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Marketing is seeking nominations for its annual poll of the Britain's most irritating adverts.
Each year marketing and TNS put together a list of the year's worst offenders which are then put before a panel of consumers who pick the top 20 most irritating ads. Last year's list included Iceland, Orange, Churchill, DFS and InjuryLawyers4U.
2009 was something of an ‘Annus horriblus' for the marketing industry as the economic downturn continued to take its toll to marketing spend. We also said goodbye to one of most irritating ads most enduring stars as Iceland's finally put Kerry Katona in the big freeze.
To make your nominations for this year's most irritating advert either leave a comment below or tweet us @MarketingUK including the hashtag #crapads.
While there may have been a shortage of advertising budgets this year the early response suggests there has been no shortage of irritating adverts.
The closing date for suggestions is 9 November
People's choice: most Irritating ads of 2008
Comments
It has to be the last 118-247 Yellow Pages directory enquiries ad. Seeing it made me murder my Mum.
Not really. But it is bl**dy awful.
The first one that springs to mind is GIllette.
I can only guess there must be internal reasons as to why they keep putting out the ads they do, they're just horrendous.
It's quite a feat to constantly make three of the world's biggest sports stars look quite as ridiculous as they do... cringeworthy.
Stew M - 23/10/2009
It is definitely, the 'we buy ay car dot com' jingle / rave track
Definitely the Pampers "sleep is worth gold". I'd rather see inside the nappy than watch that again.
I'm probably going a bit off brief \(well, i am a creative), but what the hell is this range of National Geographic inspired air fresheners by Ambi Pur? What next... World Wildlife Fund 'Panda fresh' tumble dryer freshener sheets?
Gillette ads always make me laugh out loud, i agree with what Ben says... why use such incredible sports stars so appallingly.
Those misery vampires Cash4Gold and CashMyGold. Leaving aside the sheer wrongness of taking advantage of the money troubles of others in these straightened times. Artistically, they're as compelling as the prospect of a catheter. And to top it all, they make a USP of the 'branded' envelopes they provide for the desperate to stuff their trinkets in and post, thereby flagging up that it's something worth nicking, making the job of anyone in the postal / delivery chain of a nefarious disposition that much easier.
It has got to be the GoCompare adverts!
Has to be "We buy any car" - just thinking about it makes me want to kick something
Sing it now... "One one eight twenty-four seven! It's directory heaven!"
I have to admit webuyanycar.com is very very annoying, too.
'we buy any car' and gocompare with the fat guy singing - both really needlessly annoying
'Wanna bet on LIVE football' - makes me reach for the remote without fail.
All the people who said "we buy any car" it's going to take me another week to get that blessed jingle out of my head. Thanks, thanks a lot!!!
Surely "I want to do a poo at Pauls" has to be up there. Agree, Go Compare is VERY annoying as well.
Go Compare both for being horrible, and also for so blatantly trying to copy the success of that Meerkat.
Gillette of course for wasting money on celebrities and making no use of them. \(How can ANYONE make Thierry Henry seem uncool?!!)
Peugeot's showroom drive sexy ad must be up there too
pete - 25/10/2009
Go Compare or the BMW joy advert.
Go Compare is like being bazooka'd in your living room. Annoying as it may be,
I bet it's working very well, and the website is very accessible. I found my head humming the tune uncontrollably whilst walking in the street...That annoys me because it tells me the ad has won me over in spite of myself!
Gillette? Why do we have two automatons and one real person? I guess they couldn't get diaries to match, synch them together, or the budget just didn't stretch that far? It's cheap compensation. That annoys me.
Cash4Gold, a moneyspinner on non-postal strike days, but cheap creatively, although It's probably better to be up-front and cheap, than tbeing deceptive.
If you're strapped for cash I guess it's a Godsend, but we all know it's a rip-off.
"Cardboard bimbo" from Garnier who dances around a beach caressing her hair smiling as she's having an over-directed ball when it's obvious to all and sundry she'd be better on the title sequence of Roald Dahl's Tales of the unexpected.
I can only comment on all the ones people have mentioned.
The really bad ones I just forget about all together.
I like Meercat. It's original.
I can't remember the company name, but the ad starts out with some woman wittering-on about what she's got - in the organisational and homemaking stakes - and then she crows, 'and I've got great breasts'. Yes, it's a breast augmentation service ad, but it's the delivery that startles and grates. It's like she's listing what she's bought for dinner. Very odd.
Sorry, I forgot to add all of HSBC's trite output. (Sorry Orlando.)
Victor - 26/10/2009
Any of those ads that are shown on daytime TV normally Sky
Ocean Finance they are classics !!!!
Matt bloody Dawson selling fish annoys me
and those awful BT ads - they are so dull
I really dont like the McDonalds ad with the monotonous voice stating there is a McDonalds for everyone. blah blah blah. not for healthy people there aint.
Or the one with the elephant - thirst pockets kitchen roll.
And Glade's Touch and fresh 'poo at Paul's' ad is aawwwwfuul.
I dont mind Go Compare!
A DIAZ - 26/10/2009
The Always one where the steel balls bounce around in the panty pad \(VERY strange way to show product demonstartion) and then with no sense of irony you're invited to have a happy period. Gets me strangled every time it's on just for working in the same industry.
Pooh at Paul's. NO CONTEST.
I do have a 'most annoying ad' of my own. I'm just not allowed to say what it is., as you can imagine.
But 2 observations. All the nominations seem to be TV ads. Does that mean TV ads are more memorable than the rest? Secondly, It's a shame, in a year when we need to defend the value that our industry creates, that you aren't also having a poll for your favourite ads \(which I am guessing would also be all TV). Or maybe you are...
Oh my goodness, so many ... here are my top 3 most irritating.
3. Pretty much any air freshener ad, including Glade's poo at Paul's
2. Confused.com with 'real people' explaining how it works – irritating and quite patronising
1. Go Compare \(just thinking about it has gotten the jingle stuck in my head, brilliant). The radio ad irritates me a lot more than the TV ad, no idea why!
1. Go compare 2. Kingsmill confessions 3. phones 4 u 4. 118 247
Go Compare - the opera singer is hugely annoying with his larger than life joviality - but we are talking about it! I played it again on You Tube this morning - it actually made me laugh to be looking it up and seeking out the horror on purpose. It is a lot more annoying at the end of the day with the cat and my teenagers demanding their dinner and squabbling (the teenagers, not the cat). I like the beginning of the ad, drawing you in to the Coffee Cup - although perhaps it could have been called 'Cuppsa Coffee'.
The ones that have annoyed me most are both car ads. Namely:
Peugeot "We have noir". Dreadful, dreadful, dreadful.
and
Toyota ad where sheets are draped over the cars and then removed to show different types of people getting into them, accompanied by a song that made me feel like my ears were bleeding every time I heard it. 'Take off your shoes and socks and run you.'
You wot?!
I'd rather be made to sit in a pile of puke for an hour than watch those two ads!
Anything in the Churchill series. Please, PLEASE it's time to put the dog down.
Oh, and any online ad that expands beyond its pre-determined ad space. Just stop it. Pop up blockers were developed for a reason.
By n o means, Tess. The 'breast' ad I hate in a radio ad. That, I think, is what makes it even more surreal.
Comments
Richard Hayter - 23/10/2009
It has to be the last 118-247 Yellow Pages directory enquiries ad. Seeing it made me murder my Mum. Not really. But it is bl**dy awful.
Ben Bailey - 23/10/2009
The first one that springs to mind is GIllette. I can only guess there must be internal reasons as to why they keep putting out the ads they do, they're just horrendous. It's quite a feat to constantly make three of the world's biggest sports stars look quite as ridiculous as they do... cringeworthy.
Stew M - 23/10/2009
It is definitely, the 'we buy ay car dot com' jingle / rave track
Kit Hunwicks - 23/10/2009
Definitely the Pampers "sleep is worth gold". I'd rather see inside the nappy than watch that again.
chris burridge - 23/10/2009
I'm probably going a bit off brief \(well, i am a creative), but what the hell is this range of National Geographic inspired air fresheners by Ambi Pur? What next... World Wildlife Fund 'Panda fresh' tumble dryer freshener sheets?
chris burridge - 23/10/2009
Gillette ads always make me laugh out loud, i agree with what Ben says... why use such incredible sports stars so appallingly.
sue turner - 23/10/2009
Those misery vampires Cash4Gold and CashMyGold. Leaving aside the sheer wrongness of taking advantage of the money troubles of others in these straightened times. Artistically, they're as compelling as the prospect of a catheter. And to top it all, they make a USP of the 'branded' envelopes they provide for the desperate to stuff their trinkets in and post, thereby flagging up that it's something worth nicking, making the job of anyone in the postal / delivery chain of a nefarious disposition that much easier.
Lauren Purvis - 23/10/2009
It has got to be the GoCompare adverts!
Graeme Crossley - 23/10/2009
Has to be "We buy any car" - just thinking about it makes me want to kick something
Richard Hayter - 23/10/2009
Sing it now... "One one eight twenty-four seven! It's directory heaven!" I have to admit webuyanycar.com is very very annoying, too.
Ben Allsop - 23/10/2009
'we buy any car' and gocompare with the fat guy singing - both really needlessly annoying
Anne Caroline - 23/10/2009
'Wanna bet on LIVE football' - makes me reach for the remote without fail.
Adele Jacques - 23/10/2009
All the people who said "we buy any car" it's going to take me another week to get that blessed jingle out of my head. Thanks, thanks a lot!!!
Kelly Farrell - 23/10/2009
Surely "I want to do a poo at Pauls" has to be up there. Agree, Go Compare is VERY annoying as well.
Rob Mortimer - 23/10/2009
Go Compare both for being horrible, and also for so blatantly trying to copy the success of that Meerkat. Gillette of course for wasting money on celebrities and making no use of them. \(How can ANYONE make Thierry Henry seem uncool?!!) Peugeot's showroom drive sexy ad must be up there too
pete - 25/10/2009
Go Compare or the BMW joy advert.
Kevin Gordon - 26/10/2009
Go Compare is like being bazooka'd in your living room. Annoying as it may be, I bet it's working very well, and the website is very accessible. I found my head humming the tune uncontrollably whilst walking in the street...That annoys me because it tells me the ad has won me over in spite of myself! Gillette? Why do we have two automatons and one real person? I guess they couldn't get diaries to match, synch them together, or the budget just didn't stretch that far? It's cheap compensation. That annoys me. Cash4Gold, a moneyspinner on non-postal strike days, but cheap creatively, although It's probably better to be up-front and cheap, than tbeing deceptive. If you're strapped for cash I guess it's a Godsend, but we all know it's a rip-off. "Cardboard bimbo" from Garnier who dances around a beach caressing her hair smiling as she's having an over-directed ball when it's obvious to all and sundry she'd be better on the title sequence of Roald Dahl's Tales of the unexpected. I can only comment on all the ones people have mentioned. The really bad ones I just forget about all together. I like Meercat. It's original.
sue turner - 26/10/2009
I can't remember the company name, but the ad starts out with some woman wittering-on about what she's got - in the organisational and homemaking stakes - and then she crows, 'and I've got great breasts'. Yes, it's a breast augmentation service ad, but it's the delivery that startles and grates. It's like she's listing what she's bought for dinner. Very odd.
sue turner - 26/10/2009
Sorry, I forgot to add all of HSBC's trite output. (Sorry Orlando.)
Victor - 26/10/2009
Any of those ads that are shown on daytime TV normally Sky Ocean Finance they are classics !!!!
Jeremy Lee - 26/10/2009
Matt bloody Dawson selling fish annoys me
Jeremy Lee - 26/10/2009
and those awful BT ads - they are so dull
Fiona Ramsay - 26/10/2009
I really dont like the McDonalds ad with the monotonous voice stating there is a McDonalds for everyone. blah blah blah. not for healthy people there aint. Or the one with the elephant - thirst pockets kitchen roll. And Glade's Touch and fresh 'poo at Paul's' ad is aawwwwfuul. I dont mind Go Compare!
A DIAZ - 26/10/2009
The Always one where the steel balls bounce around in the panty pad \(VERY strange way to show product demonstartion) and then with no sense of irony you're invited to have a happy period. Gets me strangled every time it's on just for working in the same industry.
Sam Espensen - 26/10/2009
Pooh at Paul's. NO CONTEST.
joe thomas - 26/10/2009
Plenty
TESS ALPS - 26/10/2009
I do have a 'most annoying ad' of my own. I'm just not allowed to say what it is., as you can imagine. But 2 observations. All the nominations seem to be TV ads. Does that mean TV ads are more memorable than the rest? Secondly, It's a shame, in a year when we need to defend the value that our industry creates, that you aren't also having a poll for your favourite ads \(which I am guessing would also be all TV). Or maybe you are...
Nicola Evans - 27/10/2009
Oh my goodness, so many ... here are my top 3 most irritating. 3. Pretty much any air freshener ad, including Glade's poo at Paul's 2. Confused.com with 'real people' explaining how it works – irritating and quite patronising 1. Go Compare \(just thinking about it has gotten the jingle stuck in my head, brilliant). The radio ad irritates me a lot more than the TV ad, no idea why!
Andrew Chapman - 27/10/2009
1. Go compare 2. Kingsmill confessions 3. phones 4 u 4. 118 247
Caroline Garbis - 27/10/2009
Go Compare - the opera singer is hugely annoying with his larger than life joviality - but we are talking about it! I played it again on You Tube this morning - it actually made me laugh to be looking it up and seeking out the horror on purpose. It is a lot more annoying at the end of the day with the cat and my teenagers demanding their dinner and squabbling (the teenagers, not the cat). I like the beginning of the ad, drawing you in to the Coffee Cup - although perhaps it could have been called 'Cuppsa Coffee'.
gravemaurice - 27/10/2009
The ones that have annoyed me most are both car ads. Namely: Peugeot "We have noir". Dreadful, dreadful, dreadful. and Toyota ad where sheets are draped over the cars and then removed to show different types of people getting into them, accompanied by a song that made me feel like my ears were bleeding every time I heard it. 'Take off your shoes and socks and run you.' You wot?! I'd rather be made to sit in a pile of puke for an hour than watch those two ads!
Jason Marchant - 27/10/2009
Anything in the Churchill series. Please, PLEASE it's time to put the dog down. Oh, and any online ad that expands beyond its pre-determined ad space. Just stop it. Pop up blockers were developed for a reason.
sue turner - 28/10/2009
By n o means, Tess. The 'breast' ad I hate in a radio ad. That, I think, is what makes it even more surreal.