I absolutely hate commercials that use children to play either smart-mouthed or naïve foils for the business in question.
That stupid kid who doesn't know where Mississauga is and thinks it is Mrs Auga just drives me up the wall.
Also enough with the stupid bloody Spence Diamonds nonsense.
After pretending they sell bargain diamonds they tell you they will sell you a four thousand dollar men's ring?
Really?
Is their customer Al Capone?
As for Tom of Tom's suits his oily sycophantic diatribes are gag inducing.
 

I think they should hire George Noori as their spokesman and then it could be Coast To Coast Appliances!

I didn't think it possible for Coast Appliances ads featuring totally phony granddaughter 'Olivia' to be any worse, but the new one with gramps 'whispering' the whole cringe-worthy thing proved me wrong.

newsguy1 wrote:

Also enough with the stupid bloody Spence Diamonds nonsense.
After pretending they sell bargain diamonds they tell you they will sell you a four thousand dollar men's ring?
Really?

I have my radio play through my PC and I have a script that mutes it for 58 seconds as soon as the commercial comes on.  As soon as I hear "Callum", I click over to the terminal window and start that script.

Luckily, since Kelly Cutrara has moved time slot, I now listen to her on CHML on 95.3 HD3.  I listen to this station instead of 640 Toronto when she comes on in the afternoon so I have a few hours I can avoid the stupid commercial completely.
 

I'm trying to train my Alexa device to automatically turn off if a Coast Appliances ad comes on.  No luck yet, but it's worth trying.

Walter wrote:

I didn't think it possible for Coast Appliances ads featuring totally phony granddaughter 'Olivia' to be any worse, but the new one with gramps 'whispering' the whole cringe-worthy thing proved me wrong.

And now there's a new one - this time, the little girl talks about FOMO - Fear of Missing Out - which, of course, grandpa has never heard of. What's stunning is at one point he mispronounces it as "MoFo." 

Are they aware of what that slang actually means? I can't believe they'd go there. But they did. 

RadioActive wrote:

Walter wrote:

I didn't think it possible for Coast Appliances ads featuring totally phony granddaughter 'Olivia' to be any worse, but the new one with gramps 'whispering' the whole cringe-worthy thing proved me wrong.

And now there's a new one - this time, the little girl talks about FOMO - Fear of Missing Out - which, of course, grandpa has never heard of. What's stunning is at one point he mispronounces it as "MoFo." 

Are they aware of what that slang actually means? I can't believe they'd go there. But they did. 

Imagine the voice actor reading the copy for the first time, and then having to ... say the words, with a straight face.

newsguy1 wrote:

Also enough with the stupid bloody Spence Diamonds nonsense.

You're not alone in the GTA with those garbage ads... we hear them on Ottawa radio as well, including Hot 89.9, which my wife usually plays in the car. Couldn't believe they were even advertising on Barrie TV in the early '90s... "The W/O/C Archive" on YouTube has one compilation of ads from CKVR that has a few Spence spots. In Renfrew County, however, we've been mostly spared annoying ads on local radio, aside from a car dealer or two.

On a related note, as a Collingwood native, I was sort of brought up on 'VR's programming, and that YouTube channel is chock full of good local '80s and '90s commercials from channel 3, a bunch of which were voiced by the late Bill Cosworth (ex of CHAY and Rock 95), as well as CKVR staff announcer Doug Moyle, and local radio personality Brian Heyworth. The W/O/C Archive also has a ton of memorable local jingles from my childhood, such as those of Foley's Furniture, Huronia Ford, Herbie's, Fern Resort, and Paul Sadlon GM. Still trying to track down the jingle from Dunlop's of Moonstone.

The spence diamond spots, from the initial screaming and definitely the current 'Malcolm' ones, are, in my opinion, where Roy H. Williams jumped the shark.  Just far too cool for the room.   When you can identify the spots not because they're great work, but because they 'fit' the formula, it's time to move on.

That's the problem with creative types, they have to keep being creative, even if the creativity isn't that great.  And to make matters worse, they inadvertently surround themselves with people who support everything they do, good or bad, because if 'they' did it, 'it' must be great. 

That being said, for all I know Spence don't deal with WOA any more, figuring they 'get' how it works and can now 'do it' by themselves.  And to be honest, that's more what it sounds like.  That would be a bit of a relief if it's true.
 

If Spence or Coastal were not advertising, more people would be out of a job.

If the spots bother you, turn the sound down