Annoying commercials spark aggravation

One report in particular caught my attention. A BBC play-by-play announcer described the finals of the 100-meter dash. You probably know this race is run in under 10 seconds. For good reason, I can not recall ever having heard a radio play-by-play of a 100-meter race. The reporter with a proper British accent attempted to describe the race in detail.

Springfield auctioneer Billy Long might have kept up with the race, but he would have done it minus the British accent. Since the race is over in a blur, trying to describe it is challenging. TV broadcasters let viewers watch the action before getting excited at the finish. I had to laugh at this sophisticated voice flowing completely out of control.

Now, on with the intended topic. It may be that some TV commercials are deliberately irksome just to capture attention in the hope that viewers will remember the product, not the aggravation brought on by the commercial. I can think of no other explanation for them. If ad makers are intent on ignoring content in order to embed the product name in our minds, I won’t help the cause by naming the products in the following annoying ads.

A series of new car commercials are not only annoying, but they support dangerous driving methods. For some reason car ad makers seem to believe buyers are so thrilled by scenes of cars sliding around corners that they rush out and buy them.

One car company ad features a truck loaded with new cars going into a 180-degree slide, coming to a halt in front of the dealership; this in preparation for a big sale.

A large car carrier sliding in a circle doesn’t do much to condone safe driving, nor do I see how it sells cars. The follow-up commercial shows the cars being unloaded. Of course, they leave the truck and go immediately into slides. Is this supposed to be cool behavior?

If you watch TV, you probably have seen a series of commercials for a fast-food chain featuring a hamburger so large that it probably is loaded with a week’s supply of calories and carbohydrates. Retired baseball hero Mark McGwire is shown chomping away on a burger as big as he is.

The ads also feature a slob who has lost his TV remote and is too lazy to get up to change channels, a sexy cowgirl riding a mechanical bull and a pregnant woman. All are eating a burger so large and bulky that even Mark McGwire, who is a big man, can’t get it into his mouth. All eaters look terribly uncomfortable trying to get their mouths around the burger without getting it all over themselves. The message seems clear: ‘’Forget all the talk about being overweight; gorge yourselves.”

I have a problem with ads for prescription drugs. They urge viewers to ask their physicians about taking the advertised drugs. It should work the other way around. If drugs being promoted might be beneficial, doctors should talk to patients about them.

Of the prescription commercials, the ones most unappealing to me are for those with the politically correct moniker, “male enhancement” products. Several versions of the product are on the market, resulting in several commercials.

The competition seems to cause ad makers to ratchet up their provocative messages – some look like scenes from steamy soap operas, which seems out of place in the promotion of good health.

Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.

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