I decided I should keep a record of mine. My boycott list consists of products that I won’t buy (even if I might otherwise) because the commercials are fucking annoying and/or are aired so many times during the few good shows I do watch that they piss me off.
We’ll start off with the Sony Bravia. “Television for men and women”, “Ending for men”, “Ending for women”? WTF? Props for the shirtless hotties in the “ending for women” (heh), but last time I checked, I was still a woman, and not only am I not obssessed with shoes, I hate shoes. Stupid gender-based generalisations piss me off. Not all women love their shoes more than their lives, and not all men are ugly, dimbulb football fans. Here’s an idea, Sony–advertise a product that’s better than competitors and you won’t have to say it’s for both genders because we’ll already know!
Intel Core Duo. This is a ripoff. Not an exact ripoff, but I half-watched it (on mute–all commercials are muted) at least three times before I realised it actually WASN’T an Apple advert. I know there are Intel Macs now, but jeezus, couldn’t Intel come up with something that doesn’t look like they’re selling an iPod? Kudos to Apple, BTW, for the colours in the new Nano advert; I’ve never actually listened to the commercial, so I might hate the music, but it’s certainly pretty!
GTA Vice City Stories. I’m not a gamer by any means, but I made a special note of this particular title so I could make sure that P NEVER bought it. This annoyance must’ve aired ten fucking times in the hour that I was minding my own business, trying to watch TDS and TCR, and were it possible to reach through the screen and grab the baseball bat from that head-bobbing Hispanic gangbanger, and smack him with it, I would cheerfully have done so. This one now gets not only the mute treatment, but also the “bring up the menu so I don’t even have to see it”. P isn’t a GTA fan, but even if he were, that game would not cross the threshold into this house.
Of course, no boycott list would be complete without car insurance companies. The eSurance cartoons (Christ, don’t get me started), that idiot spokesman and the scrolling list for Progressive and the new and improved CGI Geico gecko. I actually used to like the Geico commercials back in the days when the gecko was still cute and almost cartoonish, driving his little red sports car into the “Employee of the Month” parking spot. Now, he sounds like Steve Irwin (WHY? America != Australia), and is equally as annoying (I’m not happy that Irwin is dead, BTW, but I can’t say I’m unhappy that he won’t be terrorising unsuspecting animals anymore, and no, I don’t care how much money he gave to conservation). Anyway, the CGI itself is very well done, but enough with the fucking gecko, already. I also hate their “real person/celebrity” spots. I don’t need a screaming Little Richard or the voice of Don LaFontaine to figure out what someone else is saying, and I don’t find it amusing in the least. The original caveman spot was funny-ish….once. Fuck Geico. They’ve got me for brand recognition, but I’d pay double for insurance rather than use them. I kinda like the State Farm and Allstate commercials; I still mute them, but they don’t piss me off.
P.S. Funny quote I saw somewhere: “Abstinence makes the church grow fondlers.” 😆
