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Don't touch that dial: Test Pattern tunes into television, movie, music and pop culture links, as well as gossip and idle chat from around the Web.

Every week, msnbc.com entertainment producers Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, Denise Hazlick, Paige Newman, Kurt Schlosser and Anna Chan weigh in on topics ranging from TV commercials to movie hype to the latest celebrity blunder. We're not ashamed to admit our love for bad TV or reveal what's on our iPods, and invite you to join the conversation via your comments.



I hate that commercial you love

Posted: Monday, June 22, 2009 6:00 AM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
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That commercial you can't stand? Someone out there LOVES it. And that one you have to admit makes you smile? Your neighbor is lunging for the remote to change the channel every time it comes on.


Toyota
Viewers both love and hate the Prius ad where the scenery turns into people.

We started our summer TV commercial contest last week (look for updates on Mondays), and already there are hot debates taking place in the comments about those ads that split the audience. Here's a look at just a few of the ads that you either love, love, love...or hate with the fire of a thousand suns.

You can also vote for or against each one.

Toyota Prius: People as grass, flowers (Watch it)
LOVE IT: "The new Toyota Prius commercial (with all of the people dressed in different colors making up the background) are pretty cool...My mom even called me the other night and said those commercials were cool enough to make her want a Toyota - just because of the commercial. And this is a woman who won't drive anything but an American car brand. "  --Katie

HATE IT: "I think the Prius ads are just plain creepy.  I don't have a communicable reason why, I just get so creeped out when I see all those people dressed as flowers and grass.  It's to the point where I hear the music and have to look away!  I say bring back the flour covered children in the "I said how are the kids" cell phone commercial!"    --Karen

WANTS MORE: "I am completely fascinated with the Prius ads.  Every time they come on I wonder if there's a "behind the scenes" on YouTube."  --Debbie
Editor's Note: Why yes indeed, there is! Watch video here.

Geico pile o' money with eyes (Watch it)
LOVE IT: "I am clearly in the minority!  I like the Geico pile of money with eyes because it's so weird ("Poor little guy -- must have been following you for miles.") and I find the Toyota Prius commercials with all the people in unitards strangely creepy and off-putting"    --Jenny

HATE IT: "How could I have forgotten the GEICO money pile ads? I hate those! Further, I can't figure GEICO out: What a bizarre melange of the brilliant, the awful, and (strangely) campaigns that oscillate between awful AND brilliant? And what other brand would have so many overlapping campaigns that are so different in style? I'm no expert, but I doubt that's what they teach in Marketing 101."  --Bill


Love or hate the giant hamster wheels?

Kia Soul giant hamster wheels (Watch it)
LOVE IT:
"The absolute best is the ad for the Kia Soul with the hamsters. I actually rewind the DVR when I see that one on. "    --Wendy

HATE IT: "Every time the commercial for the new Kia Soul comes on, I have to laugh! It's a bunch of giant rodents riding around in a car that looks like a box. What exactly are you suppose to take away from this? Kia Soul... Good enough for rats."    --Andi

Progressive Insurance: Flo with giant nametag (Watch it)
LOVE IT
: "I love Flo, the Progressive girl. She has actual personality - a trait I find lacking in many commercial spokespeople."    --Brittany

HATE IT: "I despise the Progressive lady and all her ads. I shudder when I imagine what would happen should she and Billy Mays ever get together and breed.."  --Kenaiqueen

Bing.com Search Overload Syndrome (Watch it)
LOVE IT: "The new commercial for Bing is great. The people are asking a question and each word in the sentence sets everyone else off on a tangent of unrelated things that have that word in it. It's very clever because (1) most search engines do this to you every day and it's annoying, and (2) getting someone to try a new search engine is pretty hard because most of us stick with what we know, and this might actually make someone give Bing a try."  --Traci

HATE IT: "Bing dot com's "Search Overload Syndrome" is the most ANNOYING thing I have ever seen in my life.  Everybody in my family screams and changes the channel whenever it comes on. My husband and I nearly got concussions from head-butting each other in a simultaneous dive for the remote control."  --H.

Hillshire Farms: Go, Meat! (Watch it)
LOVE IT: "I am loving the Hillshire Farms commercials. Just saw a new one with a group of friends BBQ'ing. This preppy woman and her husband start singing/rapping. "Ain't no brat like a Hillshire brat cause the Miller High Life's boiled in" It cracks me up!"  --Sarah

HATE IT: "Oh, I also hate those commercials for Hillshire Farms. They're all irritating and dumb, but the ones where people in their backyards are chanting about meat are both stupid and kind of earworm-y."  --Rebecca

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Comments

The Nutri-System commercials....I cannot stand that Gilian Reynolds or whatever her name is. Her voice makes me want to jump out of a window just so I don't have to listen to her. I'm also disgusted when I hear the weight loss commercials with the woman saying, "My husband, he thinks I'm hot!". I don't think they are for Nutri-System, but it seems like there's just something wrong with a woman advertising a weight loss product and saying something like that.
There's this commercial for a drug, I forget which one, in which people living in a blue world with objects formed entirely of small print walk around to a horribly monotonous tune while somebody reads warnings. All this commercial says to me is that the lawyers have left their marks on everything.
Let's not forget Jamie Lee Curtis and those STUPID Activia ads; what a career nosedive for her.
i hate the wendy's coffee frosty commercial!
I know this article is about annoying TV commercials, but I have to post my two cents on an annoying radio commercial.  I keep hearing this commercial for Right Brand Bacon, and it's about this guy who's at a shrink's office and all they talk about is Right Brand Bacon, how it's cut thick and it's oohh so crispy and tasty, like meat candy (?!), and he asks if it's wrong that he wants his wife to be more like Right Brand Bacon (?!) and he keeps a spare piece in his wallet for emergency cravings.  WTF is that?
I hate the "At the Beach" commercials with that deep voiced woman.  I also hate the Quizno's commercial with the oven that talks and asks the guy to put the oven roasted sub in it.  :::shudders:::  Of course, it's no wonder that disturbs me after Quizno's did the Sponge Monkey ad several years ago.  Those things were gross.

I also cannot stand that other tanning ad (think it's Tan n' Tone America) where the woman decides that she will not wear clothes but instead go around town in her bikini.
Bud Light ads still rule.  Vroom, vroom party starter.
I find the freecreditreport guys really annoying, and I cannot stand Billy Mays.  How much useless crap can one human hawk???  There's also a Huggies ad that irritates me.  It's supposed to be making fun of disclaimers, but there's a line "you must put up with people touching your belly" that irks me.  I just had a baby, and that always bugged me.
Hate the e-Trade talking baby, $5 footlong, He went to Jared, Geico pile of money with eyes, Burger King's king.  All are annoying and/or creepy.

Love the Geico gecko (I think its the accent), Progressive Flo (especially the what am I thinking about... Tacos), Kia Hamsters, and Free Credit Report guy.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Honda's Respect the Van commercials!

I, in looking at my list, don't go buy from or solicit the businesses of the ads I love, but I do avoid those businesses of those ads I hate.  Analyze that, ad people.
Every time one of those Subway $5 Dollar Foot Long commercials comes on I want to rip my ears off!
Oh yeah, the Burger King commercials both with the creepy plastic head guy AND with the Whopper Jr. where the two women are commenting about him being so big he's getting stuck and groping at him and saying they're looking at what's hanging out of him.  I'm not a prude by NO means, but I still wouldn't let my kids watch this or the Quizo's "put it in me, Scott" commercials.  Maybe I'm getting old, but these are the nastiest commercials.
The Disarona commercials where they give you "recipies" for the drinks: Today we're making Disarona Andnd Ginger Ale.  Add Disarona.  Add ginger ale.  Who could have figured that one out?
The Burger King is lucky he is still with us.  From the earliest commercials where he is bending over the poor person in bed to the Klingon commercial we see now,  he is just plain freaky, weird and basically scary.   I'm surprised the poor person in bed didn't pull a gun out of the night stand and shoot him.   If there wasn't a gun there then there is now.   Creepy!
i love the sonic commercials. they crack me up. they don't make me crave sonic, but i unmute for the commercials.

HATE most hardees commercials and dos equis.
I hate almost all the ads I see on TV. Especially ones with jingles. And I work in advertising.
I hate the Prius commercials!  They creep me out and the little jingle is creepy too! Facts sell better than this wierd crap!
Okay...I hate ANY commercial that has to do with "male enhancement", viva Viagra or Cialis. Too much info for me. Also the super creepy BK King. Who thinks up this stuff? I saw a commercial for a couple who were having all these problems cashing their paychecks so they went to Wal-mart where it cost like $3 or $4 and they will cash a paycheck.  Hello....you people have never heard of a bank, checking account or direct deposit?  I mean come on...it is 2009 after all.  Also any commercial with big mouth Billy Mayes. So irritating!  Honestly I mute most commercials.  There are very few that I actually sit and watch.  
Can't believe you forgot the tastless Wendy Commercial with the creepy ugly guys singing about the Frosty and the last one winking- YUK YUK YUK.
I'm an equal-opportunity commercial hater with very few exceptions.  I can't help liking Flo. The hip-hop hamsters are OK except for the one who's wheel is on the railway crossing.  I just see him going round and round until the next train comes.
Love the Geico gecko, celebrities, and cavemen, hate the money with eyes.  Love the baby doing online trades.  Love the FreeCreditReport guy. Love the one where the mom is blasting her kids for wasting their rollover minutes--the people in that family all actually look like they're related, the mom is fighting the good fight like all mothers do, and the kids' reactions seem genuine.  But the most unintentionally hilarious are the pharmaceuticals commercials--once they start casually listing the hideous side effects, my family is doubled over with laughter and shouting out our own--FLATULENCE!  NARCOLEPSY!  PARANOIA!  EXCESS BODY HAIR! PILES!  AMNESIA! --ask your doctor.
Please... the very WORST of their abominable ad series in what must be a new Madison Ave. low are the Kingons for Burger King.  There is something so inherently perverse about the King that I would not be surprised if he replaces leatherFace in a new searies of slasher flicks where he turns people into hamburger on screen.... ARggghhhhh
All these commercials are stupid because the products are over priced for low quality so because they have nothing positive to say about their product or it's price they make these stupid commercials so you spend money you don't have on things you don't need.And if you like it or hate it the commercial you remember the companies name.
I hate the Activia Yogurt commercial and here's why:
When I see the commercial where Jamie Lee Curtis actually admits to being 'The Activia Lady!' it ages her by 20 years-in my opinion.  I can officially no longer see her and think of the fiesty hooker with a business plan from the 'Trading Places' movie!  Also my memory of her as the fighting-back non-victim from the 'Halloween' movies fades away.  When she says she is the 'Activia Lady' instead of seeing the slightly mature mother from the remake of 'Freaky Friday', I begin to glaze over and envision Betty White!!! Curse you Activia!!!
If I were to throw a tire thru America's Tire Company window (assuming something was wrong with the tire) do you think it would be "OK" with them? They seem to accept this as a reasonable return procedure. Or would they press charges for the damages? Dumb, dumb, dumb. Why do the ad agencies think we are as sophmoric as they are?
I'm glad I'm not the only one who absolutely loathes the Subway five-dollar-foot-long commercials. I mute them instantly. Also hate Extenze, and whatever that "male supplement" thing was with Bob, the creepy smiling guy who looked like a sex offender. Those commercials made me want to take a shower.

Not a fan of the Geico money pile with the eyes. And since I found out what a ripoff "Free Credit Reports.com" is (they sock you for all kinds of money to get their "free" credit report, and it's almost impossible to get them to quit charging your credit card) I don't like those commercials either.

I think it was a Geico commercial with two little squirrels who ran out in the road and caused a car to swerve and hit a tree? Then the squirrels high-five each other? That one made me laugh like a drain.
Flo from the Progressive Insurance commercials should be fired!  She is so irritating!

The "King" from the Burger King commercials is creepy and disturbing; almost nightmarish!

I love the Gecko from the Geico comercials--he is witty.

Please get rid of the Snuggy commercial! Those people look like they belong in a cult!

I can NOT STAND the Geico ad with the little eyes on a stack of money. It is so irritating that I wouldn't buy ANYTHING from Geico! Does Geico think that we (the American Public in general) are ALL of the seventh-grade mentality?
The AT&T commercials - or is it Verizon, with the group of guys who come up and the curly haired guy says his mom thinks he is a troll - it's on every five minutes where I live.  And the Hardees ads that are all about making food look like sex of some sort - food falling on bare legs, etc.  Geez.  
I don't hate or love the Toyota Prius commercial with the people as grass or flowers, but...what cracks me up us the disclaimer that this is a dramatization. Really? You mean if I buy a Prius this won't really happen?!
I LOVE the Vince McMahon/John Cena commericials.  Nothing better than McMahon calling him a meathead and him banging the chair off McMahon's chest.  Cena's cheesy kool-aid smile at the end ALWAYS makes me laugh hysterically.  Just doesn't get funnier than that.  
Two more hated commercials:
The couple of spots for some kind of KY jelly ointments.  The couple is sitting in the bed talking about what the KY man gel does for him and what the KY lady gel does for her.  Then when they put it all together -- 1 second goes by and the scene switches to them after they've completed a love making session.  ONE SECOND!!!  ONE SECOND?!?!  All I get from this is that after all is said and done - your session lasts ONE SECOND!!!  HA HA HA HA!!

The other is for a mens bath gel - I think.  It has a chocolate man and when it shows a woman on a bus biting off the buttocks of the chocolate man - I just shake my head!
One hate-filled word:  Extenze.

Those commercials make me feel ... violated.
HATE -- The Gamefly commercial with all the people screaming kicking and throwing stuff, all because they bought a "bad game"    Its so loud and obnoixious, makes me want to throw the TV out the window.  Plus anything with the creepy BK King

LIKE -- The KIA Hamsters
The free credit report commercials should be banned.

I hate the actors but especially hate the companies behind them.
Geico Eyes and almost every other Geico commercial "creepy" or "annoying" I don't think Geico has ever had a good commerical
Quizno's "Scott and the Oven"...I used to like Quiznos, I have stopped going totally after seeing the original version of that commercial with the not so well hidden sexual undertones "crappy and creepy"
The Kia Soul commercial with the Hamsters is simply FUN. That's the idea behind the box on wheels. I may not like the vehicle, but it's a cute commercial.
Flo from progressive, cute idea, but she's getting tiring. Progressive just needs something new <period>
Subway is going the same route as Quiznos did too. Their commercials may not have the sexual undertones of the Quiznos commercials, but I'd still rather stab my eyes out that watch any of them.
I miss the Quizno spongmonkeys.
They were so creepy as to be cute.
I hate, hate, HATE the freecreditreport.com commercial!  (If only he'd checked out his fiancee' on freecreditreport.com he'd be living in the suburbs with a dog and a yard.)  What about HIS credit?  Was he planning on freeloading off his future wife to begin with?  What's the difference if he's freeloading off her parents or her?  I'm all for chasing your dream, but you'd better have one foot grounded in reality or you'll end up exactly where he is--which is a FAR better situation that what he deserves!!  LAME! LAME! LAME!
I like that commercial on Hulu where the USB inventor comes into a room for a cup of coffee and everyone gets all excited.  
They win!!!! we are totally hooked by these commercials whether we love 'em or hate 'em. They win!!! I came to this conclusion shortly after the King started creeping me out in those burger commercials. As much as I hated the commercial they got to me. People were talking and I would throw my creeped out opinion in and then it occured to me "what a great marketing campaign". They win even if they lose!
The commercials I enjoy the most that no one has mentioned are the ones for Fiber One. My favorite is the one with the two women putting away the free samples trying to find the fiber. The stock boy makes a remark that she's almost had her 100% for the day and her friend snorts. The look she shoots her is priceless!
LOVE the Kia hamsters!
Love the Geico money/eyes – didn’t at first but now I think they’re sort of adorable.
Do NOT like Flo and the big white Progressive room.
Have I missed the Prius ad?  Don’t remember seeing it.  Sounds like something I wouldn’t like.
LOVE the Jack in the Box ad for the mini-burgers – the line in the song “cows the size of Schnauzers but they’re cattle” just cracks me up every time!
Enzyte and smilin’ Bob – horrible
I watch way too much tv and could go on and on…
I can't believe no one has mentioned the Capital One card commercials that are all cute the first time, but run pretty much non-stop on the cable channels I watch.(Especially Spaghetti Jimmy)

How do they have money for all this ad time? What's in their wallet?
I love the new HP commercials where the guys are singing "Lollipop" and they are making HP laptops like candy.

That one and the "Most Interesting Man in the World" commercials. :)

HATE five dollar foot long! ARRRGG
I like the babies in ETRADE. Hate the Verizon ice-cream commercial.  Turn if off eveery time.  Am apalled by the sex products commercials.  That should not be legal.  We have kids in the room folks.
My favorite commercial on TV right now is the "Chi Chi's" commercial with the family dining at the table with their robot.  The robot incessantly call out "I want chicken and Chi Chi's.  I want chicken and Chi Chi's..."  The patriarch snaps at the robot: "You don't have taste buds!"  The robot replies, in the same monotonous robot voice: "I want taste buds."  Hilarious!

The best campaign going right now: Sonic.  I love the witty conversations between all of the different quirky characters.
Smiling Bob for the male enhancement product cracks me up every time
I loathe hate and detest the 'contemporary dance' Caramilk ad...It's revolting.bleh
I also love the Dos Equi "Most interesting man in the world". You can tell they shot alot of material that did not make the 30 second cut and I would love to see the whole thing. Also is he an aged Alec Baldwin look a like? Even the voice is close.
I love the McDonald's filet o fish commercial with the singing fish on the wall. We're big Penguin's fans and the only time we got to see that commercial was when watching the Pens play on a PA station. We actually went so far as to look it up online just so we could see it again, LOL!

And I love Flo.....the psychic guy and the tacos....make me giggle every time.
Fortunately, all my shows are either over, cancelled, or will be back in fall, so i havent had to watch a commercial in a few weeks.  I cannot stand the "Verizon guy" with the glasses and the smug expression on his face.  Not to mention if you need that many people to follow you around to make sure your service works... there is something wrong.


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