank you for giving me a laugh!
Generally I find the comedy ads the best ones to watch. The ones that pull at the heartstrings I agree can be very annoying, except at Christmas time when I think that they seem to fit better.
I think the advertisers rely on the amount of views that a person will see the advert as to how well they are remembered or not, I believe the minimum aimed for is 4 views over the length of the advertising period. I guess it does not matter how irritating we find the advert as long as we remember it, although I agree very much that there is a danger that we find it so irritating that we refuse to buy the product! For me at the moment the one I find absolutely awful is the Premier Inn, with Lenny Henry snoring. I always turn down the sound when that one comes on!

[Backdrifter]

sue11 - I always switch the sound off when ad breaks come on anyway, but with the Premier Inn ones I can't even bear to look at them, sound or no sound. The sight of him in bed in various public locations makes me shudder.