More Bad Ads on TV and Cable – A Critique
American Thinker,
by
Ned Barnett
Original Article
Posted By: Hazymac,
8/15/2025 10:13:04 AM
I received such an outpouring of comments to my recent bad T.V. and cable ads article that I thought I’d give this another shot.
Currently, there are so many bad ads I had no problem finding truly dreadful examples.
First, let’s check out an ad campaign that worked, American Eagle’s ads featuring Sydney Sweeney, a popular young Hollywood actress.
Apparently, she not only has good genes, but good jeans. When those American Eagle Sydney Has Great Jeans ads broke a couple of weeks ago, three things happened. Immediately, the “progressive left” predictably lost their minds, flooding TikTok and YouTube with screaming video fits, calling Sydney a Nazi while claiming
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
mc squared 8/15/2025 10:26:22 AM (No. 1990954)
Bravo to the author and thanks to the poster. I've been thinking this for years now. You want me to buy YOUR product after THAT ad?
Some of my favs run on FOX, (which seems to be completely funded by fly-by-night, snake oil companies) where
white suited 'doctors' wearing stethoscopes, and others enthusiastically nodding approval.
I could go on: Cheery voice-overs with women speaking like pre-teen valley girls.
Arrrgh!
16 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Hazymac 8/15/2025 10:26:50 AM (No. 1990955)
Worst? Jardiance! The rest of the pharmaceutical companies ought not to run ads, either. Can you imagine coming up to your doctor all hot and bothered because of some some dumbass ad on the tee-vee? "Doctor. I want Jardiance now!" "If you can't get a subsidy, it'll cost you over ten grand a year. Still want it?" "Yeh yeh yeh yeh!"
In Las Vegas, Elvis picked up a .38 pistol, and blew away a television that was showing a performance by Robert Goulet. Jardiance ads should be outlawed. Also, I hate lawyers' ads. They shouldn't be allowed, either.
18 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
TrueBlueWfan 8/15/2025 10:35:15 AM (No. 1990963)
I absolutely hate a certain cat food ad for, I believe, Sheba. This 40ish woman is sitting on a couch with a cat nuzzling her. Off screen, a child shouts "Mom, I fell!". She just sits there, nuzzling, and says, " There's bandages in the cabinet.". The kid says, "I'm bleeding!" The mom just says, "Take 2.". And feeds the cat.
Who would buy cat food from seeing that ad? What company would think showing an apathetic mother is going to help their bottom line? Sick!
23 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Catherine 8/15/2025 10:37:50 AM (No. 1990966)
My favorite commercial, and yes I do despise all of them, is the one in a lovely room painted with white walls, a soft white rug on the floor, a white sofa and white coffee table. Two immaculately clean and neatly dressed children are playing quietly on the coffee table. Who on earth made this one? I have no idea what they're advertising. For the record, there are way too many commercials. Too many!!!
18 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
franq 8/15/2025 10:38:32 AM (No. 1990967)
Most ads are terrible, many recycled from one NFL season to the next. Full up with "friendly" men (T Mobile) and interracial couples (white men with black women, has to be a .001% occurrence). I'm not even remotely in the market for any of those products. Woke 30-somethings are the obvious creators.
23 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
czechlist 8/15/2025 10:42:35 AM (No. 1990970)
Just remember that the initial selling point for cable TV service was
NO COMMERCIALS!!!
"Never give a sucker an even break or smarten up a chump"
WC Fields
20 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
dbdiva 8/15/2025 10:58:16 AM (No. 1990977)
I agree that the Leaf Filter ads are beyond annoying especially so since I've read a number of local reviews stating their product is awful. The ad for Downey Unstoppables is downright stupid showing Newsom-like actors shimmying their shoulders to show how "fresh" their clothing is.
People are paid to think up this nonsense?? Unbelievable.
22 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Trump Won 8/15/2025 11:04:07 AM (No. 1990978)
Jardiance song and dance routine is on it's 5th (?) iteration, each one worse than the one before. Also, almost every ad campaign shows an interracial couple, like this is the norm in America. It is not, and it's insulting to me. If you are trying to sell me something, you are just causing me to change the channel.
22 people like this.
Every Progressive Insurance Ad is worse than the next
21 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
NorthernDog 8/15/2025 11:30:16 AM (No. 1990995)
I still remember some of the clever ads from when I was a kid:
''We need more Calgon!''
''Ancient Chinese Secret, huh?''
10 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
hurricanegirl 8/15/2025 11:35:16 AM (No. 1990997)
I don't watch TeeVee anymore (my books have ZERO commercials), but three ads I've seen make me laugh: One tells you to spray some perfumy product on your sofa right after your dog hops down, and they swear it "cleans" the sofa. (Right! Clean smelling does not equal clean, and furthermore, these products have NO ability to clean anything--they mask smells!)
Another ad shows people applying hand lotion and then petting the dog (Just YUCK!)--but then again there are plenty of people who think nothing of petting their cat or dog and then handling food without washing their hands (absolutely DISGUSTING).
And lastly, the "We do it every night" dishwasher pods commercial was the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Outside of the weirdness of equating doing it every night with washing dishes, the company was claiming that if you wash small loads of dishes all the time rather than waiting to wash one large load once, you somehow save water! HUH?
10 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
danu 8/15/2025 11:37:48 AM (No. 1991000)
the theme of these adverts is: orange ads bad.[ i think.]
3 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
felixcat 8/15/2025 12:06:50 PM (No. 1991009)
Consumer Cellular endorsed by AARP - forget it and any ad featuring Ted Danson (former boyfriend of Whoopi Goldberg) - forget it. The Bluechew and Hims ads - what is this obsession with ED????? The Progressive Ads are stupid and it's a leftwing insurance company anyway. The Realtor.com ads featuring Reba McIntire - why would a country western singer want me to use their product? And the other realtor ad, for Redfin featuring The Three Bears and Goldilocks as an adult woman-stupid. Pack up her stuff and kick her out.
10 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Newtsche 8/15/2025 12:29:29 PM (No. 1991016)
Burger King ads with a jingle sloppily sung by a child-like adult, the music starts right off the start, so sudden you can't mute the sound or change the channel fast enough. It's like a horrible nursery rhyme and has been running for years. Make it stop, BK. Have it my way, my arse.
9 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
marbles 8/15/2025 12:43:11 PM (No. 1991021)
ALL of the commercials for osteoporosis drugs say that a spontaneous hip fracture can occur.
A drug for stronger bones that can cause a broken hip which can be your demise. Nice, very nice.
7 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
YorkieMom 8/15/2025 12:45:11 PM (No. 1991023)
Ads are exactly why I record almost everything I want to watch on TV. Thanks to my remote, I can zap those ads quickly and not be annoyed by stupidity. Also, the ads take up about 4 minutes out of every 10 minutes of a show you are watching.
12 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Maggie2u 8/15/2025 12:53:35 PM (No. 1991027)
Have you noticed that when you turn your TV on, it's almost always a commercial? Now...I told my Dr. I don't care if I come down with diabetes, those commercials for a diabetic medicine where everyone is singing, dancing, and just plain having fun so diabetes can't be that bad. Fortunately she knew I was kidding. A local heating and cooling company here in the Seattle area had a commercial that almost made me throw something at my TV. It shows a couple sitting watching TV and their 10yr. old daughter comes in screaming at them about 'why they haven't gotten an air conditioner because I'm HOT' and then flounces out. The parents look at each other and say..'what should we do'. First smack your daughter for being so disrespectful and then tell her to take her damn sweater off. No kidding.
And poster #11, that ad that says to run your dishwasher when it's only half full is so it gets you to buy more dishwashing soap. right?
9 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Catherine 8/15/2025 1:06:50 PM (No. 1991029)
The most annoying commercials are those with manically happy, smiling people doing whatever the product is for. Insane laughter all the way through. And I also remember when cable and streaming services were no commercial entities. There are just too many commercials. More than ever. And they are more annoying every day. I noticed more and more couples are Hispanic. No big deal but funny it started with all the deportations going on.
9 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
walcb 8/15/2025 2:16:14 PM (No. 1991036)
I thought it was just me in my dislike of all of the ads discussed by the author--nice to know I am not overly critical and have company. I agree with most of the posters but must confess I actually enjoy the Progressive commercials--quirky and self deprecating in an unassuming way.
6 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
Tennman 8/15/2025 4:14:35 PM (No. 1991055)
ANY Medicare ad. And all the PSAs for "Gun Safety" - especially where the woman's asking the guy if he's got a dog and unsecured gun before setting a play-date.
1 person likes this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 8/15/2025 6:11:35 PM (No. 1991066)
A lot of internet sites have become unwatchable. I understand the sites have to paid for and a few popups are necessary but they are relentless now. They are constant and block the content unless you pause your ad blocker then you get immediately covered up again. I have removed some sites from my bookmarks, even ones I really liked just because they got so hard to read without constantly killing popups.
2 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
BeatleJeff 8/15/2025 7:32:34 PM (No. 1991080)
The ads that annoys the daylights out of me are life insurance ads (don't even know which companies, which in and of itself is the sign of a failed ad) . The worst of them is one which opens with a husband and wife, and the wife saying "A heart attack? DID HE HAVE LIFE INSURANCE?" Seriously??? You just learned someone unexpectedly passed, and the first thought in your head was did they have life insurance??? Just dumb. But then the husband replies "No," like he was all up in the deceased persons business. Just once I'd like to hear the husband respond "How the f--- would I know?" There's others that annoy, but that is the worst of them, and if I didn't already have life insurance, none of them would entice me to go out and get some.
4 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
aripeny 8/15/2025 8:50:16 PM (No. 1991091)
Ozempic takes the proverbial cake. Where are all those overweight people marching to and why do they literally drop everything to join?
1 person likes this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
Digger 8/15/2025 8:57:39 PM (No. 1991093)
The ones that irritate me are from Balance of Nature. They say “Personal success story”. What? personal success in taking six pills pushed by a chiropractor at an outrageous price? Why do they take their pill bottles with them for a bike ride or on the lake? Why choose to replace nationally recognized and less expensive vitamin pills with freeze dried fruits and vegetables?
No one ever went broke betting on the stupidity of the American consumer.
1 person likes this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
Digger 8/15/2025 8:59:50 PM (No. 1991094)
#1, I know the doctor commercial you are referring to. I call him “Dr. Bobblehead”
0 people like this.
And the commercials present mixed race couples at a much higher ratio than they actually occur in nature. Don't tell me there is not some driving force behind that.
1 person likes this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
Strike3 8/15/2025 9:57:47 PM (No. 1991108)
The mixed race ads are the worst because they are not really advertising a product they are just social engineering and propaganda. According to the ads, every white party held in this country invites black guests who never get drunk and start fights, feature black men who drive big pickup trucks in the rough sagebrush-covered hills, always play the doctor who gives advice to the dumb white guy, feel the need to show you how to properly stuff a burger or pizza into your mouth or look good in size 22 dresses and yuck, panties and bras. NOBODY looks good in a size 22 dress or advertising an HIV drug that allows safe sex with an obese woman. The $9.95 life insurance policies sold by Jonathan are a deceptive scam and the many car-repair plans that have recently popped up are probably in the same category.
1 person likes this.
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