I thought there were laws against advertising products of dubious efficacy but I've seen all kinds of them, mostly when watching FX or some lesser watched channel.  Those ads are always bad.  I've even heard them on 1010.   Aside from that, I wish they would outlaw any Video ad that substitutes the voices & dialogue of adults with the voices (real or AI generated) of young children.   It's a guaranteed mute button.   There's an ad with hockey players that I've never got half way through because it's so annoying.   It was probably inspired by the Kars4Kids ad. 

Last edited by SpinningWheel (October 2, 2025 8:21 am)

Any Skip the Dishes ad featuring Jon Hamm, and there are many. This arrogant, condescending SOB makes me want to punch him in the mouth. I would NEVER support the product he is pushing.

newsguy1 wrote:

I am irked by saturation ads for online casinos on Youtube.
They have practically taken over the channel.
They feature a plastic blonde model who says every word while grinning hugely like some manic Marilyn Monroe.
Worse still the ads promise that their casinos (all in Ontario) offer the highest win rates.
That's just utter fraud.
There is no such thing as highest win rate and if there were do you think any casino would offer that?
Why doesn't someone launch a class action lawsuit against this fraud?
Or for that matter ban all gambling ads.
 

Those ads are all over Hockey Night In Canada too, on on-screen animations and virtually on the ice.   I've heard they have lots and lots of complaints.
 

Last edited by SpinningWheel (October 2, 2025 12:07 pm)

What good does it do if the ads are mostly effective in getting complaints and driving the viewers away from ever using the products?
Like, for instance I would never buy a diamond from Spence because of that stupid bloody scream, or the dumb soap operas about who Sarah might have a secret crush on.
 

It's not TV, but to me, the absolute worst spot is the never-ending "Roar" disaster for Ronald McDonald House. It airs seemingly every break and one early morning, when I woke up at 5:30 AM, AM640 actually played it twice in the same break. I cannot turn it off fast enough. 

Walter wrote:

Whether on radio or TV, I've pretty well had it with 'Josh' or something, 'looking down at the business end of his baby brother', while attempting to change his diaper.  No clue who the ad is for.

It's a Bell ad and it plays on your knowing, or finding out the hard way, that baby boys often pee like an enthusiastic, tiny lawn sprinkler on whoever is changing their diaper in between the old diaper being taken off and the new one put on. Sometimes it even means getting hit in the eyes or mouth. The Bell radio ad has Josh checking out a YouTube video to learn how to avoid being surprised. (A cloth or diaper over the sprinkler during the changing process.) It's wee-ly average even for a Bell ad and is a spot that never delivered on a great premise and with a different angle could have been done in a funny, effective and memorable way.

I am leaping for the radio to change the station when the newer Kars for Kids jingle comes on because the "music " arrangement is actually worse than the original.

Not a fan of the ROAR! Ronald McDonald House spot either and the Spence spot with the two screams in one spot plus the Oliver Twist reference, argh. And a Coles (coals?) note to those little Dickens also known as Spence copy writers, it wasn't porridge, it was gruel. Just another gruelsome example of cubic zirconia quality for the Spence brand.

Last edited by betaylored (October 3, 2025 4:26 pm)

newsguy1 wrote:

There is no such thing as highest win rate and if there were do you think any casino would offer that?

1 in 1-million is a higher win rate than 1 in 10-million. It's phrased that way to lure the simpletons.

mace wrote:

Any Skip the Dishes ad featuring Jon Hamm, and there are many. This arrogant, condescending SOB makes me want to punch him in the mouth. I would NEVER support the product he is pushing.

I find it fascinating that Mad Men's Don Draper has become the ultimate product pitch man.

AM 640 is almost unlistenable during overnights thanks to that rar..rar.. spot. Why McD can't spend some money to update it is beyond me. I really wonder if station managers and PD's realize (or do they even care) that playing very stale ads in every ad avail block is causing their more astute listeners to tune away. And don't forget our good radio and TV friend, Mr Frank Leo. Yes, the man with the nice hair. So a question to the forum: How many Frank Leo signs do you see on properties in your neighbourhood?

For me there is nothing more repulsive than the Doordash trash commercials and their stupid enee meenee jingle especially with the young sick couple coughing and snotting all over each other and the delivery person. Though a close second would be the Rogers multi-cultural family dancing commercial featuring dancing granny.

mace wrote:

alangee wrote:

For me there is nothing more repulsive than the Doordash trash commercials and their stupid enee meenee jingle especially with the young sick couple coughing and snotting all over each other and the delivery person. Though a close second would be the Rogers multi-cultural family dancing commercial featuring dancing granny.

Those Rogers Dance Family ads along with the RBC doofus who sits on top of the receptionist's desk claiming "It's ok. I'm the spokesguy" run endlessly during end of inning breaks on BlueJay telecasts. Which makes me wonder. Sportsnet can't find additional sponsors so Rogers picks up the slack? What the dancing family has to do with me purchasing a phone or plan from Rogers is beyond my comprehension.

Yes, I can't understand all the same Rogers ads in the Jays telecasts.  The game last Sunday when the team sewed up the AL East Division had about 2.5 million viewers and the Rogers dancing family seemed to be in almost every break.  Another big offender is TD bank with the same ad, but at least it is a real paying spot.  If Rogers sales staff can't sell more paid commercials and not just the same "free" Rogers material from other divisions of the company, something is not right.

I understand that these games are great for company promotion but at least produce a bigger variety of ads, rather than running the same dancing family ad every ten minutes for three hours.  This over repetition is a turn off and damages an otherwise solid broadcast. 

I guess if they sign up a decent number of new customers for their 5G network or another service that could be more valuable to them than the revenue from selling more advertising time?  However it is kind of disrespectful to the viewer that has to sit through the same ad over and over.  Still harms the quality and momentum of the broadcast IMO.