Inspired by the above thread, what overused or other baloney words in advertising make you want to kill kittens?
My 2c worth:
- The OP of the thread mentions "decadent" in relation to chocolate. I am sooooo tired of that by now! [Indiana Jones] Chocolate, why does it always have to be chocolate? [/Indiana Jones] Why not Philadelphia cream cheese, or maple syrup? When Sally Bowles in Cabaret speaks of "divine decadence, darling" SHE's not talking about choc!
- "New and improved": This got overdone and eventually died (thank goodness), but I'm talking about where they said it as "it's not X, it's NEW, IMPROVED X", or its variant where the pitchperson says "I've been telling you to buy X for years, but I'm not telling you to buy it any more: I'm telling you to buy NEW, IMPROVED X!"
Its successor/opposite has become (when the design of the package has been revised: and yes, one can say something is N & I when all they HAVE changed is the packaging) "NEW LOOK, SAME GREAT TASTE!"
- "Call within the next 10 minutes" / "The first 250 callers will receive ...": accompanied by a clock counting down the minutes or a counter tallying the number of people who've supposedly already called: then half an hour later you see the same ad with the same clock or, by which time supposedly close to 1,000 people should have had time to call, the same counter! Do they really keep track of what time these ads play in what market? How do you account for Eastern vs. Pacific time? Who do they think they're fooling? (It used to be "call before midnight tomorrow" to get the same effect, without the phoney timer or counter, and 2 days later you see the same ad.)
not quite in the same range- but it drive me nuts when they say someone was "shot dead" on the news. it just sounds so very... bumpkin to me.
"NOW with...." blah blah blah. if your product isn't good enough on your own that it has to come with other "free" junk- i don't want it!
i'm also not a fan of the people standing there yelling at you- i know billy mays is gone now, but there's also the shamwow guy and others that i just feel like i'm getting yelled at. shhhh!
I can't stand some of those infomercials that give you two of something "for the price of one". What am I going to do with two blenders? Seriously? Just let me buy one of them for half price!
Personal pet peeve - people referring to things that you're paying for as "free".
"Free with Purchase" is an oxymoron. Something may be INCLUDED with your purchase of another item, but if you're paying money and receiving something in return, that something is NOT FREE.
1. A current spot for Red Lobster uses "decadent" to describe a crab-legs dish. A slight improvement, BUT
2. On CBS Sunday Morning today there was a piece about an exhibit of paintings from Germany in the 1920s (the scene described in the show "Cabaret"). Lots of prostitutes and sleazy stuff. Reserve "decadent" for the Weimar Republic please, it's SUPPOSED to be a term of moral disapproval
ETA 08.02: Of course, what came AFTER the Weimar Republic was orders of magnitude worse: as in the Third Reich
Any kind of commercial where people feel like they HAVE TO YELL TO GET THE POINT ACROSS!!!! I despise that. don't they know there are microphones everywhere and we can hear you trying to convince us to buy X product when your speaking in a normal tone.
Stop yelling!! It won't make me buy the product so just stop.
I despise any commercial that says, "A $100 value,
but if you call now it's only $19.99!"
Please.
Or commercials that say you only have
a limited time to call to get the deal, yet
they'll show the commercial every single day,
5 times a day? (Note, they put the countdown
timer on their commercial!)
sierra: Just like I said in the OP. Either a countdown timer, or else they say "the first 250 callers will get" and show a "counter" supposedly tallying-up the number of people who've already called, 15, 18, 23, 47, .... Fast-forward 3 hours, by which time probably 750 people have called if the count was authentic, but they show the same ad, with the same counter, with the same count!
And there's another one they use when they're hocking collectible coins and the like (like the Liberian HUGE rectangular silver dollar showing the New York pre-9/11 skyline): if your last name starts with A-M, call today, and if it starts with N-Z, call tomorrow. I'm sure if you tuned-into the same network at the same time "tomorrow", they'll be showing the same ad with the same "call today if A-M and tomorrow if N-Z" pitch
ANOther - And the real estate one where they say you can call now if you are renting, but not until later if you already own a house, grrrrr.
Also, many of the commercials and ads aimed at kids annoy the bejeezus out of me. I saw a sale paper with a line of clothing aimed at adolescent and teen girls. Much of that stuff was more revealing than I would wear myself.
Product placement in shows that already have commercials. Drives me nuts, especially when it is so fake and obvious - like Biggest Loser for instance.
The fact that we even have commercials when we already have to pay for cable or satellite television.
The internet is starting to have commercials. Excuse me???
I dunno, I'm not so bothered by product placement on TV, maybe because it's as old as broadcasting. ::goes off on tangent:: one leg of every Amazing Race there's a stunt where teams have to pick up a Travelocity gnome and take it to the finish line; or Extreme Makeover Home Edition, the families all go on a vacation to Disneyland/World or on a Disney cruise (Disney owns ABC) and the whole show is one big plug for Sears ... ::end tangent::
You're right about commercials on cable TV though, the whole idea of cable was that it was supposed to be commercial-free!
I actually can tolerate & maybe even **like** a little the commercial that makes fun of women's tampon commercials, even though it's pitching a product to me. Because my friends & I have laughed together at these very things over the years: "Oh, I just got my period. It's time to run across a meadow & dance around in a filmy white dress."
Commercials/print ads/packaging: nails-on-a-blackboard words
