This comes up from time to time here (often led by yours truly!) and while I'm grateful there are sponsors still supporting local radio, sometimes (with apologies to Marshall McLuhan) their message misses the medium. Here are my top three tune outs.

3) The Lotto 649 commercial, featuring that annoying idiot telling everyone to go "the yoga mat, please." I cannot turn this one off fast enough. It is beyond irritating, but at least I know what they're selling. The same cannot be said for the top two.

2) I have to admit I have no idea what the second one is actually selling or even the name of the sponsor, which is how badly it fails. But it's the one where the guy takes a taste of his coffee to determine if it's non-caffeinated or not, only to exclaim that it's not after a single sip. That's the only thing about the spot I remember, which speaks volumes about the message. I don't drink coffee, so I'm not sure - can you tell from one sip if it's decaffeinated or not? Either way, it rubs me the wrong way. 

1) The top most annoying ad currently running for me is for a company called Mail Chimp. It involves someone singing improvised words to a famous opera piece, and I cannot understand a single word the guy with the deep profundo bass voice is crooning. As a result, despite the fact it airs almost every break on nearly every station, I still have no clue exactly what this company does. Nor do I care. This spot is not only annoying, it utterly fails to get its message across. So it's a complete disaster on two counts. 

I think we're stuck with the Lotto spot, which has been running incessantly for what feels like an eternity, but I hope the other two have only bought air time for short campaigns. They're all tune outs. And frankly, I'm not sure exactly how they were ever approved by the clients. 

Hey, but at least they're good for exercise. They send me running to the dial to change the station every time they air.