In my mind, Own A Car Fresno has held the title of worst local TV commercial for a few years. It's a bit of juggernaut of cheesiness, with its big-city backdrops advertising a place that shares a parking lot with McDonald's.
Recently though -- and I'll attribute this to being at home during the day and watching trashy TV -- I discovered a worthy challenger for the throne. I give you Radiance Insurance:
So what's the worst, folks? Radiance? Own A Car? Or is there another cringe-worthy local commercial out there that I've been missing?
Own A Car...it panders to the Fake It Till You Make It, douchebag Fresno element.
My vote goes for AC Green starring in the IRS "got a job" commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcPUkec8JeQ
I'm SO glad this is on YouTube. I looked for it once and couldn't find it. Bless you.
For the record, I think this thing deserves to be in some sort of Fresno Hall of Fame ... hmmmm, Fresno Hall of Fame. *idea*
no...i think that's the winner...
How about the JR Gonzalez Kerman mobile home commercial?
That commercial is AWFUL! I just saw it again last night.... It's gotta be 20 years old!
I'll give you 1,000,000 internets if you can tell me the name of the guy who was in the commercials BEFORE JR Gonzalez took it over with his action mullet and soulful Kenny G in the background.
I think you all may be watching TOO MUCH tv. I've never seen any of these.
I'm still trying to figure out exactly what "slow pay, no pay, we can help" means
Dude this is so much worse than the Own A Car commercial. At least they made it with something other than a flipvideo cam.
Love the bling teeth at the end too. I'm guessing this is a typical conversation at Radiance: "Yeah so I've got like three DUI's but I need insurance for my Charger I bought from Own A Car with no money down and no job. I would be willing to put the 24" rims up for collateral. I rented them from RimCo but they're worth more than the car."
Does "Mattress Land" count as a local commercial? That jingle has subsumed too many of my musical brain cells to count. Oh no. Now I've got it in my head again. It's your fault, Mike Oz.
That is pretty bad and almost embarrassing to watch.
My all time favorite worst local commercial was a car commercial with actor Richard Kiel (steel- toothed Jaws from James Bond). If memory serves me right he took a sledgehammer or maybe an ax to a car. It was so bad it was good, which is why I still remember it after all these years.
You mean the Auto Shopper commercial where he played Otto Chopper.
where can i find this commercial? i have a friend who looks like richard kiel and we've been calling him otto chopper for years now
All this talk of local ads reminded me of this commercial that was originally done for the Detroit Zoo but used to run here locally for the Chaffee Zoo back in the days. My makeup, MY MAKEUP!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQr548olzOo
If we include the spanish channels, then the "No Vaya" commercials deserve a mention, even as a kid I knew those were pretty bad. I forget what place its actually for though, a furniture store maybe?
I thought of those too but that's a common practice as I've seen ads in LA and other locals use that guy. I wonder where it started, though.
I hate the Stanton eyeglass commercial. Every time it comes on, I press the MUTE button because it loops around and plays again before regular programing. I wish they would quit playing that commercial. I'll never buy eyeglasses from them!
Yeah, I forgot about that one. Is the one pair giving birth to another? That sound effect is very disturbing.
I agree. That one really bugs me too.
100% agree claudette. i too, mute them, and have to remember to wait an extra few minutes til the second one is over before i put the volume back on. plus their building sucks, and they do a poor job of making and fitting glasses.
@AMJ you're right those commericals were for Serrano's Furniture-the adversiting worked 'cause I can still see the guy dressed as the grim reaper in my head!
There are some bad local ads but you have to remember a lot of these are made by the own business owners. The ones that hurt me to watch are the ads for "spot-on" productions. They are offering full creative services but their own ads are horrible. They include bad acting by a try-hard hippie and an actor who you will later see getting arrested in a bails bond commercial. I jst feel like they could have done better since it is what they do.
Is "Big Bob's" local? Always irritating and amateurish, IMO. If it's a national company, that's even worse!
The Serranos commercial reference reminded me of the Ramos Furniture commercial. Dude with two hair colors and his skin tight club shirt actually makes me uncomfortable. He kind of gazes into the camera as if he's trying to seduce people into buying an end table.
"It's like a PART of me...I WAX it to the max!"
Who remembers that commercial?
Stanton Optical. Hands down. That or World Furniture Direct telling everyone the economy took it as a hostage or whatever.
That Radiance Spot was produced by the same dude that did practically every Cheesy commercial in Fresno for the past 20 years.You can hear his voice narrating it.His name is Ed Harris and he made sure he was in every commercial he produced.A real attention hound.He worked for Channel 53 KAIL...LOL
It's Bob Harris.
We have a WINNER!
To completely knockout Own A Car Fresno, this commercial could use a British person saying ANYTHING.
cinco cinco cinco cinco..
The TV has to be muted everytime the commercial for JD Wentworth comes on....it gets under my skin with all the people yelling "Its my money & I need it now!" Ugh!
Im not sure if it's a tv spot as well as radio, but someone's gotta get rid of it...."We take you personally, EECU that's how we see you." WTF is that supposed to mean? It's awful.
LOL. To see the rest of our "bad" commercials go to:
http://www.blaremedia.net/video_portfolio/tv_commercials/
However, my vote for 2nd place would go to Michael's Automotive even though I did buy my last vehicle from them. The spot was good when it first aired but should have been updated years ago.
BTW - We have a NEW Own A Car spot coming out this week...so hopefully we can regain our title ;)
So I guess I'm outing myself as a KMJ listener, and breaking the rules by mentioning a radio ad and not a TV commercial, but the ads from West Side Ford are worth mentioning. They start out with the dealership owner railing against political correctness, Rosie O'Donnell being fat, Obama being a socialist, blah, blah, blah, then the next thing you know he's touting a new super duty Diesel they just got in and telling you how it's way better than a Chevy. Smmmoooth transition. Every spot then ends with "No suits, no ties, and noooo liieeessss." They are really in a class by themselves.
I know that commercial. It's amazing.
There are some really bad radio commercials out there too. I'd do a whole post about that if there were such a thing as radio DVR that allowed me to rewind and record them.
Both of those commercials need to go away. However, the one I currently hate the MOST is Stanton Optical.
It's the new eyeglasses store at Herndon/Blackstone.
Their commercial features eyeglasses screeching at the viewer. I mute it every time it comes on. I would never buy glasses there, no matter how good a deal they offer, just because their ad is sooooo annoying. I don't need to be screamed at to get me to buy something.
After I posted I scrolled up and saw lots of Stanton Optical haters, so it's gotta be the new winner and champion of ads that suck. Ok Mike, you need to let them know they got the raspberry award from Frez TV watchers. Maybe they'll change their ad to something more tasteful.
I agree it's bad, but since it's a national commercial, I wasn't counting them in my Bad Commercial Olympics.
We on The Beehive have a long-standing hatred for Stanton Optical,though:
http://fresnobeehive.com/2010/12/is_this_the_ugl.html
radio spot i hear on some pop channel. it is for some ghetto cell phone company in manchester mall. it involves two guys having a conversation about his new smart phone. really funny (like george lopez bad) mexican accents.
by the way, is it me, or does a certain beehiver appear for a split second on some local college commercial?
I saw the same kind of ad for Own a Car Modesto. Are the two Own a Cars related? Except for the web address at the end.
Yeah, Stanton Optical. What is that, some kind of karate noise? They're getting blasted on msg. boards over their business practices. Also they use the same ad over and over, they just change the city at the end. Sacramento, then Visalia. Heh.