'The Voice' Crowns Its Winner
Your Summer Roundup Of Reality-TV Ridiculousness
How dare this woman be too busy and/or disinterested to bake! Please judge or empathize with her immediately.
#2: Yoplait
In the gem below, a woman lists all the desserts she's been eating, while the man in her life searches frantically for her stashed treats. Is he hungry? Has she not been baking enough? Or is he just terrified she won't be able to fit into that alluring hoodie after all those "apple turnovers?" Fortunately, it turns out all she's really scarfing are varieties of Yoplait. WHEW!
#1: Mr. Clean Magic Eraser
If Mr. Clean is supposed to be the answer to our cleaning problems, then why can't he actually clean something? Oh, right, he's a dude. Just stand there with your arms crossed, Big Guy, we'll take care of this one.
Tell Us: What other commercials have you seen that are somewhat offensive or just plain annoying?
Also on Lemondrop: Shocking Tobacco AdsIf you think these are bad, your jaw will drop at what cigarette companies used to pull.
All ads from Stanford School of Medicine's' collection "Not a Cough in a Carload," courtesy of New York Public Library.
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Sunday 18 January
By Pat Van Alders
I miss CIGARETTE ads !!!!! Thanx to the insipid bleeding heart liberals some of the KOOLEST ads havent been seen since 01/01/71 !!!!! Guess the ad agencies are to chicken to stand up to these "frumpy" so called helalth nazis !!!!!!!!
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Sunday 18 January
By Mary
Have you seen TV? listened to the radio? read a paper or a magazine lately?????? The election is OVER - YOUR GUY WON! Does everything have to relate to politics??? I mean now you're blaming conservatives for a lack of cigarette adds@%)*&)&%&$$)(*&
GET OVER IT. GET A LIFE BEYOND LIBERAL/CONSERVATIVE. DON'T YOU GET IT??? YOUR GUY WON - ! And, by the way, learn how to spell.
Sunday 18 January
By Patrick
Just go back to smoking and getting cancer and don't worry about health insurance prices rising as long as you get your smokes and enjoy the ads that entice people to smoke in the first place. Pull your head out of your ass and think about somebody else for once. Yes, the government might actually care about you and how healthy you are, it's not a conspiracy to control everything in your life.
Monday 19 January
By Ashley
Ok seriously I doubt it was "the bleeding heart liberals" who banned smoking ads. If you havent noticed, they were using the Flintstones at one point in a smoking ad. My entire family smokes, my friends smoke, my 13, 14, and 12 year old brothers smoke. I'm 16 and trying extremely hard to resist smoking (it doesnt help that I actually like the smell), and I appreciate the fact that smoking ads arent on.
And Mary, he was saying bleeding heart liberals, which means he's most likely a conservative.
These are kind of ridiculous. I never saw anything sexist about these ads, and I'm a woman. Maybe I'm missing something.
Sunday 18 January
By Jamie
The person who wrote this needs to get a grip.
Washing powders are marketed toward women because women are the primary household caregivers. That doesn't mean we're a backwards world, it means that's how people choose to live their lives. It doesn't mean we're not progressive. You wouldn't market Barbie to Dad, would you? No. Because Dad doesn't have a want for Barbie. You market Barbie to Suzy, who then gets Dad involved.
Clorox also managed to market to men because "Momma's got the magic" of Clorox. Growing up, mom cared for him. Home Cooking, clean clothes, hard work. Yeah, Momma DOES have the magic. Yesterday, today and now. There's nothing wrong with nurturing your family.
If anything, I'm more insulted by the part that the men sit there and do nothing. How do you think THEY feel about that:? The men in my life, be they boyfriend, brother, cousin, father or uncle work just as hard as their female counterparts. If anyone should be complaining, it should be the men! These commercials make them look lazy and listless!
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Thursday 22 January
By Jenn
I agree totally!
Saturday 07 February
By Genine
Jamie, I totally agree. Emily Tan is digging too deep to find sexism in these commercials. And, if you have to "look" for the sexism in a commercial, you're already wrong, because it's something that you will definitely know when you see it.
And, again I agree, if I were a man, I would definitely be offended by these commercials because they all portray men as either lazy, helpless, vapid, or non-existant (ie: there were no men in the tostitos scoops commercials).
Emily Tan, sexism does exist, but you're not helping the situation with articles like these.
Saturday 07 February
By Iroquois Pliskin
you just saved me from having to write an incredibly long comment. now, i can just say ditto.
ditto!
Sunday 18 January
By Jody Rope
Yawn. This would have been a fine list in 1972--before Third Wave feminsim made all this wingeing about roles and domestic chores silly. Men cook and wash up and clean. Women do too. Don't look to the USA for domestic gender discrimination. It's a humorless piece too. The Miller Ad was funny.
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Saturday 07 February
By Tanja Knight
i actually think the miller commercial was a bit out there.............you are not going to want to buy beer because of two naked women..........you are going to want to buy it because you like beer
Sunday 18 January
By martha
The absolute WORST commercials I have ever seen are the ones for Swiffer dusters and mops. I mean, please.. one shows a woman talking to who you think is a man in a bar, when she is actually speaking to her old duster! Then there is one where her old mop sends her flowers and a Candygram! Ughhghg SOOO stupid and annoying! And WHO argues with a duster in court?? I actually emailed Swiffer and told them how STUPID those commercials were and they're SO bad, I have to mute the TV when they are on. What did they do?? That's when they brought in the mop with the Mariarchi (sp) band!! Give me a flipping break! Regardless of how good they products MAY be, because of the gross stupidity in the commercials, I'll NEVER buy their products. Enough is enough with the mops and dusters being argued with!!
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Thursday 22 January
By Judy
I use to llike that song before they stuck it into this commercial. I absolutely hate it now. I am sick to death of the commercial, it is so ridiculous - it's supposed to be funny I guess. I switch channels or turn down the sound. I bet they paid some marketing people an extravagant amount of money to create such an annoying piece of junk!
Tuesday 10 February
By Misty
I think those swiffer commercials are hilarious. So does everyone I know really. It was a cute idea and its a better way to market than some bland commercial where some lady cleans everything in her house. Its catchy, its cute, and if you didn't like it, you didn't like it. I think emailing a company about how "stupid" their commercial is is pretty unnecessary. Its not offensive to anyone, you're entitled to your opinion but I think you're overreacting.
Sunday 18 January
By Jim Seibert
The ads, wether in magazines, on TV, or on the internet that bug me the most are those in which the speakers use grammar that is terrible. No wonder our kids can't use the English language well. That also applies to TV reporters especially sports jocks..
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Sunday 18 January
By soooc
Jim Seibert --- How funny that as you rant about the English language and you spelled whether incorrectly
Monday 19 January
By Walter
That's hysterical
Monday 19 January
By DENNY SHAFFER
FOR YEARS THE ADS HAVE BEEN MAKING WHITE MALES LOOK LIKE FOOLS. THEY ARE ALWAYS INCOMPETENT OR SO CHILD LIKE THEY CAN'T BE TRUSTED FOR SIMPLE DUTIES. THEY ARE THE BUTT OF EVERY JOKE AND EVEN TAKE IT FROM THE KIDS MOST OF THE TIME. I THINK THEY ARE AFRAID TO TRY THAT CRAP WITH BLACK MALES AND WOMEN DO MOST OF THE BUYING OF THEIR PRODUCTS. THE WHITE MALE IS BECOMING AN EXTENCT SPECIES.
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Sunday 18 January
By Nancy
I don't think that any group is portrayed realistically. It's all about sales (money) to them!
Sunday 18 January
By luddite
TheLadders.com ad campaign is extremely offensive. Apparently, if you make less than $100,000 per year, you are a tiny, ridiculous, unworthy, talentless, joke. Only the rich need apply, the rest of you are impish children. Shame on them for mocking hard working people who don't make tons of money.
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Sunday 18 January
By Rob Ransone
In your listing of offensive TV ads, you failed to include the loud and obnoxious Billy Mays: I don't like ads SHOUTING AT ME! I always hit the MUTE button (the greatest invention since sliced bread)! I would like to know whether someone has studied how many times the same commercial can be given within an hour before it really annoys and turns off people!
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