Post by Eric Brantner
2008 was a tough year for a lot of companies. With the economy in shambles, many businesses had a hard time selling their products. And these commercials certainly didn’t help them.
1. Shamwow- Okay, so there are hundreds of late night infomercials like this. but there’s something about the Shamwow guy that really bugs me (even moreso than loudmouth Billy Mays.) The Shamwow guy is smug, and he tries to make it seem like you’re a moron for not buying his little yellow towel. Is the condescending pitch the new strategy companies will use to push their inferior products? And what’s up with the headset? You’re on TV, not out at some swap meet. Lastly, notice the nice overdub at 1:26 “this lasts TEN years.”
2. Obama Plate- It never fails. After a big event—whether it be the Super Bowl or in this instance, the election— some company shoots out a low budget commercial selling some garbage product. In this case, the garbage product is an Obama collector’s plate. Even if the product was amazing, this commercial has one of the worst scripts I’ve ever heard. “His confident smile and kind eyes are an inspiration to us all.” Seriously? That’s the best you could come up with? If I didn’t know better, I’d say this commercial was a joke.
3. Gillette- You can’t go wrong having 3 of the most popular athletes in the world in your commercial, right? Wrong. Think about how much money Gillette had to spend to get Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, and Thierry Henry together in a commercial. Now, look at the result. It’s 3 dudes with horrible acting skills awkwardly knocking around balls that look like the world. Even worse, a terrible song is playing over the entire commercial. It feels like a bad high school video project. Memo to Gillette: if you want to get your money’s worth, you might want to have your stars do something that’s somewhat memorable. Hell, at least let them talk.
4. Sales Genie- Nothing like using some good old fashioned racism to sell your product.
5. Bud Light Carlos Mencia- Do I really need to explain why a commercial with Carlos Mencia in it sucks?
6. E Trade- Honestly, I could plug any E Trade commercial in here, and it’d be worthy of making the list. However, I’m going to choose the one that bothers me most. Who in their right mind would listen to some tool who patterns his appearance after Moby? And yes, we know that Hong Kong is in China, idiot.
7. Windows Mojave Experiment- The whole premise of this series of commercials is that everyone thinks Windows Vista sucks. Essentially, what the commercials are saying is “Look, I know you think our product sucks (and it does,) but it’s not really that bad. I mean, it does a few neat tricks! See! We don’t suck that much!”
8. SunSilk SuperBowl- Again, we have another commercial that tries to use celebrities to make their product more appealing, and again, we have another commercial that’s not memorable in the least. More importantly, it looks like they threw this ad together in just a few minutes. The transitions between the songs are sloppy, and the graphics are as uninspired as they come. Remember, Sunsilk spent millions of dollars to launch this commercial during the Super Bowl.
9. Alamo Kiosk- What happens when a commercial tries to be funny but fails miserably? This Alamo commercial about their new rental car kiosk. The “cute” and “wacky” girl that says off-the-wall things has been done before, and it’s been done far better.
10. McDonalds R&B- This is probably the newest commercial on this list, but it has earned its spot as one of the worst commercials of 2008. It’s not just that having some R. Kelly knockoff sing a passionate song about McNuggets is annoying, but it’s such blatant racial targeting that it’s really embarassing. Every time this commercial comes on, I race to see how fast I can change the channel.
Which commercials would you add to this list? Share your most hated commercials with us in the replies.
26 Responses to “The 10 Worst Commercials of 2008”
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The McDonald’s commercial is the worst, but it does poke fun at many R&B video staples.
Alright, I give you the rest without question.
But the ShamWow guy?
He’s the best thing on the crapbox.
I mean, I don’t know, he sells himself.
The Tide “talking stain” commercial tops the list for me. And as if it wasn’t annoying enough, they decided to go all social media on it and now there are a bunch of equally annoying user-created versions and parodies.
Repugnant is the word.
@Jenny- I go back and forth on the Shamwow guy. Part of me thinks he’s hilarious and ridiculous, but the other part of me wants to fight him.
@Scott- I thought about the talking stain commercials. I really hate them too, but I honestly couldn’t remember if they started in 2008 or not.
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How did that “Saved by Zero” commercial not make the top spot?
Can we add “every commercial that advertises a luxury car as a Christmas present?”
C’mon… who, exactly, buys a Lexus for their wife/husband as a gift?
The latest GEICO commercials with the two thingies on top os a stack of money make no sense to me at all. GEICO was innovative (if somewhat annoying at times) with their several ad campaigns going on at once (The gecko, the cavemen, and , and,…I can’t remember the other one), but this latest one is crap. What are they trying to sell? Did they even use a focus group to test this out in before they signed up for it?
This Arby’s Commercial is horrible. I can’t believe that they even put in on the air.
The Lexus “Big Wheel” commercial has to be the worst. The kid is annoying as hell and the idea that a Lexus buyer has the same emotional intelligence as an 8 year old is just plain stupid. Whoever made that commercial ought to be shot for dragging the viewer into his/her stupidity.
Hillshire Farms (Go Meat) is the all-time worst commercial!
The absolute worst in my opinion is the Vicks Nyquil commercial where the 3 men have gone RVing. I cant understand the guy with the accent at all, and since when do we need to be so politically correct that we need to sacrifice understanding what the actors are saying. Skip the accents. This commercial is ludicrous
i actually like that razor commercial, its better then that hillside farms “go meat”
Come on, the Mcdonalds one was great.
I have to agree with one of the other people who made a comment that frigg’n NyQuil commercial with the 4 guys camping just blows…it show one a who’s sick and two guys trying to figure out what he has and one smug A-hole with a weird accent treating the other guy’s like idiots. While the two guys’s try to deduce what he has the other guys chimes in with “I know what he has, he’s got the morning drive” then right afterward with a wise-ass remark “Genius’s” to the other three guys….I HATE THAT GUY….but then afterward they show the guys who was sick behind the wheel of this RV screaming “WooHOOO!” what’s up unrealistic….has anyone ever driven the next day after being sick and sucking down Nyquil….it’s like a foggy hang-over-ish feeling….
I’m sorry, but if you think that McDonalds commercial is great, then you DESERVE to have your liver jump out of your throat after eating their products.
One of THE worst commercials, ever.
In other news, what about the Jeep commercials with what has to be the worst music in the universe. The “i like to move it, move it” or whatever they’re saying. I actually wrote to the company and told them that “even though I know you aren’t targeting people like me (poor musicians with bad credit), your commercial has made it completely unthinkable for me to ever buy a jeep”. Considered destroying television. Still possible.
What about the Progressive Insurance commercials with the same annoying sales girl? I really hate the most recent one that came out where she is tooting a cheap toy party horn – thank goodness for the mute button!
I can’t think of any commercials that annoy me more than fucking Wendy’s 3conomics ads…just fucking stupid…
God I HATE those Dunkin’ Donuts commercials – the ones with the songs — “Doin’ things is what I like to do…”
OH. MY. GOD.
I’m glad those aren’t on anymore.
I would literally cover my ears and hum (very loudly) until it was off.
OH! Another one I HATE is the Overstock.com commercial with those country bumpkins singing*.
I totally agree with the NyQuil one. It’s like, all the other guys are portrayed as frat-guy oafs and then this random guy with a mystery accent comes in and pretty much says “Stupid Americans!” Asshole.
Oh, and the Geico commercials with the stack of money with eyes. It’s just gross looking and obnoxious.
I do have to say the one with the Gecko using that guy’s dollar is absolutely true because the company blows and screws you out of your money.
I will cut all the slack in the worl to the low budgets- they just have to sell. But for companies with money assigned to marketing, I think it is just contemptable that they hand us some of the crap they do. On this list: definitely the Geico money stack and the McDonald’s Filet-o-Fish comercial. It HAS no point but to be GROSS and show the dumbest selection of the US populace.
I have to agree all these commcercials are horrible but the number one WORST COMMERCIAL OF ALL TIME has to be the Progressive Insurance ads with flo in them…Those Progressive commercials makes me want to poke my eyes out…
The only disagreement I have with these choices is that they’re actually all the BEST commercials.
I dont usually comment, but after reading through so much info I had to say thanks
Any Wendy’s commercial. They WAY taste like puke!
Does anyone else get the lame A&W commercials? With Ryan the dork and the fat guy. First of all the fat guy turns me off fast food but then they bring in that kid who obviously got beat up a lot in school. Lamest ever, well one of the lamest. I am also vastly turned off by the rice crispy commercial with the little mouth breathing girl who discovers her rice krispies are bigger. Sorry, to me, not cute at all.