Worst Food Commercials

[Genny]

I'm not sure what the burger is but there is an ad here that has people drinking from the hose, the toilet, taking flowers out of a vase to drink that water, all because their burger is so HOT. Ewwwwww.

[Jennifer Iannolo]

This is largely why I have stopped watching television. I simply can't take it anymore.

I'm willing to bet that the creative teams for these adds have no desire whatsoever to scale the higher echelons of cuisine. Sigh.

[Jenikaye]

I'm not too fond of the Gatorade commercials....I think it's gross how they show everyone sweating the color of the Gatorade they just drank....yuck!

And I think the Sonic commercials are hilarious...you know, the ones where there are two people sitting in a car talking. Sometimes it's two guys, sometimes it's a guy and his wife.... those are funny!

[Jason Perlow]

ooo, those quiznos rats that looked like hairy toes.  that was so nauseating i wrote the company.

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Not rats. Spongmonkeys (click)

[fischwlu]

And I think the Sonic commercials are hilarious...you know, the ones where there are two people sitting in a car talking. Sometimes it's two guys, sometimes it's a guy and his wife.... those are funny!

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I love those! My favorite part is when the guy says he uses the tater tots as a tooth jacket to keep his teeth warm when he drinks his slushy. But I don't think they should be allowed to show those commercials in New England when there aren't any around here! It's cruel!

[FabulousFoodBabe]

I nominate those M&M Amazing commercials, where contortionists just kind of ... contort. What the heck does putting your leg behind your head have to do with candy?

Don't answer that.

[Terrasanct]

I think the most irritating "food" commercial of all time is the Quaker Rice Cakes one. The one with the annoying woman talking about fads, and how rice cakes aren't fads. Unfortunately, they aren't food, either.

I think it must have started when the glycemic index came out and rice cakes were right up at the top, higher than sugar, I think. Quaker was scrambling to make sure that everyone knows that low carb diets are fads...but rice cakes are a wholesome part of your diet. Whatever. I'd rather have real food.

[dockhl]

Any food commercial featuring slurping and chewing...........URK !

NOTHING will make me change the channel faster.........

[Daniel Rogov]

Can't help but add a note on the very best food advertisement I've ever seen -

a full page ad in Le Monde (circa 1970) showing a photograph of a single stalk of celery, with leaves and in the lower right hand corner the single word (my translation) "delicious"

[LoveToEatATL]

I nominate the recent Lea and Perrins (sp?) commercial about those juicy burgers --

OMG. That guy. I want to punch him and his mocking of his gf. I bet if she heard him, he'd be sleeping alone!!

Oh, and that freaky Bounty commercial about Mrs. Parker's bday? I turn the channel everytime - just who do they think they're targeting?

[ghostrider]

I think the NYC area must get its own set of commercials. Around 80% of the ads mentioned here I've never seen. And the sad truth is that I watch far too much TV not to have seen them if they were aired here.

[JanMcBaker]

I'm not so much grossed out by this commercial as annoyed by it for different reasons. It's the one showing the 'chef' in the restaurant kitchen on a busy night, and then show him yawning on the bus, going home at who knows what hour. Then they show the guy cooking AGAIN at home, and he 'cooks' this microwave rice-- I can't even think what brand it is now! And his incredibly lazy or incompetent (I haven't decided which) wife or girlfriend nasally whines 'thanks sweetie' when he hands her a plate of food. Let's see, what do I start with? I'm not a chef, but I cannot imagine any chef or cook worth his or her salt 'preparing' some microwave rice dish. And while it's nice for couples to eat together, come on! The guy's already spent probably most of a day cooking at work, and if it's even just a halfway decent restaurant, he's probably not getting home till 11 or 12 or so. And she just sits her butt under her blanket waiting to be fed. She's supposedly a grown woman! Can't she feed herself? Maybe I'm just making too much out of this ad, but it sure annoys me!

[DTBarton]

I think the most irritating "food" commercial of all time is the Quaker Rice Cakes one.  The one with the annoying woman talking about fads, and how rice cakes aren't fads.  Unfortunately, they aren't food, either.

I think it must have started when the glycemic index came out and rice cakes were right up at the top, higher than sugar, I think.  Quaker was scrambling to make sure that everyone knows that low carb diets are fads...but rice cakes are a wholesome part of your diet.  Whatever.  I'd rather have real food.

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There was an episode of the Cosby show years ago where Claire puts Cliff on a diet that includes rice cakes. Cosby's comment: "The air in my mouth tastes better than these."

My favorite food commercial lately is one from Boston Market. It shows a gleaming stainless steel range, like a Viking or something in a very ritzy litchen. Woman walks in and drops a big Boston Market bag on the fancy range and yells "Dinner's ready!"

I think that art imitates life in a lot of McMansions.

[gouramanda]

I totally agree w/ Jan about that annoying rice commercial! I keep looking for signs of illness or infirmity-- like crutches because her leg is broken?

Edited August 13, 2005 by gouramanda (log)

[egator]

The M&M commercial with the Iron & Wine song. The little M&M guys are floating around in a kaleidoscope of colorful M&M colors, looking so happy and peaceful, when the little red guy gets snatched and eaten.

Same with the Chips Ahoy commercial when the cookie goes to a birthday party. He asks when they are having cake and the little girl says, “We’re not having cake”. You see the poor cookie (with his party hat on an all) panic and gulp.

Just terrible. Makes me sad!

[deibu]

I think the most irritating "food" commercial of all time is the Quaker Rice Cakes one.  The one with the annoying woman talking about fads, and how rice cakes aren't fads.  Unfortunately, they aren't food, either.

I think it must have started when the glycemic index came out and rice cakes were right up at the top, higher than sugar, I think.  Quaker was scrambling to make sure that everyone knows that low carb diets are fads...but rice cakes are a wholesome part of your diet.  Whatever.  I'd rather have real food.

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Not to mention that she's making fun of parachute pants. Did Quaker not do consumer research and realize that the 80's are back, and have been back for at least 3 years???

[TPO]

I'm not so much grossed out by this commercial as annoyed by it for different reasons.  It's the one showing the 'chef' in the restaurant kitchen on a busy night, and then show him yawning on the bus, going home at who knows what hour.  Then they show the guy cooking AGAIN at home, and he 'cooks' this microwave rice-- I can't even think what brand it is now!  And his incredibly lazy or incompetent (I haven't decided which) wife or girlfriend nasally whines 'thanks sweetie' when he hands her a plate of food.  Let's see, what do I start with?  I'm not a chef, but I cannot imagine any chef or cook worth his or her salt 'preparing' some microwave rice dish.  And while it's nice for couples to eat together, come on!  The guy's already spent probably most of a day cooking at work, and if it's even just a halfway decent restaurant, he's probably not getting home till 11 or 12 or so.  And she just sits her butt under her blanket waiting to be fed.  She's supposedly a grown woman!  Can't she feed herself?  Maybe I'm just making too much out of this ad, but it sure annoys me!

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This reminds me of the one I abosolutely hated, and thankfully doesn't run anymore. A wife is eating at a chain restaurant with her friends and her husband sees her, comes over, and asks what she is doing there, like she has no right to be with her friends when he clearly is with his. He then asks where the kids are, like she would have left them home alone with a pack of matches and a set of knives to play with. He has such an attitude the commercial annoyed me to no end!

[jgm]

The one that's bugging me lately advertises an attractive kitchen sink, which the wife can't bear to use, so her elegantly dressed guests are using plastic knives and forks, paper plates, and plastic wineglasses. It's just stupid. Perhaps not a food commercial, technically, but food related...