I just saw a commercial on TV that made me cringe. The ad wasn't gross. I'm not squeamish. I cringed because the commercial was incredibly stupid. The first several seconds show grainy footage of a line of women doing a dance on a street-corner while one of them holds a hair-removal product. Or is it a rooftop? I'm pretty sure that it's supposed to be the seventies, but I can't be positive, because I wasn't alive at that time. Anyway, whole point is that the product is new and improved! To show this, the ad switches to not-grainy footage of women doing a sexier dance in more revealing outfits. I'm pretty sure that it's supposed to be the present. But I haven't yet seen any scantily-clad women spontaneously burst into a choreographed dance routine while holding hair-dissolving chemicals, so maybe it''s supposed to be the future.
I feel bad for dwelling on one ad that I don't like. I've seen a few dozen that are at least as stupid so far today. The ad's "retro" opening reminded me of some of the truly, deeply cringe-worthy advertisements of decades past that have now achieved immortality on the internet. It boggles the mind to think that people like my grandparents may very well have been moved to purchase those products (some of which, like 7-Up, I still buy). It's also astonishing to imagine that at some point in time, an actual living, breathing, sentient human being thought that ads like this just might work.
But then I had a thought. What if Grandma and Grandpa were just as embarrassed by most of the advertising that they saw? Are we all just sitting there, wincing, embarrassed for the poor idiot trying to sell us something?
Out of the millions of print, radio, TV, and now internet ads that have been created, the only ones with any staying power at all are the really, truly bad and the unbelievably awesome. How many people give up on the ever making the latter and are fighting to be noticed for making the former? If that thought gives you a headache, apply directly to the forehead.
