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Worst Food Commercials

docsconz

By docsconz
in Food Media & Arts

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docsconz

docsconz

Posted
Posted

Watching the Olympics on NBC, McDonalds has aired a series of ads for their "new" chicken product that are unbelievably bad even by their standards. They show individual people "defending" their meals against non-existant adversaries. I believe these ads appear to make fun of people with significant mental health problems and are in extremely poor taste. I offer no comment as to the actual taste of the product.

What food related ads do you find to have particularly bad taste?

John Sconzo, M.D. aka "docsconz"

"Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster."

- Ferran Adria on eGullet 12/16/2004.

Docsconz - Musings on Food and Life

Slow Food Saratoga Region - Co-Founder

Twitter - @docsconz

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Gifted Gourmet

Gifted Gourmet

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Too bad those endless ads for DiTech.com don't mention food .. they do, however, give me the same sensation as syrup of ipecac .... :sad: nor that nail fungus cartoon dude .. ecch!

and, yes, the McDonald's ads you have just mentioned are decidedly in poor taste ... but I have become so inured to that stuff, I think I tune most of them out.

The new Bud Light ads are getting stupider by the day .. attempts at humor are not particularly appealing in a beer commercial. I do miss those Budweiser Frogs, however!

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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docsconz

docsconz

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What food related ads do you find to have particularly bad taste?

Most Of These

And I did a search too! :wacko:

John Sconzo, M.D. aka "docsconz"

"Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster."

- Ferran Adria on eGullet 12/16/2004.

Docsconz - Musings on Food and Life

Slow Food Saratoga Region - Co-Founder

Twitter - @docsconz

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jhlurie

jhlurie

Posted
Posted

What food related ads do you find to have particularly bad taste?

Most Of These

And I did a search too! :wacko:

We get variations on this topic all of the time. I made one myself recently, but focused on the pitchmen instead of the commercials themselves. Another thread around focuses on the jingles.

There's a lot of crap out there no matter HOW you stack it up. I mean, "Uncle Nick" the character from the Olive Garden sucks, offends, and irritates me, but so does the rest of the commercial as well. "Dr. Angus", from the Burger King commercials REALLY pisses me off, but I can see that minus the slimy portayal of him, the commercial might actually be amusing. The little "I'm loving it" song in the recent vintage McDonald's commercials get me heated, but I'm not particularly angry at any of the people who appear IN the commercials. So there are many ways for them to be bad.

Jon Lurie, aka "jhlurie"

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Fritz Brenner

Fritz Brenner

Posted
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Racial stereotyping in food advertisements is awful, and it's everywhere... as is gender stereotyping, etc.etc.... but I guess that's ads in general. Food ads in particular can really get everyone, though, as we all eat and are all targets...

"There is no worse taste in the mouth than chocolate and cigarettes. Second would be tuna and peppermint. I've combined everything, so I know."

--Augusten Burroughs

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=Mark

=Mark

Posted
Posted (edited)

For years I've been annoyed by the Total cereal commercials. The "You'd have to eat 4800 bowls of Colon Blow to equal the vitamins..." ones

I've wished for years that some vitamin company would parody them. I can picture it...

"You know, you'd have to eat 7.6 million bowls of Blork Nuggets to equal..."

"Hey genius, I take a daily Mega Dose vitamin, so I can eat any damn thing I want to for breakfast or any other meal for that matter! Now get the F*ck outta my face and take that goddamn bowl of bitter tasting extruded sawdust flakes with you!"

Edited by =Mark (log)

=Mark

Give a man a fish, he eats for a Day.

Teach a man to fish, he eats for Life.

Teach a man to sell fish, he eats Steak

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winesonoma

winesonoma

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Posted

Cheese filled crust pizza with dipping sauce. Don't even know who does it cause I always mute and check Egullet for new posts.

Bruce Frigard

Quality control Taster, Château D'Eau Winery

"Free time is the engine of ingenuity, creativity and innovation"

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

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winesonoma

winesonoma

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Ah, yep, mama with rip and dip? Stack and gack!

That's the one. I have visions of 300lb 10 year olds running around.

Bruce Frigard

Quality control Taster, Château D'Eau Winery

"Free time is the engine of ingenuity, creativity and innovation"

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

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Pickles

Pickles

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Posted
For years I've been annoyed by the Total cereal commercials. The "You'd have to eat 4800 bowls of Colon Blow to equal the vitamins..." ones

:laugh: Very funny post! I don't like the taste of Total because to me...it always tasted like "vitamins" and made me belch "vitaminy" tasting air. Ekkk!!

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  • 3 weeks later...
=Mark

=Mark

Posted
Posted

What about the A1 steak sauce ads that defy physics? The janitor is in a centerfuge attempting to get the last drop of A1 out of the bottle, you can see the effects of the centerfuge pushing his face back against his seat. Then, while holding the bottle and forkfull of meat (In itself would not be possible with forces involved), you see the drop of A1 go from one side to the other instead of back to the rear of the chamber. Am I the only one that detects these physical anomalies? Yeah, I need to get a life...

=Mark

Give a man a fish, he eats for a Day.

Teach a man to fish, he eats for Life.

Teach a man to sell fish, he eats Steak

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FoodMan

FoodMan

Posted
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I nominate the recent Lea and Perrins (sp?) commercial about those juicy burgers -- while they show this moron squeezing the burger while it is on the grill!  Aaarrrgh!

I say the same thing everytime I see this commercial. STOP squeezing the damn burger.

E. Nassar
Houston, TX

My Blog
contact: enassar(AT)gmail(DOT)com

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Cusina

Cusina

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My least favorite was from a while back... Quiznos subs and the guy who was raised by wolves. Disturbing.

What's wrong with peanut butter and mustard? What else is a guy supposed to do when we are out of jelly?

-Dad

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beans

beans

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Posted
My least favorite was from a while back... Quiznos subs and the guy who was raised by wolves.  Disturbing.

My memory is fuzzy at times if it is something I don't particularly care about, but wasn't there a similar one with Honda or some other such SUV manufacturer?

I agree. It was odd, and not in a good way.

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JennotJenn

JennotJenn

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I say the same thing everytime I see this commercial. STOP squeezing the damn burger.

Me too!!! Man, I'm glad I'm not the only one that's really bugged by that. I want to rip the spatula/turner out of his hand and slap him across the face with it.

Saw an...interesting...one last night. Hardee's Thickburger commercial with pretty young woman in skimpy clothing riding a mechanical bull set on slow while eating a gigantic sloppy burger. I didn't know whether I should be aroused or disgusted. (To quote the old neighbor lady from The Simpsons: "That's disgusting...but genuinely arousing"). For the record, my husband was just grossed out---the fact that the mayo on the burger was visable over-rode the fact that the woman's cleavage was also visable. Anyway, I KNOW I miss the old testamonial style Thickburger commericals. Those were hilarious.

Gourmet Anarchy

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  • 10 months later...
Rebecca263

Rebecca263

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THAT'S IT. I have got to try this Hamburger Helper. I've read it mentioned in so many posts, I just MUST. Where do you find it? It's driving me crazy, wondering if it's good for my tofu nights. As an aside, to remain ON topic, I adore commercials, unfortunately I never buy the products in the ads, and I wonder who does!! Has anyone else noticed that everything that you buy in a package or from a fast food place is incredibly salty or sweet or greasy? ACK, choke, splutter.

More Than Salt

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Katie Nell

Katie Nell

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I say the same thing everytime I see this commercial. STOP squeezing the damn burger.

Saw an...interesting...one last night. Hardee's Thickburger commercial with pretty young woman in skimpy clothing riding a mechanical bull set on slow while eating a gigantic sloppy burger. I didn't know whether I should be aroused or disgusted. (To quote the old neighbor lady from The Simpsons: "That's disgusting...but genuinely arousing"). For the record, my husband was just grossed out---the fact that the mayo on the burger was visable over-rode the fact that the woman's cleavage was also visable. Anyway, I KNOW I miss the old testamonial style Thickburger commericals. Those were hilarious.

What about the one with the girl stuffing her fist in her mouth?!? That's even worse!

The commercial I really hate isn't even for food, it's for antibacterial kitchen wipes, but the lady scrubs down the kitchen with a raw chicken breast! It really makes me gag! :wacko:

"Many people believe the names of In 'n Out and Steak 'n Shake perfectly describe the contrast in bedroom techniques between the coast and the heartland." ~Roger Ebert

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