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Is Anyone Else Irritated By These Ads...

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Backdrifter | 14:21 Mon 15th Jun 2015 | Adverts
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...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.
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Ads are what the mute button was invented for.

At least the couple you mention make a change from those that show tea that looks like dishwater, people cleaning their teeth with no paste on the brush, the dreadful Aviva/Paul Whitehouse ads, anything from MoneySupermarket.com, Haribo, Activia - oh, the list is nigh-on endless...
I record the majority of programmes I want to watch then I can whizz through any stupid adverts/
When we had VCR recorders I had a brilliant model (Panasonic )which was able to ignore ads when playing back a recorded programme, what a pity we cannot get the same facility with DVD Recorders.
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Well yes I do at the very least mute all ads, if not switch to something else (though it seems all ads are on at the same time on all channels) or go and do something else. I agree about the Paul Whitehouse ads, they never seem to end, he must have done dozens of them by now. But most ads have the advantage of at least being quite short. The longer ones attempting to tell some touching story hack me off more because of the intention to sucker people in through emotion and sentimentality.
I do however love this ad

https://youtu.be/Mp8-jITevuw
I love that one too WR, I was amazed to see it caused quite some discussion as the Budgie is a male singing the female part.

I had noticed that but never thought to comment on it.
I totally agree with you Backdrifter.

I too love that ad. WR.

my favourite at the moment is the Hostelworld one where all the young folk jump into a beautiful lagoon and a boy and girl ask each other where they are from, the boy says he is from Warrington in England - my hometown !
Yes, I love that ad too whiskers. I also like (although its not on these days) the one last year with a little girl on a bike and the singing kitten in the basket on the front.
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You see, I am definitely marginal. I can't stand that cat and budgie ad, or indeed any ad that has cgi'd animals. So I'm now even disagreeing with people who agree with me on the other stuff! Talking of cgi-ing, I also dislike that one with the cartoon Audrey Hepburn, who for some reason they have blinking like mad. It's probably easiest to just say I dislike most ads. Their mere existence is annoying, let alone that they all seem to line up across most channels.

Although, for some reason, I always chuckle at the one where people in a hotel have a muppet version of themselves. I mute all ads so I don't what they're saying or singing, but it just looks funny. I suppose it reminds me of Avenue Q, which I thought was hilarious.
No, I think that the standard of Ads is quite high and most of them quite ingenious.

My favourite is Qatar Airlines with the chosen members of Barcelona FC.
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Sqad that is a very bold statement - "most of them quite ingenious"? Really?

I haven't seen the Qatar one.

A problem I have with so many of them is the similarity of approach. There's been a spate of ones featuring some kind of "scene-change sweep", and a recurring feature of the soppy family ones is showing a child growing up through the years. There are also loads that feature some kind of repetitive element; we can't be shown something just once, it has to be repeated at least 5 times, in different settings. I got the first one, I don't need to see it another 4 or 5 times thanks. Like the heartwarming story ones, I find it a bit insulting. But it has all the signs of being made by the dead hand of brainstorming sessions.

An interesting thing is that in some ways, TV ads are actually stuck in the 1950s still. Cleaning products invariably have women using them. Almost any domestic product has ads with women in. A man might occasionally appear, but usually only to be clueless and bumbling, so the woman can do that Advert Wife Look that most mums and wives do in ads - a sort of "Oh, you!" look.
\\\\Sqad that is a very bold statement - "most of them quite ingenious"? Really?\\\

Yes.........just my opinion.
I will tell you one of that brings tears to my eyes - don't know whether it is the haunting music of the actual advert. About the lonely farmer who needs to go to Specsavers because he actually shaves his dog instead of a sheep. Feel so sad after that advert.
Well would you beleive it - the ads are doing what they are intended to do
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Oh, you don't have to say it's "just" your opinion! That's one step away from the dreaded "just saying". It's your opinion.
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@jennyjoan - as I never have the sound up on ads, I've never heard the music, but visually it's quite funny, which I think was the intention. They also did a very good one with Postman Pat going mad doing all the wrong things and delivering sacks of veg through letterboxes instead of post.

In fact:
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubf28LPnfYs
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Take 2...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97grGc_dn6Q
Cant stand TV ads that have portray normal people discussing how great a product is.
I understand your view Backdrifter.

In some cases - sugar and perfume being examples, it is extremely hard to say anything about the product - the one is too basic, and the other depends on odour, which you can't convey on TV, so they have to be seriously inventive in order to hook the viewers they are aiming at.

Others, I an convinced, set out absolutely to enrage the viewer with the sheer irritation they cause - remember the smirking girl in the building society ad where they played Ice Ice Baby?

But there you are - proof they work - I remember the ad, if not the brand, but it was months ago, so something has stuck.

Best thing it to record, and FF through all of them.

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