Tivo is my friend. I actually like the Allstate Mayhem commercials but can't seem to through any others. There is one horrible mini maxi van commercial that is particularly annoying.

Huggies commercials. They've always been annoying (squealy kid is NOT cute) and they often portray the kid as a kind of small adult (to counter the squealing maybe) so they border on really creepy.

And that family singing Crazy Train. Gawd-awful and don't quit your day jobs, happy van family.

There's this reverse sexism thing going on where commercials targeted at women always have a stupid helpless husband.

I think you're right on when you say it's all about who they are pitching the ad at.

That is the basis for a lot of the "situation TV comedies", particularly in the 80's and 90's.
My wife and I call them the "dumb daddy". (e.g., Cosby Show)

Going the other way, Lifetime Movie Channel advertises itself as the "channel for women".
But most of the films that appear there are of women being stalked,
murdered, beaten, and anything else that can feed to a woman's fear.

Well... female-only support staff, yeah that's crap. It's a minority, of course, but there are certainly male flight attendants. But female pilots? Extremely rare, at least in the US. Extremely. My dad has taken 2-4 commercial flights per week for the last 35 years (he's a traveling sales guy) and says he has seen a female pilot exactly once. Part of the reason is that most commercial pilots are ex-military, and since women aren't allowed to fly combat missions, there aren't a lot coming out of that avenue.

Well, for the British Airways one it's very annoying, given they have somewhere in the region of 100 female pilots.

That's impressive! You guys are way ahead of us.

And that stupid candle lady who has nothing better to do than sit around loving her candles. Get a job, lady.

I have to agree with the slurping/smacking sounds. The worst was the one on a while back where the woman slurped up a cup of yogurt. Made me want to barf. I hate the sound of people eating.


Also, idiot husband/snarky wife commercials are insulting.

I know a cop who has that as his ringtone. Hilarious.

my brother!

All commercials suck, regardless of where you here them or see them.

I disagree.
Occasionally they are funny, even witty - although print ads are generally better at that.
And sometimes they are useful.

I'm glad we don't have them on the BBC (I don't listen to the World Service but I regret their inclusion there). But I won't condemn them all, indiscriminately, to Room 101.

In fact, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith have a voiceover ad on at present.
It's appalling. Not their fault though - it's a pleasure to hear their voices. It's a shame someone in AdLand thought that was the best use of their talents, but they both have families and bills to pay.

I like commercials. The ones that suck, like the ones that make annoying noise are AWFUL, but I really like commercials. As you say, some are funny...and some are sad etc. It's creativity.

It's fun to watch old VHS taped from TV and see old commercials.

Plus, I'm in love with Mad Men. ;)