I'm not going to lie-I hate television commercials. They make me hate the products they are trying to sell. They make me hate entire corporations. They drive me crazy. I know that you occasionally have a rare commercial that is actually watchable, but most of the time it gets overplayed and ruined.
One of the most irritating things done in commercials today is when they take a popular song and ruin it by changing the lyrics to match their product. The Temptations are one of the most influential bands and perhaps their most beloved song was "My Girl." The executives at Skyline Chili must not have been big fans of the song. They decided to ruin the song in a recent commercial where they "creatively" edited the song from being a song about our girl to one about Skyline Chili. To do this, all they did was change the lyric "My Girl" to "Skyline." Now every time I hear the song or the commercial while driving, I want rip my stereo out of the car and throw it out the window.
An alarming trend has started in truck commercials and shows no signs of slowing down. Recently, Ford and other brands have put their trucks in ridiculous tests to show how manly and great they are. In one, the truck has to speed up to get through a closing metal gate then break before it goes off a cliff. In another, a truck has to haul 10,000 lbs. of concrete while dodging swinging metal beams. What does that have to do with anything? What happens if these commercials start influencing the car salesman? Someday you are going to ask about the gas mileage for a new truck and the salesman will tell you, "Well it gets bad gas mileage and isn't safe, but it can dodge metal beams."
Drug company commercials also have hit a new low in recent years. Viagra launched a commercial campaign called "Viva Viagra." Is having five old men in a recording studio singing about Viagra really the best way to spend your advertising money? Other then ruining Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas" song forever, the commercial makes me wants to never watch a show with commercials ever again. After having to deal with a 30-second song, the commercial then lists 30 more seconds of possible side effects including headache, flushing, upset stomach or decreased vision. There-the commercial is on so often that I probably can name off all the side effects by now.
While there are many to blame for the terrible commercials today there is one man who stands above them all, Billy Mays. Mays has become the "The King of Infomercials," with his wide variety of appearances in OxyClean and Mighty Putty commercials. Every commercial has the same formula and haunts my dreams.
The commercial starts with Billy Mays yelling, "Hi, Billy Mays here!" The next scene he yells about the product, saying it can do anything. Then he yells-notice a trend here-about a ridiculous scenario that proves how great the product is. In the recent commercial, he claims that Mighty Putty can pull a "full loaded, 80,000 pound tractor trailer." I'm sure a scenario comes up where a truck driver decides they need to use putty to get them out of an 80,000 lbs. bind. Finally, Mays yells that he's not done yet and either doubles or triples the offer if you call in the next thirty minutes. It makes me wonder what happens if you call after 30 minutes: "Sorry sir, you called 35 minutes after the commercial aired, we can't triple the offer."
I can complain about these commercials forever and it really does not matter. The commercial's job isn't trying to get us to like them; it's trying to get us to remember them. Perhaps for the rest of my life, every time I hear "My Girl," I'm going to instantly think of Skyline Chili, which is exactly what they wanted. A commercial that may be great to us may cost the advertisers millions of dollars if we don't remember the products name.
As a marketing major, you'd think I'd have some appreciation for commercials. After all, some day advertising may very well be my career. The fact that commercials take up eight minutes of every half hour is already annoying, but what's even more frustrating is that they are usually terrible and overplayed. However, it doesn't take a marketing major to realize what a bad commercial is. I'm pretty sure we can all agree that "Viva Viagra" and "Mighty Putty" commercials make us resent the product more than it makes us want to purchase it. Lucky for me, by the time I have a job in advertising, DVRs will be in almost every household and nobody will watch commercials anyway.
Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter
Read More
How one professor and her classes are preserving Oxford’s Black history
By Sean Scott | March 20, 2024Jazma Sutton, an assistant professor of history, teaches The Black Midwest (HST 350Q) and Black Women in America (HST 450D) classes. In both courses, she has students working with the Smith Library of Regional History and Miami’s archives to document and preserve Black history in Oxford.
Miami faculty members recount Freedom Summer in new documentary
By Luke Macy | February 25, 2022After seven years of work, “Training for Freedom,” a documentary highlighting Oxford’s involvement in the Freedom Summer of 1964, premiered on PBS Western Reserve on Valentine’s Day.
“Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic”: History in the making
By Alice Momany | August 29, 2021In March 2020, Miami University’s archives launched “Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic,” a collection focused on life during the COVID-19 pandemic.