Does anyone else find advertising disgusting?

Advertising seems to have run the gamut from tacky to tasteless to just plain crude. I've thought this for some time, but the one that triggered this comment was an ad on a website that I just got subjected to. A row of people, actually just showing from the waist to the knees, all visibly taking turns passing gas, and my mouse was a lighter! The concept was, obviously, to cause an explosion.

I'm sorry, but I just guess I'm becoming a prude in my old age.

Solitare,

I'm with you, ads are "uncouth" to say the least. But I guess society (or is it just how the media WANTS to create society?) tolerates it??? Big question there. I don't think it's good to have Victoria Secret ads on regular TV for all to see. You can even have these come on during a family sitcom like Everybody Loves Raymond. Didn't have those 7, 6 or even 5 years ago. It's too bad. I just try to limit my viewing and try to only check sites online that I've heard are good. It's also wise to have a free "junk" email box so when you order things online and your name gets on lists for nasty and vulgar emails you aren't seeing them all the time. =)

Even toilet paper ads are getting repulsive.

Hopefully it has been pulled, but I recall seeing a commercial showing
toothpaste on two hands, then two different toilet tissues where shown
'wiping' the 'toothpaste' from the hands, with one smearing all over the
hand.

Could they have been any more vivid? I mean, come on, why
not run the gamut and use chocolate frosting. How do these advertising
agencies even find jobs???

The other commercial that really bugged me was the women moaning
and groaning with delight when shampooing their hair.

Ugh. Where is creativity?

Pop always told me I should have been in commercial advertising, though
I would much rather come up with public service announcements. I think they
should run many more of them than they do.

Wuvie,

Gotta love those public service announcements!

I love the creative campaign on tabacco facts. Those kids sure make you think!

Yeah, I don't get junk emails, not do I get popups, but everywhere you go, internet especially, there are these things. Yes, they get attention. But isn't the point of advertising to sell a product, or at least bring it to the attention of the buying public? This type of ad might be effective at getting attention, but it sure doesn't create a good impression in my mind. I must be too old and dumb to understand it.

Unless they have good humor or are clever I don't want to see it!

My favorite commercial is the family who speak like auctioneers to save on phone bills. Clever and funny.

I'm all for Truth about smoking too! I quit 10 years ago this month.

I thought that ads about womens' sanitary products were bad enough, but now we have these llllloooooonnnnnggggg commercials about mens' problems. Come on, folks!!!

The advertisers think they have to use sex in every commercial or preview of a show to come and it doesn't matter if it is for used cars or shaving cream or a cops/robbers show. When I log into my Yahoo mail, I have advertising picture after advertising picture of womens' barely covered behinds. I don't get pop-ups or spam mail but I get these pictures when I just want to check my email.

If the public would start complaining and stop watch the tacky and tasteless TV shows, things would change. One person can't usually make much of an impact, although I have heard that one company changed a commercial when ONE person complained. They said if one cared enough to write to them, there must be dozens of others who didn't.

I have complained about commercials many times.

The one that really got my goat was from Kool-Aid.

A young girl was selling refreshments while the neighborhood
competition offered the same.

She responded with "Oh no he dit-int!"
(Instead of 'didn't')

I was floored. A product aimed at kids, using ebonics in the ad.
Hey, by all means, celebrate diversity, but it can't hurt to use proper English.

Hardly was I the only one who complained. The ad was promptly replaced with the
young lady speaking the word properly.

Another recent changed ad? "You bet your sweet Aspercreme."

Sure, the ad is memorable and that is exactly what they intended. But
how many folks will say "Oh, yeah, gotta get some of that" and how
many will deliberately avoid purchasing the product due to their
advertising practices?

I won't buy products from an irresponsibly advertised item, or
extremely irritating voices such as the girl whining she wants carpet
NOW with a very heavy Jersey accent, siding or window companies yelling
during the commercial, and so on.

Ugh!

My mute button is my own personal best defense, but there just is too much out there that is bad and children are seeing it constantly, lots of them without anyone to explain to them how bad that stuff really is. The advertisers and network execs think most viewers are on about an elementary school level mentally. I watch very, very little network TV, but even on the shows I carefully choose to watch, I still have to hit mute. We are a captive market unless we decide to stand up and say no more.

TiVo is great!

TiVo is the greatest invention ever!!!

I'm old, so what is TiVo?

With respect to offensive Internet ads, there is ad-blocking software available that prevents most ads from loading into your screen while you are surfing the net. I have an ad-blocker on my system, and it works well.

MM

TiVo basically replaced the VCR system. It uses a hard drive to record your programs to instead of tape. The beauty of it is you can watch a previously recorded program while recording another one, pause a live program (say you got interrupted by the phone for example) and come back and pick up where you paused it, rewind a live program (up to an hour in the past on my system), record up to 60 hours or more (depending on how large the hard drive is), and you can zip by those pesky commercials (so now a hour program can be viewed in 45 minutes or thereabouts). TiVo is just a brand name that started this technology and has been out for years. Dish Network uses a similar product but also has the tuner built in which can be aggravating if you lose the signal because it thinks it has to have the signal to watch old recorded programs (isn't that silly?). Dish Netword calls it DVR (digital video recorder) or in the past PVR (personal video recorder) which I think there are lots of similar products out there now. The only time I see commercials now is watching live programs which is rare.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Now I've got it. I had heard of those things but had not checked it out. I had been thinking about getting the DVR system that our cable company offers, but haven't done it yet. Thanks for the info.

It's not just ads that are uncouth. I occasionally listen to a local rock station, but I've learned to avoid "the morning show". Two young DJs in the mornings take turns being as disgusting as they can--burping on air, passing gas, and discussing disgusting topics EVERY morning!

My son thought they were great! And when he graduated from high school, he actually worked with them for a while and loved every minute of it. They were crude and disgusting, and they're very popular with teenagers.

I personally think they have an obligation to make a POSITIVE influence on the youth they attract. Honestly, is public burping on the radio really necessary? When I was growing up, any bodily noises were an embarrassment you tried to cover up. ("When I was growing up." Oh gawd, now I've become my mother! When did that happen??!!)

I am fairly young and liberal, and I get surprised at how annoyed even I get at some of this stuff..the never-ending drug ads for all sorts of unappetizing things..do I really WANT to know about someones genital herpes? their, um ED? their femine issues? I am not even comfortable repeating what half of these ads are for on a family-oriented website for crying out loud...and I have to hear about it during supper?!?!?
I think if ppl have these problems, they should see a doctor..not find out about drugs on tv..I am glad I don't have children, because I can't imagine having to explain to them what some of these things are!!

I'm with you. They just get worse and worse because the consumers are not standing up and saying enough is enough. I don't buy the products that are advertised that way. 'Course some of those bodily function articles I would not buy anyway.

The commercials that offend me the most go on longer than the average commercials. Have you noticed that? It's not my imagination. The ones for mens' problems are long and there are all these simpering men and women grinning at each other as though they just won the lottery. Or a woman who just walks up to another woman in the supermarket and starts talking about feminine products. I would hit her with my purse and yell for help!!

Is anyone old enough to remember when the stage play "Blue Moon" was banned in a bunch of places because it contained the word "virgin"? Boy, have we come a long way, baby. And not much of our progress in this field is good.

What happened to the little Alka-Seltzer guy? Or women in heels cleaning their house and cooking with an apron on? I could believe them when they talked about their refrigerator or stove. I'm not saying we need to go back to those same ads, but we need the clean atmosphere they portrayed. Now it's just filth coming at us from all sides. And if you don't laugh, people think you are weird. And the junk is showing up earlier and earlier in the prime time slots. Have you noticed that, too?

1gardengram,

I remember the play that shocked so many people with the word "virgin". I think the title was, "The Moon is Blue." It or the movie version was boycotted over that.

The TV sitcom, "All in the Family" with Archie Bunker shocked the nation by using the word "pregnant" on TV. Up until then it was described as being "in a family way" or some other phrase. We've come a long way, for better or worse.

MM

Thank goodness we've gone beyond "Leave it to Beaver" and "Lassie". Of course you can catch a lot of those old classics on TV Land or turn off the TV. Maybe those "good old days" have made us to sensitive to today's programming.

May I contribute a rant on advertising from another angle?

Advertising that really gets my goat is when a hospital puts you on hold, and you have to listen to ads for gory medical procedures - I was under a cancer scare for 6 months once (mistakes with primary physician's office elongated this period of time unnecessarily) and being stuck on hold for hours and forced to listen to that garbage while stuck in cancer limbo really stunk.

If we assume a hospital is for healing, why inflict such an anxiety-triggering process like those ads while you're on hold on already nervous people who have reason to call that hospital?

We despise ads that make anyone look stupid. Same with TV shows. I always felt Archie Bunker was very offensive and young kids couldn't be expected to grasp the fact that the joke was aimed at Archie himself. How many minds did that warp?

I'll be happy to watch reruns of Lassie and the Andy Griffith shows as opposed to what I've heard are today's TV shows.

I totally agree with ButterflyChaser as far as morning radio goes: some shows can put you to sleep because they're so hum drum and others are so terribly and disgustingly offensive that the sound of a mower is music to my ears. The language is an insult to all.

What I find both amusing and insulting at the same time are pop up ads for the "Looking for Romance" type of ads. No, I'm not looking for a sultry blonde with blue eyes, in her twenties, with lots of 'experience' unless she wants to weed for me.

Nah, you wouldn't want that blonde, pirl. She does her best work at night, and wouldn't be able to distinguish between a weed and a flower.

ROFLOL