Advertising Trends

Recently, I’ve noticed an increase in the number of commercials that are mean-spirited or disgusting and I can’t figure out why this is. Do companies really want to be associated with jerks or nausea-inducing images? I understand the commercials are mostly intended to be funny, but there is a limit, especially when it comes to being disgusting.

First, there is this commercial for Boost Mobile. Yes, the point is that it’s disgusting, but come on. I wouldn’t even want my armpit hair in my face, let alone flowing locks of someone else’s. And it has very little to do with the fact that it’s a girl who has the armpit hair. Certainly there are other approaches to the, “you think this is wrong” angle of the commercial. And who in their right mind would get on a tandem bike with her?


Another example of disgusting advertising is the AXE Dry commercial. It’s probably not much of a coincidence that both of my examples deal with armpits. AXE typically goes with the, “use our product and beautiful women will think you are attractive” model of advertising, but this time, they decided to have a man hose down the world with pit sweat. Again, the point is that the antiperspirant will stop the sweating, but I think most are content in not imagining being sprayed by gallons of sweat.


On the mean side of the coin are the Howie Long Chevy commercials that really make me hate Howie Long (I was pretty indifferent about him before, though his turn in Broken Arrow is top-notch [may or may not be sarcastic]). The commercials are all about insulting people who don’t drive Chevy, but the worst is this one, where Long makes fun of the guy because he left his “man-step” down. How dare a company offer a convenient feature on a vehicle? Gee, I’m so emasculated by something that will help save my back and knees from injury. Howie may not write the copy, but the grin on his face says, “Fuck it, I get a free truck!” Douche.


And finally, I had trouble deciding which Cheetos commercial to feature because they all illustrate my point so well. I don’t know who decided to re-brand Cheetos as the snack for pricks, but here we are (apparently, they wanted to re-brand for adults). The commercials try to paint the actions as just retribution, but it comes off as, “let’s overreact to this mild annoyance,” which seems to be fairly common. Maybe the commercials are playing off of the social climate. All I know is I miss the days of Chester Cheetah sparring with Phil Hartman.