Here are the specific questions from that Village Voice poll:

1. What's the most disgusting commercial on TV?
   
   
2. Should there be a limit to what's advertised?
   
   
3. Do ads influence you?

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2000

Answers

I guess I should answer this one.

1. That video game ad with all the swollen thumbs, especially the part where the guy's thumb explodes green goo all over that girl.
   
   
2. I'm against censorship in general, but I could live without ads for stomach remedies aired during the dinner hour.
   
   
3. Not usually. I read during commercials so I only hear them, I rarely see them. Thus, I never know what the commercials are for. But then there are nights like this one.

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2000

I hate commercials, I detest them, I dispise them.

I don't so much mind people trying to sell me things, but I really take exception to the way they try to get inside your head. It seems there are a lot of commercials that seem to be picking on people's weaknesses (poor self-image, lurking family issues) and try to exploit them to sell useless junk.

For the most part I find commercial television unwatchable because of the damn commercials. Most of the shows I watch I tape first so I can fast forward over the ads.

But then, there's the really SNEAKY stuff.

The other night I was channel surfing, and just as I clicked on one of the commercial channels an ad for Slim Fast Bars was on. The image was one of the bars plunging, in slow motion, into a vat of creamy chocolate, roiling like an ocean.

Because I had just changed the channel the initial image was frozen, briefly, in front of my eyes. It looked just like a penis going into a vagina! I mean JUST like! I was agape.

Of course, this may say more about me than about the commercial. I probably wouldn't have noticed how obvious it was unless I had looked at THAT SPECIFIC INSTANT.

Sheesh!

Oddly enough, the commecial seemed to be aimed at women. I guess the secret message is: if you want some of THIS you better buy some of THAT.

Fooey!

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2000

I live in a dorm, so the teevee is kind of a nice.. background noise.. for our daily activities. I sometimes slap on some headphones or something, but I've become a commercial hound.

I hate the ones for Tampax where there's that rockin' field band shown with the cool pom pom girls and they're like "tampax was there". who fucking cares?

I hate the ones for that new diet drug, Xenecal, that blocks fat from being absorbed. And I quote: Because Xenecal blocks about one third of the fat you ingest from ever being absorbed, you may experiences gas with oily discharge, an increase in bowel movements, an urgent need to have them, and an inability to control them, especially after meals containing more fat than recommended.

That scares me. I shouldn't be able to do that.

But I love the deBeers commercials.. they're so sappy and romantic.. and I love that car commercial "I'm too sexy for the drive- thru, too sexy for the neighbors, too sexy for the dry cleaning!" Hehehehehe. I have to get a shower, but if I think of more, I'll be back :)

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2000

I hate the Special K commercial with the woman in the black dress. She is in front of a mirror wiggling telling herself how great her body looks. It pisses me off every time I see it. I'm usually not jealous and catty about other women, but I'd like to meet her behind the school and beat the hell out of her.

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2000

I think the Xenical commericial is pretty bad. I really don't want to hear about bowel functions.

The David Arquette 1-800-CALL-ATT commercial with him at the pool hall is pretty disgusting, too. That blue chalk on his placid, moonlike face. Ick.

Anything that smacks of censorship bothers me, but I do think there should be a limit to what is advertised. Guns and cigarettes spring immediately to mind.

Ads influence me in the opposite way. If I hate the commercial, I'm unlikely to buy the product. I'll probably never dial 1-800-CALL-ATT.

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2000

I hate that series of commercials for, Mitsubishi I think? Anyway they're all about how if you get a Mitsubishi then you'll be better than everybody else, because basically it's all about appearance, and everyone will look at your Mitsubishi and be envious.

What's the message here? "Buy our car and make your neighbors hate you for being a pompous ass"? I don't get it.

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2000

1. Most disgusting ads - a tie between feminine hygiene products and diapers. I don't want to see any TV ads for feminine products, no matter how tasteful. The diaper ads are gross and they offend me because I agree that showing naked babies is exploitive. There was one that talked about "messy BM leaks". TOO MUCH INFORMATION.

2. Yes. Ban those ones, and let's get rid of all the stomach acid ones too. Am I the only person in America who isn't suffering constantly from heartburn? Gross.

3. Not consciously. Every so often I see some food item advertised and it makes me want it, but I usually don't even go to that restaurant, I just go find some similar thing in my own neighborhood. The car ones influence me to be disgusted by the idiotic one upsmanship they seem to be promoting, like the Mitsubishi one somebody mentioned, and one for some SUV where a woman gets a parking space before somebody else because in her SUV she can drive over the curbs and trees and get there first. Now that's appealing.

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2000

Now see, I don't get the thing about naked babies being exploitive. I just don't. In fact, I think it's pretty sad that we're in such a state now that we're paranoid about showing naked babies because a pedophile might see them and get off on it, which I guess is the issue? Very, very few pedophiles get off on babies, for whatever that's worth. And if the pictures aren't taken with a sexual intent, I just don't get the concern.

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2000

To me it's not that I think pedophiles will see as that the baby can't give permission to have its naked butt shown on TV. Nudity is sort of personal and I don't feel comfortable with it being a non consensual like that.

Personally, I think it's gross. I know they're not going to show it, but I always think, what if it pees or shits without a diaper. People who have kids are always laughing about how funny it is when a baby boy pees on you as you're trying to diaper him. Yucko.

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2000

I don't always see the commercials because that's when I read or get up and let the cat in (or out) etc. but last weekend during the Indianapolis Colts/Tennessee Titans football game there was a commercial showing Dennis Rodman lined up with Bob and Tom (raunchy radio show hosts) behind what appeared to be a urinal and they were looking down at something Dennis had and saying how big it was and he was saying the ladies liked it too, etc. etc. Turned out to be his NBA Championship ring. I was offended because I felt this was perpetuating a stereotype and I thought black people would be offended. The younger girls at work did not think black people would be offended by it. Anyway, it has been pulled by most of the stations here because they received so many calls about it.

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2000

The commercial about new diet pills. One of the side effects is oily discharge! I'd rather be fat.

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2000

Oh oh OH oh. How timely this is; just a couple of nights ago I saw the most disgusting ad ever. I always use the mute button on commercials (except the ones featuring puppets) but this one, insidiously, featured a roll of toilet paper gradually unrolling with words printed on it, like ticker tape or a really long fortune cookie. The ad was for toilet tissue, and the text said that this particular brand would "leave you feeling fresh and clean and keep your whites their whitest," as the roll unspooled over a stack of neatly folded underwear. I thought for a second, What the hell are they talking about? before I realized that the message was that unlike other brands of TP, this one would scour you clean enough that you wouldn't get piss or shit all over your panties. Oh dear lord. I mean, we all know, on some level, that's what toilet paper's for, but having it overtly referred to, as well as contemplating the idea that a significant portion of the population isn't doing a thorough enough job of wiping to begin with [hence necessitating a textured paper, which this was], really put me off my feed.

I don't think there should be any limits on what's advertised, though. The pattern of what's allowable and what isn't on TV seems as random as a roulette wheel to me. Beer and wine are okay, but not hard liquor; anitdepressants are fine, but not cigarettes. Whatever. When I was in high school, it was still illegal to show women wearing brasseires in ads, leading to creative advertising featuring plastic torsos, or, my favorite, women wearing bras *over* fitted turtlenecks. The moronitude of this policy is emblematic of advertising restrictions in general to me.

Advertising probably affects me, since I'm suggestible and notice occasionally that I'm doing something because what I've just read or seen triggered a desire. For example, a couple days ago I took a bath, then sat back down in front of the computer while my hair was drying, to discover that the last page I'd loaded was Mahrya's journal entry titled "Two bath day." I'd seen the words, gone and drawn the bath and soaked without realizing why I'd wanted to get in the tub. I also find that when I'm reading a book and get up to fix something to eat, when I pick up the novel again I find that the characters are usually eating as well. It kind of bugs me that I'm such a tabula rasa, but I figure that these subliminal voices will probably never to convince me to do something that I don't really want to do, such as w

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2000

I try to avoid watching shows that have disgusting advertisements, but there are some that are darned annoying. Collect call companies. If someone makes enough collect calls to affect your phone bill one way or the other depending on how they call, stop accepting the dang calls! That'll save you more than a buck or two! Give your friends a roll of quarters for their birthday. High-concept car commercials. They're cars, people. You want to buy status? Buy a winning racehorse. Or a yacht. Marry a lingerie model. Nobody's impressed that you own the best Isuzu. Bally's Swim and Fitness, but that's a different forum.

2. Ixnay on the ensorshipcay, although that would a big advantage to things like webTV--click here to tell the company to get that ad the hell off my screen, on a case-by-case basis. One man's mede is another man's persian.

3. Sure. I'm a product of this culture. I've been getting advertisements practically intravenously for 40 years now. They work, otherwise they wouldn't be used.

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2000

1. a new series of commercials for the ford ranger pickup truck has been running recently. (i'm not sure if they're for a local dealership or what.) they show a bunch of marketing types sitting around a table, thinking up silly promotional ideas to encourage people to come in and take a test drive. one of them exclaims, "how about, 'try a ranger for a day...BE a ranger for a day'?" then it cuts to a guy dressed up as a park ranger out in the woods, trying to feed a bear cub. suddenly the bear cub PROJECTILE VOMITS all over the guy, who starts crying, "i don't wanna be a ranger any more!"

2. eh, i hate commercials, but i don't think limits are a great idea.

3. probably.

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2000

Duh. That should be "wear penny loafers or eat headcheese", above. Okay, now Greenspun is hacking me off, too, much as I love Phil. This is the second forum post in two days that's gotten muffed in this manner.

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2000

I'm kind of surprised by the number of people here who are grossed out by the toilet paper/feminine hygiene/diaper ads. I mean, how are these products to be marketed if not by explaining what the products do and why they're more effective than competing brands? Is Tambrands supposed to pretend that you're supposed use their tampons to clean your kitchen or something?

As for Xenical, advertising for any prescription drug is required by law to list major side effects, and for this product, the main side effect happens to be something it is basically impossible to describe delicately. This is a drug which can help to improve and prolong the lives of millions of obese people, so I don't have a problem with having to hear about "oily discharge" once in a while.

The only ads which really offend me are political ads...the ones out here in California seem far more manipulative and misleading than any I've seen anywhere else. It makes me feel that lawmakers and lobbyists in this state think we're really incredibly stupid.

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2000

Since I've been working from home, I've been watching an inordinate amount of television. Thus I have become way more aware of commercials. I think the top grossout commercial has got to be the one for the new Xenical. Oily discharge? Uncontrollable bowel movements? Horrifying. Hey--just cut out fat and exercise. That's what kills me about these happy ads for brand new drugs: The cure is often worse than the malady ("may cause dry mouth, twitching, excessive urination, heart palpitations, sexual dysfunction, oh, and your eyes will hang out on strings ...") Yikes. And I have to say that I am disturbed by ads for that herpes medication. This is not a disease I ever hear anyone talking about, but I do understand that this is a serious condition that is fairly widespread. But the woman featured in the ad is this pumped-up exercise freak who is shown doing every sport but the Iron Man race, and while her voiceover is pretty benign and upbeat, this is clearly a woman who is pissed off and in serious training to kick the world's ass, I guess in retaliation for her unfortunate STD condition. The nice-looking man in the suit who comes to pick her up at the gym at the end of the ad does not realize how much he is in peril. There is a silly commercial for chewing gum--is it Juicyfruit?--in which a middleaged male researcher in kinetics (Is that the word? Moving stuff with your mind) sits across a table from a young man. The researcher has a stick of gum in his shirt pocket, and the young man concentrates on mentally moving the gum toward him. Of course, he wants the gum so bad that his powers rip the clothes right off the researcher, which is kind of funny, but more frightening is that Mr. Research isn't exactly Mr. America and suddenly we are looking at a quivering pair of fat hairy tits flapping across the table top. There is just no way to prepare yourself for that visual. I don't think there should be a limit to what is advertised, just a limit to how things are advertised. But I guess I'm too sophisticated a consumer; if the pitch is too subtle, the majority of folks won't even know what the product is. For years I really didn't know what Preparation H was for; but people who needed Preparation H did. I am influenced by ads when I am in the market for that product. I have ignored car commercials for years; now I want a new car so every ad now becomes fascinating. More insidious are restaurant commercials; I had to fight with myself not to jump into the car and head right to Taco Bell to try the new chalupa, and when some popular trough like Red Lobster or Sizzler's or Coco's offers seafood or prime rib deals I start slathering like a dog and looking for the nearest location in the phone book. I don't actually go, but for about five minutes I am fully in the grip of the advertisers. The psychology of advertising is so subversive, and even knowing that I can still be affected.

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2000

Sorry for the big lump of unbroken type. I'll get it together with the paragraph separations in future posts.

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2000

Well, they managed to sell tampons and toilet paper for years without explicitly saying how the products work. And for a long time they never had feminine products advertised on TV at all.

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2000

I actually LIKE most commercials. I like seeing how the marketers are trying to sell something. I was a member of the Marketing Assoc. in HS so I guess I've always like commercials.

Xenical commercial is not bad. It's the people that would actually buy the stuff after hearing about an Oily Discharge. I mean come ON.

I think the ONLY ad campaign out right now that offends me is the one by Benetton. Using Death Row Inmates.

Of course, I believe in the Death Penalty. The Big Time Liberals I'm sure, will agree with what Benetton is trying to do.

There. I'm sure that will piss a few people off.

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2000

Nope, Renee, I'm a big time liberal and I don't believe in the death penalty, but I think the Bennetton ads are stupid. All Bennetton ads are stupid.

As for tampon commercials, maybe the increase in explicitness is a good thing -- I know I was completely mystified by those old Midol ads that talked about "Before, during, and after that time." I was six and wondering, "What time? What a stupid commercial."

Then again, the current ads that talk about leaking and use that creepy blue fluid probably would have disturbed the shit out of me. "What? Blue stuff? No one told me about any blue stuff."

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2000

Here's something I've noticed, that's sort of the flip side of today's rant about sexism and men -- for all that we hear about the media making women feel bad about themselves so they'll go out and spend money, has anyone noticed how much meaner the ads aimed at men are? You really don't see TV commercials aimed at women that show an overweight woman and then make fun of her to get you to go buy diet products -- it's more subtle than that. But for men, they'll make fun of their breath, their hair loss, their beer bellies. It's pretty awful. Last night I saw a Rogaine commercial that compared handsome young guy (who used Rogaine) to his poor bald dad. Can you really imagine a commercial that put a fat, wrinkled old woman on screen and then said, "You don't want to look like your mom, do you? Try our diet pill/face cream/miracle drug!"

The absolute worst, though, are the ones aimed at teenagers. Watch them sometime. If you are a teenager, you get bombarded with the callous and deliberate message that you smell bad and all of your friends are talking about your acne. It makes me want to punch someone, it really does.

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2000

See, I'd argue that when you were 6 you didn't need to understand what that Midol ad was all about. I was mystified by similar things. That seems just fine by me. If they'd shown exactly why I'd soon be needing Midol and tampax, I think I would have gone and hid under my bed and never come out. As it was, I was getting enough hints from my mom that I was completely terrified of growing up and "becoming a woman." I guess I have some issues around this...

You're right about the relative meanness of ads aimed at men. I don't see the ads for teens, but I believe you.

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2000

Maybe 6-year-olds don't need to know what Midol is, but I do think that the feminine hygiene ads I grew up with contributed to a feeling I had in my teens that menstruation was something shameful that shouldn't be talked about.

But more importantly, I think that being able to freely discuss the merits of your product in your advertising leads to more technical innovation in your field. I don't think it's just a coincidence that the range of feminine protection products available to women has grown dramatically in the last 30 years. The technology to have the choice of cardboard applicators, plastic applicators, rounded cardboard applicators or no applicators has been around for a long time, but until companies were able to advertise the merits of their product, there was little incentive to produce better tampons.

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2000

I have to agree with Kim R. on the winner for repulsive commercials. The toilet paper keeping our "whites" clean...I guess if you just can't get "it" clean then you are forced to wear dark underware! Just kidding, but Kim, I laughed my ass off whe I read you comments. And I totally agree!

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2000

The antibacterial cream (or whatever it is) commericals that show a woman or girl (never a man or boy) falling down and getting a cut. Mom comes to the rescue with the handy-dandy cream so the injured doesn't get a SCAR because ya'know, scars are bad, just look at the one mom displays because she didn't have the miracle cream. Its probably overreactive of me but that commercial series is so biased towards women *and* men.

I don't care what is advertised but I wish there was more common sense used about HOW. Why do advertisers continue to play into the stereotypes?

And yes, I'm REALLY influenced. I'll try a new product if the commercial catches my eye (and its actually something I'd use) but conversely, I won't buy some products if their advertising offends me.

I'm really glad I've never seen that toilet tissue commerical about tidy whites - I only have one TV and breaking it in horror would be a bad thing.

-- Anonymous, January 22, 2000

I honestly can't think of a commercial that disgusts me...maybe I'm just hard to disgust. I think it's more than just a little sad that people can't handle ads geared towards feminine hygiene, diapers, condoms, stomach illness, etc. Sure, some things have "icky" connotations, but everyone uses or have used at least some of those products in their lives. Commercials are just doing their job to get your attention and maybe provide a little information while they're at it.

Sometimes the more disgusting commercials are the most effective. I don't think I would have bothered to check out eCampus.com if it weren't for their frying the goldfish commericial. I don't exactly *condone* frying up your pet goldfish, and sure, the thought is pretty gross...but it got my attention.

I think the current set limits for advertisements is just fine. There's no profanity, no real nudity (even though I doubt I would care so much about that), no ads for cigarettes, no ads for guns. I certainly don't see a need for MORE stringent advertising boundaries.

Commercials definately leave an impression on me, whether the product is something I'm looking for or not. However, by simply remembering a product, I might be more inclined to by it over ones I've never heard of.

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2000