15 Ridiculous Commercials You Totally Forgot About
Commercials are the mini movie advertisements that keep us engaged between television shows. Declining in popularity due to the rise of on-demand television, TV commercials were an art form like any other for… Well, for a long time! We're a little sad to see them losing traction, as they're some of the more ridiculous methods of storytelling out there. While their ultimate goal is to sell a product, the means of selling changes with each clip. And because the goal is to sell, sell, sell, there's no limitations in terms of how one sells. You can create a whole new animal-human hybrid, like Mountain Dew, or you could put a man into a speaker full of ball bearings, like 5 Gum. Whatever the writers come up with goes, and sometimes that means some weird and ridiculous stuff. Read on to find out just how ridiculous these commercials get. Everything from AXE to Loctite has a place on this list, and we're sure you'll be laughing along all the way through.
15 The Old Spice Commercials
There's no way anyone forgot about these. The most popular, and possibly the most ridiculous, if you've watched any TV in the last 10 years you've seen these commercials at least once. There was a time when they played every break, no matter what channel you were on. Sometimes they even went back to back! They also sparked playground jokes spoofing on the commercials through the line of “Look at me. Now look at your man. Now look back at me. I'm holding… ” It's like small magic tricks with every reference, the joke being that new commodities or ridiculous situations would appear. The highlight being the key line “I'm on a horse”. Due to it being a commercial, the end would always culminate in the promise of all this being yours if you buy Old Spice for your man. While we've never had the opportunity to test for ourselves, something tells us it's actually just a clever commercial… And not a promise for a better life.
14 A&W Guy
Ryan Beil is Vancouver's comedy god wonderchild, one of the best improvisers in Canada, and has as the highlight of his acting experiences “A&W Trainee”. Yes, this man was the young awkward trainee we know and love from the A&W commercials. Part of what made these commercials so special was how hopeless and adorable he was. Things like Root Bear, the balloon party, and other misunderstandings between him and the boss (who is still sticking around in their newest commercials. Good for him!) brought endless joy and amusement in these 30 to 40 second clips. While we could not tell you any of the specials they were promoting, we can tell you that Ryan has made Vancouver, BC proud with this series of commercials. We hope they bring these two back for another round of training, as it is some of the best fast food advertising we have seen.
13 “When Pigs Fly”
Doritos has great chips and even better commercials. While their print ads might not be as hilarious as their visual ads, they certainly out do themselves consistently in terms of writing and ridiculousness. This is one of our favorites, with a little boy wanting to share his dad's Doritos. Dad, a farmer, is unimpressed and scoffs at the boy, saying “When pigs fly”. This kid is a genius child, though and takes that as a challenge instead of a rejection. The commercial ends with him strapping a rocket to the back of a pig and flying it across the sky, then sharing his own bag of Doritos with the pig! Success has never tasted spicier, and watching a little boy pet his pet pig melts our hearts with love. Who cares what happened to the dad; we are already out the door to buy our own bag of chips!
12 Shock Top
Superbowl 2016 was a great time for advertisements-- Uhm, we mean a great time for heart-pounding-sport-ball action. Let's be real: we all know that the Superbowl is just an excuse to watch a televised Lady Gaga concert and laugh at the weird, high-quality advertisements companies put out. Shock Top, an alcoholic beverage you may or may not have had, released one of the weirdest ones this time around. While it wasn't anything dramatic, it was worthy of a head scratch. You know the image of the sad man sitting alone at a bar? They've taken that and added the Shock Top mascot (an orange slice with sunglasses and a mohawk). The two are having a conversation, but the conversation is just the Shock Top mascot insulting the sad man at the bar. It's a little uncomfortable, and really funny. We don't know what they were trying to say here, other than the fact that Shock Top will make fun of all your life choices.
11 Literally All Of The Snickers Commercials
While we don't know if they've made these international, in North America the Snickers commercials are the highlight of every ad break. If you haven't seen any Snickers commercials before, you've probably been living under a rock. For those that don't know, these commercials cash in on the idea that “you're not you when you're hungry”. The belief that people turn into grouches and monsters when they haven't had anything to eat. They're not wrong, that's for sure! Some of our favorites include Christopher Walken acting like a petulant child, and Marilyn Monroe doing her most famous subway grate breeze up-skirt photoshoot as an angry man. These celebs (who are actually just normal people) are then conveniently handed a Snickers bar when they start to get out of control. After biting off some of the Snickers bar they turn back into their normal selves and are able to just be real again.
10 Juicy Gum
Gum commercials seem to get more and more odd the longer the gum has been around. If Double Bubble was still advertising we're sure they'd take the cake, but right now Juicy Fruit is in the lead. They've topped the list of strange gum commercials with their commercial affectionately known as 'arm farts'. Two older men in what looks like a lavish gentlemen's club locker room are talking about a “game” they just had. One man offers the other some Juicy Fruit, and they continue their conversation using armpit noises (arm farts) instead of words. While we're all about body language, this isn't exactly what we have in mind when someone brings it up. What's the connection to the gum is another question we had, and sure enough the tagline answered it. Their idea is that Juicy Fruit will keep your mouth so busy you'll have to resort to other means of communication. Cute, but definitely not realistic.
9 5 Gum
Does anyone else remember the weird, space age science fiction commercials 5 Gum used to release? We do. While each on their own doesn't have any sort of plot, we believe in the conspiracy that says the 5 Gum commercials are actually part of their own sci-fi movie reel. You just need to put them together in the right order. While this may or may not be true (we're still waiting on confirmation from head office executives), we still think it's a strange series. Each flavor had a different “experience”. Some were jumping into a pool of light, and some were getting hooked up to different machines. We particularly remember the spearmint flavor commercial, where a half naked man lies down on a speaker covered in ball bearings. The bass is turned up by two ominous men behind a screen, and there's an overlay of him screaming… Loudly. We don't know if that makes us want to try the gum, but it's certainly memorable in that it makes us feel uncomfortable.
8 Doritos Do It Again
Yup, twice in a row for good old Doritos. They've got tons of great commercials, and it's quickly becoming every writer's dream to create quirky and creative story lines for these 30 second Doritos spots. This Doritos commercial is a cutie, with one adorable man in a speed date roster. He's flipping through an app that is definitely Not-Tinder (even though it looks an awful lot like the swipe left/swipe right set up that Tinder has), and every time he swipes yes something bad seems to appear in front of him: a girl covered in stuffed animals, a man (despite the photo being a woman), and general poor hygiene. In the end he matches with a beautiful woman who looks like she could be his grandma. However, she has the power of Doritos! He's swept away by her spicy chips, and they get married. We think this is ridiculous and over the top, but still has a lot of sweet in its spice. Great work Doritos!
7 Bud Light Party
Politics and beer go together like bicycles and fish. While we think it's a cute idea, we also think that this isn't exactly the best way to boost sales. With everything that happened in the last presidential election (i.e. an Oompa Loompa was elected and ushered into office), we think that maybe this isn't the best time to be making fun of electoral systems. While the commercial is older, it definitely didn't help people take the upcoming political campaigns seriously. Amy Schumer and Seth Rogan, popular comedians and humor writers, didn't add to the credibility of this ad. Also, can we talk about how ridiculous it is that Bud Light would try to gain popular vote? This not-so-outstanding beer would definitely be the underdog in an election; it might still win, but only by default of “I don't know enough about beer to make an informed choice”. Hmmm… Almost like the real election.
6 Avocados In Space
We are all familiar with Star Trek, Star Wars, Space Jam, Space Balls, and other strange out-of-this-world media sensations. The popularity of aliens and museums has pervaded the commercial realm too, with these fun loving freaks of space nature examining old human life through a well-preserved museum exhibit. Things like emojis and entertainment are judged as integral aspects of our lives and are a clever reflection of society today. Unexpected for an avocado commercial, right? Things get ridiculous when the tour guide alien offers guacamole to the patron aliens, and one of them laser-eye-shoots another because of how delicious it is. The guac is part of the exhibit that's marketed as essential food sources for the ancient human society and comes complete with an avocado tree. The tag line is simply “Avocados from Mexico”, and we think it's a cute tie cap on this hilarious mini-movie-style commercial.
5 Loctite
The Super Bowl does it again! We love watching Super Bowl commercials, and we love seeing ads for products that don't normally advertise. Case in point, this brand. When was the last time you saw a commercial specifically for glue? We don't think we've ever seen epoxy ads, white glue ads, or Krazy Glue ads. Right off the bat, the product makes this fun commercial stand out. A hip hop extravaganza of regular people wearing fanny packs, we love the variety of bodies, ages, and races in this ad. It's got people grinding against each other in mom jeans and features creative uses for the glue… We're pretty sure the grinding isn't one of those uses, but who knows! It's in the commercial! There's a lot of glasses fixing, and a lot of bedazzling featuring drops of this glue. While we wouldn't know what this was promoting if we didn't watch it more than once, we certainly don't mind. It's fun, funky, and absolutely ridiculous!
4 WEINERS
Super Bowl 2016 does it again! This commercial received a fair bit of airplay after the Super Bowl as well and has quickly become everyone's favorite. Sometimes, on a bad day, we like to look this one up on Youtube just to remember what it's like to smile. If you haven't seen it, look up Heinz Weiners. It sounds a little dirty, but trust us: you'll love it. The commercial itself doesn't really say anything about the product. In fact, we don't really know what it's selling if not for the branding present at the end. The glory of this ad is the HUNDREDS OF WEINER DOGS running through a field. And they're dressed as hot dogs! They run and run until they find a family dressed up as condiments, and the commercial ends with a beautiful coming together of hot dog and spread; or dog and human, if you're not paying attention to the costumes. It's simply a beautiful commercial, and we're thankful the television stations decided to keep it around. Keep it up, Heinz! You're selling smiles!
3 Puppy Monkey Baby
Do you know what this commercial was for? We certainly didn't. This one is very recent but has to be included in any list of ridiculous commercials. It sets a new standard for weird commercials and will go down in the history books as strange new media. Computer generated children are inherently a little creepy. They're hyper-real and way too perfect… Even when they're a third baby, a third monkey, and a third puppy. Mountain Dew did a weird job with this ad, and we hope it was a one off. While some of these ridiculous commercials were so wild they worked, and spawned long commercial sagas on the same topic (like A&W and Old Spice), we hope that Puppy Monkey Baby is not in the same ball park. It's disturbing and weird the way these creatures manhandle the boys on the couch, and we don't know what it says about Mountain Dew. Let's forget about this one ever happening, and mark it down as “weird for the sake of weird”.
2 AXE Commercials
AXE has gone through a few different commercial plots over the years. In a similar vein to Old Spice, AXE wanted commercials that were too ridiculous to be the real world, but not necessarily so unheard of that they wouldn't plant that “what if” seed. AXE, however, took a much more sad approach than Old Spice. Instead of promising riches and bubble bath hot tubs to the lady of the house, AXE promises young men that women will throw themselves through panes of glass to get to them. It's a dangerous idea that we're glad AXE stopped promoting. Not that anyone thinks it to be real, but it sends a message of manipulative control and an expectation that women should be throwing themselves at you. And that reality is just not right. These commercials made the list because they're truly ridiculous, and not just funny or clever like other things.
1 The Birth Of Chips
Have you seen this one? It's horrifying! We can't believe Doritos followed up their clever pig flight ad and their clever Not-Tinder ad with something like this. The writers and developers for this commercial went a little overboard; maybe it's a shock factor play, but there's something about it that doesn't sit totally right. The whole premise is that Doritos are so irresistible even fetuses can't keep their hands off them. The ad begins with a couple in an ultrasound office, with the woman pregnant and the man eating Doritos. She gets mad at his eating, and then he starts noticing the fetus reaching for the chips… On the ultrasound monitor. In the end of the commercial, it's implied that the fetus tears its way out of the womb in order to snatch the bag of chips. We're not kidding! Watch for yourself, and see just how ridiculous it is.
