More Bad Ads on TV and Cable – A Critique

American Thinker ^ | 14 Aug, 2025 | Ned Barnett

[MtnClimber]

I received such an outpouring of comments to my recent bad T.V. and cable ads article that I thought I’d give this another shot.

Currently, there are so many bad ads I had no problem finding truly dreadful examples.

First, let’s check out an ad campaign that worked, American Eagle’s ads featuring Sydney Sweeney, a popular young Hollywood actress.

Apparently, she not only has good genes, but good jeans.

SNIP

Moving away from never-fail cheesecake ads, there is another new Orange advertiser. Yes, Orange is indeed the new orange. Why this remains so is beyond me. There is no study I’ve seen suggesting that orange is a palate that sells products.

This is the fourth currently running ad campaign, and the second cell phone provider – Boost Mobile – to use orange “as a message” in their ads.

Ted Danson’s ads for Consumer Cellular are saturated in orange. Now they have a less well-produced copy-cat competitor ad, cellular provider Boost Mobile.

This is the most gawdawful annoying ad on cable today.

Because of their visual similarity, the saturated orange in this horrendous ad automatically degrades the impact of all orange ads – especially when the advertisers are direct competitors.

Note to advertisers: DO NOT use your competitor’s color scheme, unless you seek to help them generate more business … at your expense.

One truly tone-deaf ad is the worst of a series of ads by LeafFilter, a product that claims to prevent gutters from becoming clogged with fallen leaves.

Several ads, shot in what looks like a warehouse, feature the president of LeafFilter, Chris Counahan, talking with a woman, Emily Barrett.

She looks and sounds like an original Reddit/YouTube/TikTok “Karen.” Cementing this notion, she’s identified as president of HOA of America.

[MtnClimber]

I really dislike the commercials that make the white man look stupid compared to the women and minorities.

[V_TWIN]

Agreed.the effort to make white men look like imbeciles is blatantly obvious.

-

Also, I really don’t need to hear about products that have to do with female genitaliaor bodily functions.....male either for that matter.

[CatOwner]

I really dislike the commercials that make the white man look stupid compared to the women and minorities.

Seems like that's been the case for a long time. Same goes for movies and TV shows.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The worst one of these stupid white male ads is a pizza ad...I think.

"Hey mom! Dad's trying to grill!".

[nopardons]

BTTT

[V_TWIN]

Any fast food commercial that has a loud mouth black person doing the voice over......IOW all of ‘em.

[Clarancebeaks]

Cartoon bears talking about how clean their ass is after a good wipe of a specific toilet paper brand is in notably bad taste.

[MayflowerMadam]

The Ryze ads with Neil Patrick Harris are so LAME. (But the Ryze ads with the cute little animated mushroom with interesting background music — I really like them.)

It was bad enough when white Jake from State farm was replaced with black Jake. Yesterday I noticed that they have black Jake conversing with a black-white couple. Guess they didn’t get the memo that woke is dying.

[telescope115]

I despise all commercials. The lady in the LeafFilter commercials sounds like she’s reading cue cards with a gun to her head.

I hadn’t noticed the color orange in the cell phone commercials. I’m usually looking at my tablet when the commercials come on.

[BHI2025]

God, I hate those. Men and women spraying their genitalia with all-over body crap are also terrible.

[JeanLM]

And the cartoon bears come in two colors. That I hacen’t figured out.

[Thank You Rush]

Agreed - must be a lot of smelly people in this country/world. The only thing we can do is avoid buying those products. Can you imagine the questions from the kids:
“Mom - Dad - what’s XXXXXX”?

[Bernard]

There is no study I’ve seen suggesting that orange is a palate that sells products.

Orange is my favorite color because it is fashion-neutral; it clashes with everything. Besides, when I am wearing my orange y-shirt under my orange zippered hoodie and something happens on the street, I can always get in closer to get a better view because people think I am supposed to be there.

[MayflowerMadam]

Our first trip to Home Depot when we moved to TN was interesting.

So many people were wearing orange, but they weren’t interested in helping you if you had questions. We were thinking, “Rude!” Turns out they weren’t Home Depot staff, but were fans gearing up for a big football game that evening.

I hate orange!

[FreedomForce]

The insurance companies seem to be in a competition to see who can create the dumbest ads.

[Highest Authority]

Most commercials are nothing but DEI propaganda, designed to make you think something not usual is normal. It’s psychological warfare at it’s basic level.

[Hazwaste]

The ads on Firestick apps (Roku Channel, Pluto, etc) are often either an AI-generated person trying to convince me of some “hack”, ones for Chinese phone games, or the ones that promise to clean up your phone files (no doubt cleaning out your phone’s entire contents to a Chinese server).

[ansel12]

Orange also has that nice prison nostalgia feeling.

[CtBigPat]

Pharmaceutical ads are the worst. I don’t need to hear about ghastly side effects like sores between the anus and genitals or visibly repairing the intestinal lining while I’m eating dinner. And then there are the ads with everyone singing and dancing to debilitating conditions. “Make way ‘cause here I come! I need this stuff ‘cause I weigh a ton! WEGOVY!”