When I used to spend all my time watching, or at least listening to TV, the ads made me crazy. Now that I spend less but still significant time listening to the radio, the ads still make me crazy. And unless I'm in the car, it's a lot more trouble to change the channel.
What I notice is that a lot of companies are trying to use comic effect in their ads when maybe they ought to try something else. Not that many months ago (though this was when I was watching TV with my dad), I realized that the economic situation was indeed serious when I saw that Walmart was trying to make witty TV commercials. Fellas? Try harder. Meanwhile, State Farm and Allstate are trying to replicate the success Geico and Progressive are apparently having with the younger demographic. Now I'm 50 years old; maybe there is someone young and dumb enough to fall for this stuff. But I tend to doubt it.
At least State Farm keeps the same jingle and slogan. So even if you don't particularly like the spots, you remember the company. The less-than-stellar "Mayhem" campaign is just annoying, and I can't remember who it's for. I assume it's Allstate because everybody else seems to be covered. But I don't remember. I'm on record as saying that the actor in it should become a big star because only a great actor could be that annoying without sounding like Gilbert Gottfried. But that doesn't make it funny.
In general, I think all these guys-- the Walmarts, the Cokes, the insurance companies-- need to get a hold of whatever ad agency did the Geico ads about 10 years ago. Now those were funny!
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