Typical TVCs

June 18, 2012 9:27 PM

What are some TV commercials of the past couple of years that showcase some of the cheesy tropes of American television advertising?

I'm not looking for witty, award-winning Superbowl ads but rather the formulaic, middle-of-the-road, ubiquitous ones.

For example, Pantene Pro-V commercials with lustrous chestnut hair being penetrated by 3D molecules; or Olive Garden commercials with white suburban families laughing as forks plunge into steaming plates of alfredo pasta.

(I'm not in the US, hence why I'm asking).

posted by dontjumplarry to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

Best answer: They're a little old at this point, but you may find Sarah Haskins' "Target Women" videos on Current (e.g.) useful, at the very least as an aggregator of stupid ads aimed at women.
posted by enlarged to show texture at 9:37 PM on June 18, 2012 [3 favorites]

The Shake Weight.
posted by Ostara at 9:40 PM on June 18, 2012

Totino's Pizza Rolls
posted by WasabiFlux at 11:39 PM on June 18, 2012

I'll probably notice a bunch more of these while watching TV tomorrow, but the first thing I thought of is this ad for the upcoming Baseball All-Star Game. Not sure if it's what you're looking, but it uses the agonizingly tiresome routine of having a diverse group of people looking at the camera and finishing each other's sentences and repeating each other.

A generic example would be: "I am Metafilter." "I am Metafilter." "I" "I" "I... am Metafilter!" "I am the hive mind." "I am a special snowflake." "Special snowflake." "IANYD." "I am not your doctor." "NOT your doctor." "I am not your lawyer." "I'm on the blue!" "I'm on the green!" "I am Metafilter!"
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 3:04 AM on June 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

Here's another example of the diverse group of people repeating the same statement: Microsoft's "I'm a PC" ads.
posted by belau at 5:55 AM on June 19, 2012

Best answer: Pretty much any ad for any household item, expecially Proctor and Gamble, are good examples. There's a Tide commercial with two parents folding clothing talking about how great it is to have triplets. I roll my eyes. I see two grown-ups, but I don't see three screaming kids.

Scrubbing Bubbles always shows a woman cleaning the bathroom. Never a man.

The Pine Sol lady extoling the virtues of the heavily fragranced Pine Sol to other ladies, as though a cleaning product will change their lives.

Or a convenince food being passed off as home cooking. Stouffers, I'm talking to you!

DiGiorno pizza is another one, guys sitting around a game, eating a pizza, making a mess, trying to gaslight the wife into believing they sent out rather than heated it up.

Car commercials haven't changed in a century. Women loving minivans, men driving along coastal highways in sleek sedans or in sports cars. Trucks doing manly, dirty things, hauling stuff, being all cowboy and shit.

Yeah, I have some serious contempt for advertising.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 7:30 AM on June 19, 2012

Best answer: TVTropes covers this in some detail, but beware: you are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
 
posted by Herodios at 9:32 AM on June 19, 2012

The horribly annoying Geico ads attempt to parody the blind taste test, albeit (IMO) with no success.

Most car ads have the car driving on snow/desert/a perfectly paved road with the boilerplate description and disclaimer.
posted by Hactar at 9:35 AM on June 19, 2012

How about any ad that shows women doing "women" things? You never see a guy selling a vacuum unless his last name is Dyson. (Makes me a little sick, actually. It's like they think guys don't clean.)
posted by CarlRossi at 1:27 PM on June 19, 2012

Or cooking, or raising kids... Now that I think about it.
posted by CarlRossi at 1:30 PM on June 19, 2012