Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Fun with Polls What do you think about commercials?

I love the Budweiser Clydsdales commercials. The recent ones with the colt pulling the wagon and with the Clydes playing football while the zebra officiates are delightful.

Someone has to pay for TV shows. The consumer can, as when buying HBO or Showtime; or advertisers can, through commercials; or the government can, although I'd hate to have all of TV under government control; or donors can, in response to fundraising telethons, which always seem to be on whenever I tune in PBS. Since I can only get TV by satellite (no broadcast channels available in our area--the county quit funding the equipment to bring them in), I already pay for TV, and I'd hate to pay more just to get rid of commercials.

Kitty, no one deleted your post. Labrat simply moved the thread to the Off Topic folder because as it was written it didn't include a poll, which is what this forum is intended for.

Kaylle

I voted "other" in response to all three questions. What's my favorite commercial? There is none. What's my least favorite commercial? Pretty much all of them. Although those detergent, washing powder, diaper, pads and fruit juice commercials which promise you, with a sweet sincerity seemingly taken straight out of a sermon at church, to send you straight to the bliss and blessings of La-La land if you use their products, are probably my least favorite commercials after all....

I hate commercials. I never want to see them. Probably one of the reasons why I watch so little television is that I can really only watch those channels which have no commercials at all, or those where the commercials are in limited supply, are never shown in the middle of a programme, and are really easy to avoid.

Ann

Not just because 'you didn't phrase it right', Kitty. I moved it out of Polls because it wasn't in the form of a poll.

If you want a thread to stay in Polls, then you have to post it as a poll.

And you were emailed to inform you that the topic had been moved and where it had been moved to, so not sure how you came to the conclusion it had been deleted or why you were unable to find it.

If you don't want your threads to be repeatedly moved, then, please, do just take a small moment before posting to ensure that you're posting them in the right folder and in the right format. It'll save us both hassle and then we'll all be happy.

Anyway...since you've repeated it as a poll, moving my answer to here and deleting the thread in Off Topic.


LabRat

I haven't been watching much TV lately, so I haven't been paying attention to too many commercials.

But there is a cute one with a car that acts like a puppy - complete with windshield wiper that wags like a tail.

And one with a couple of cows on the lookout for additives in butter. The tone the stupid cow uses when he says 'Ohhhhhhhh!' when his friend points out that that cloud with four legs he thinks might be an additive is a sheep makes me laugh.

There's an car ad running just now which drives me so crazy, I can't even have it on with the sound off. It's a choir making noises to provide a soundtrack for the car running around. It's all very clever, I'm sure, but I loathe it.

Mostly though the ads which drive me nuts the most are just the mediocre ones which have had no thought put into them.

LabRat (who notes that even with the ads she really enjoys, she still couldn't tell you brand they were for. Go figure. )

Actually, Labrat, those commercials sound funny. And cute! I would probably like them if I saw them. But, you know, the very idea of interrupting a show just so you can have a commercial break? Many years ago I tried to watch a movie, a Disney movie which mixed cartoon characters with real-life actors (the story was about a rabbit), which was being shown on a truly commercial-infested channel here in Sweden. Well, I was trying to record that movie on my VCR, without getting in the commercials. Would you believe I had a small breakdown before that night was over? I promised myself I would never watch a movie on those terms again. I kept my promise and refused to see movies that I knew would be interrupted by more than one commercial break. Then, I started avoiding sitcoms and other shows that were interrupted by commercials, too. And as time has gone by, I have just watched less and less television.

Ann

Movies should never be interrupted by commercials. That's just sacrilege. That's always been one of the primary arguments people make for having the BBC over here - which is funded by a public licence fee and so is commercial free.

What's worse though is that our main terrestrial commercial station will insist of putting on a movie and then breaking it halfway through for the main national evening news. By the time you've had national news, Scottish news, the weather and ads in between good luck to you if you can remember what movie you were watching, let alone what it was about.

And most infuriating of all is one of our cable channels which insists on interrupting movies about four times with '60 seconds of entertainment news'. I mean for pity's sake! Who in the wide world of sports cannot possibly go two hours without hearing entertainment news?

Like you, I need to have my movies shown in pristine condition as the maker intended them, so I tend to watch on DVD, too.

Oh and earlier I forgot to mention my favourite ad of all. The long running labrador puppy ads for Andrex loo roll. They've been using lab pups for decades and, of course, being a sucker for lab pups I just melt at their cute antics. Especially as these days they all look like Homer when he was a youngster. It's like watching a home video of him every time they come on.

BTW, I couldn't find the puppy car ad online - mostly because I have no clue what make of car it advertises. But I found the Anchor Butter ad here

LabRat

My favorite commercials is the cows and California cheese.

Since I don't like David Spade as an actor I hate the Capitol One Commercials he is in, actual hate all their commercials. Plus I find them generally annoying anyway. I also don't like the Geico commercials as they are currently running. When they first came out with the gecko commercials they were cute but they have run out of ideas that are "cute". His talking to all the other lizzards to get the word out are stupid and they send me channel surfing.

Yes, commercials are necessary for paying for TV. I sure don't want to see my taxes raised to pay for it. Considering I don't watch a lot of TV I would really resent my taxes paying for it. I hate all and I mean ALL the reality shows. I never ever watch Idol, Survivor, Apprentice, Race or what ever else is out there as reality programming. I tend to watch several of the 1 hour dramas. Otherwise I watch HGTV, TLC, Discover, Animal Planet or Lifetime.

I also avoid most commercials because I have 2 VCRs and I usually tape on 1 while I'm watching whatever I taped the night before so I can fast forward through all the commercials. This saves time because 1 hour shows are only about 43 minutes long when you take out all the commericals. With movies the amount of time saved is even greater. This also helps if you are dieting because you skip all the food commercials that can sending you looking for something to nibble on.

Kitty, please read my previous post. You were emailed to inform you that the topic had been moved and where it had been moved to.

I have no idea what you mean by an 'essay poll', but if you want to post a poll thread in this folder then you have to make it in the form of a poll as defined by this forum. That is, in the form you've used to start this thread. If you don't, then it will be moved out of the poll folder and into the appropriate folder for the topic.

Simple as that.

You are now getting a 'it does not exist' message because - as I stated in my previous post - I deleted the moved thread in Off Topic, since you've done the poll for a second time in here. There was little point in having two of them. And since this time you did it correctly and made it a poll, this time it has no need to be moved.

LabRat

I voted other to both questions my fav ad was the original tango ad i know it caused a lot of trouble but i still find it funny. My least fav ad is one for toliet roll and has a computer graphic baby posing as a big boss it's creepy.

I quite like ads some can be more entertianing than the programs some are stupid but others brighten up your day (Diet Coke springs to mind )i've known my self to stop skipping the ad's on a video to watch an ad i haven't seen for a while. I don't know if they do this any where else but here in GB we have program Called Commercial Breakdown and Tarrent on TV Both shoe amusing ad's from around the world i watch both of them.

Oh my, isn't it just? I want to laugh at it, but it totally freaks me out and makes me shudder, that cutesy little boy's voice overlaid over a baby in a suit. Especially when it breaks off the adult office talk to sing, "The wheels on the bus..." Too spooky for words. It's like something out of Stephen King. I keep waiting for two little blonde girls to appear.

On a related note, though I did like the Velvet 'Love Your Bum' ads for loo roll. I thought they were cute. And I found this interesting and quite funny article on those, which is worth a read. It has a couple of very mild risque words, but nothing major.

You can find Velvet's 'Baby Executive' and 'Love Your Bum' ads here if you're interested. EDIT: Just realised that you have to join the site to see ads more than three months old, so you won't be able to see the second one unless you pay. But the first one should be free to view.

If you can find a link to your favourite/non-favourite ads, do post them. It's interesting to see what's out there.

LabRat

I can't say my favourite and honestly I forget many of my favs. Here are some that I like:

- Canadian beer commercials like " I am Canadian ". Oops that just shows a news bit about the commercial.
- other Cdn beer ....
- A bank one where there is a song "hand in my pocket"
- Capital one series
- The Lexus "moment" commercial
- Cannon had one a while ago and I remember a lot of bubbles
- HP's picutre copy series
- McDonald's "an extra (second?) burger is always good" A guy falls off his chair when he is eating fries. I don't know why that one gets me.
- Gyco
- Where's the beef
- Honda Element "I want to pinch"
- The Nike basketball one from a few years back where there is a black background and pple just bouncing a b-ball really well!
- Fed Ex ads, like this one Fed Ex add - "but I have an MBA"
- IKEA ads
- basicly go to any funny commercial site!