American TV
I don't know whether it's just a matter of familiarity and acculturation, but British adverts strike me as being, on the whole, better than foreign ones - especially American ones.

Case in point: anyone remember the Reisen adverts? (Reisen. The Chocolate Chew! No, I never saw it in the shops, either.) It was one of the most awful ads I've ever seen - lots of people simply smiling like Jack Nicholson's Joker, for no apparent reason, to the sound of a terrible, terrible song. I'd put up a YouTube link, but I don't want to have to see the ad again.

No story; no joke; just the most unsophisticated association of nasty chocolate with middle-class, white-bread, all-American happiness, and shot in a really strange way to boot.

Televisual and cultural mogadon. Horrific.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 16 Apr 2010, 10:28, 3 replies)

.
I used to travel a lot for work, and consequently watched a lot of CNN in hotel rooms. In the early 90s it was usually just the US version piped in, so got to see the US ads. They do tend to be rather more hysterical than UK ads - by which I mean desperation to sell the product, rather than humour.

I seem to remember most of them were for medicines. At the time, there were still a few taboos on British TV, so seeing an ad in which some 55 year old woman told us how good her piles felt after using Farmer Giles special blend was actually quite entertaining, at least the first 50 times or so.
( Not Pineapple anymore, Fri 16 Apr 2010, 10:37, closed)

Aye.
The sale and advertising of medicines is highly restricted over here; not so in the States.

EDIT: There's still something odd about watching BBC worldwide - it's obviously targeted at US business travellers, and probably some Asian ones as well, so there're a lot of fairly one-dimensional ads with soft-focus shots of golf courses. They're very strange.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 16 Apr 2010, 10:47, closed)

Not wrong.
It's either "come to Malaysia to play on our golf course (and maybe get sucked off by one of the ladies i our advert, you busines-class stud)" or "invest in DPS - world leaders in aggressive vulture funds*"



*Dubai Pyramid Scheme investments may disappear, but not as fast as this small print, eh?
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Fri 16 Apr 2010, 11:42, closed)

#All that chocolate
and all that chew.
It's right for you; the reason chocolate chew.
There's always a reason
TO COUNT ON YOU... (pause)

There's always a reason for a CHOCOLATE CHEW.
#

Reisen. The chocolate chew!
( whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Fri 16 Apr 2010, 11:54, closed)