Top 20 Worst Commercials Ever Made

Mountain Dew


Rapper Tyler, the Creator voiced a naughty goat in a triptych of Mountain Dew ads that he also directed under the credit Wolf Haley. The saga features Felicia attacking a waitress because the restaurant didn't have Mountain Dew; getting pulled over with a trunk full of the drink; and being identified by said waitress in a police lineup. Well, it's less of a saga than an episodic outpouring of noisy sight gags. Even worse is the flippancy about assault and racial stereotypes. The backlash prompted PepsiCo to pull the ads and issue an apology, alongside Tyler’s manager. Tyler himself has defended his creative vision, registering on Instagram with the username @feliciathegoat. The public, on the other hoof, feel he could dew better.

Kmart


Don't you hate it when someone gets too into sending GIFs? Kmart went even more obnoxious with a series of promotions for their 2013 Christmas sales. In them, the “Doorbuster Deals” are so great that customers get stuck in a horrifying loop of celebration. But viewers were distracted by this bizarre premise and the actors’ repetitive squealing. Never mind that GIFs aren't supposed to have audio. The commercials did indeed go viral, albeit with decidedly unenthusiastic feedback. Kmart was already courting controversy for a “Jingle Bells” bit that season and a creepy Christmas ad released three months early. Years later, though, the awfulness of the “Giffing Out” campaign still bears repeating.

Hyundai


The Hyundai ix3’s hydrogen fuel cell was a great innovation that was hard to demonstrate in ads. The motor group’s UK division did so in the darkest way. The advert titled “Pipe Job” depicts a forlorn man sitting in the car with a pipe plugged into the exhaust. Thankfully, he changes his mind after surviving the water emissions over the course of a day. Of course, the insensitively humored scenario sparked huge controversy. “Pipe Job” didn’t make it to television before it was pulled by Hyundai, who claimed they didn’t sign off on the marketing firm’s final product. The company’s attempt to protect itself merely inspired further criticism of their lack of oversight with this twisted showcase of a well-intentioned feature.

Playstation 3

Not only does this commercial make absolutely no sense, but it’s incredibly creepy. The ad is for the PlayStation 3 and features a baby doll in a room with the console, and we slowly watch it come alive, laugh, and cry. We suppose it’s crying because of the beauty of the PS3, but if it’s not, then we really have no idea. This ad was part of a $150 million campaign, and we think that the person in charge of that money should have been fired immediately. Or they could at least reimburse us for our therapy bills.

Cymbalta

There are only two countries in the entire world that allow direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical ads: the United States and New Zealand. They’re often awful, but none more so than this Cymbalta ad. Cymbalta is a brand name for duloxetine, which is used to combat depression. Not only is the commercial itself depressing, but the darker material is followed by a full minute of the narrator listing its possible side effects, which include “fun” things like tremors, seizures, and hallucinations. When people think of awful prescription ads, a commercial like this is what immediately springs to mind. Ask your doctor.

General Motors


As if automation weren't already an insult to the labor force, General Motors didn't exactly ingratiate consumers with this Super Bowl promo. When an assembly line robot is fired over a minor mistake, it struggles to find work elsewhere. It’s just about to jump off of a bridge when the whole thing is revealed to be a dream. Even when their minds drift off of work, GM’s robots consistently deliver high-quality engineering. But maybe they should have vetted the quality of this ad. The already disturbing premise was a tasteless parody of the desperate workers these robots were disenfranchising. GM apologized for promoting the human cost in removing human error, but their own with this ad remains infamous.

Coinbase


Hold your praise for the budgetary pragmatism with this commercial for Super Bowl LVI. Coinbase spent $13 million on a QR code bouncing around the screen for 60 seconds. When scanned, it unlocked a promo for $15 in bitcoin and entry into a cash giveaway for new users. That's a lot of work for this so-called “Less talk, more Bitcoin” campaign. Never mind the sheer lazy oddity in this pricey commercial. The thing is… it worked! The Coinbase app crashed from the traffic following the ad. It’s even been cited as an influence on a trend of placing QR codes in commercials. Curiosity is an effective pressure point, but Coinbase pressing so brazenly was at least creatively cheap.

Oliver Jewellery

Oliver Jewellery is a jewellery company with multiple stores in Ontario, Canada. And any Canadian in the Greater Toronto Area that has ever watched cheap daytime TV knows the signature call of Oliver. His commercials are well known for their horrible, cheap quality, and for Oliver himself, who is clearly reading from a script with the least amount of enthusiasm possible. Couple this with the awful autotuned song, and you have one of the worst commercials ever. Meanwhile, his signature catchphrase is just the icing on the awful, bitter cake. Everybody say it with us now: “Ohhh yeah!”

Nationwide

“Nationwide is on your side.” Not when they’re making depressing commercials like this, they’re not! This commercial aired during the 2015 Super Bowl; and as everyone knows, those commercials are supposed to be fun and adventurous (for the most part). But then we were treated to this, an ad featuring a young male narrator who turns out to be dead. This caused significant backlash among viewers. Nationwide, the insurance company behind it, even responded, saying that it was meant “to start a conversation.” If that conversation was about how Nationwide scarred everyone, then yes, we suppose it succeeded.

Salesgenie

Here we have another Super Bowl commercial, one that is depressing for different reasons. Salesgenie, which is an online business and consumer lead generation tool, decided that airing a commercial starring cartoon pandas with stereotypical Chinese accents would be a good idea, but they were sadly mistaken. The commercial was quickly branded as offensive and racist, so the CEO of InfoUSA, Salesgenie’s parent company, pulled the ad from the air. They stated that they never thought anyone would take offense because the pandas themselves are Chinese… It makes so much sense now!

Popchips


Ashton Kutcher lovers must have felt punk’d by him looking for love with Popchips. The company hired him as a marketing consultant for and the star of a series of mock dating videos. Kutcher’s stereotypical bachelors include a Bollywood producer, an American biker, a British hippie, and a Karl Lagerfeld spoof. …Oh yeah, and Popchips barely pop up. It was an embarrassing vanity project even without the outrage over Kutcher’s exaggerated brownface, including from Indian-American celebrities. Popchips naturally pulled the ad, but Kutcher has never publicly spoken about it or the controversy. If anything, that has only made the misguided campaign more of a stain on Kutcher and Popchips’ brands.

GoDaddy


The web domain registrar GoDaddy was infamous for its randomly racy ads. The most notorious, produced for Super Bowl XLIII, attempted to explain their logic. Motorsports star Danica Patrick presents supermodel Bar Refaeli to represent the company's sex appeal, and the most generic-looking of nerds to represent tech-savviness. The two very different mascots then share a passionate kiss seen round the world. The commercial ultimately says little about GoDaddy as a service. Audiences simply saw it as a tawdry stunt that both objectified Refaeli and insulted background actor Jesse Heiman’s stereotyped appearance. At least the latter’s career was bolstered by the viral sensation. It also boosted GoDaddy, though the backlash still convinced them to abandon salacious marketing.

Quiznos

We have no idea what Quiznos was thinking when they decided to take on the Spongmonkeys. These annoying singing primates first appeared on the web singing a song called “We Like the Moon,” in a video that went viral. Quiznos apparently thought that the video was absolutely hilarious, as the Spongmonkeys appeared in another ad to sing “We Love the Subs.” It was quickly removed after countless complaints about its irritating nature, and how unfunny it was. We’re thinking they may have also gotten some complaints about how people wanted to scream as well every time the ad came on TV.

Chanel No. 5

We’re not sure how Chanel managed to mess up a commercial starring Brad Pitt. Pitt may be the first man you want to promote your perfume on television, but he also did a terrible job of it. The commercial is needlessly dramatic, as the whole thing is in black-and-white, with Pitt talking to the camera like he’s trying out for his new Oscar bait role. It’s way too over-the-top for a simple perfume ad, and the dialogue tries far too hard to be poetic. So naturally, it was parodied and mocked for years.

Groupon


The plight and cultural repression of the Tibetan people is worth promoting to Americans. Of course, Groupon wanted to hype their money-saving services during Super Bowl XLV. They did so with actor Timothy Hutton narrating serene images of Tibet, before appearing in a restaurant to discuss the deals he got on the local cuisine. This was part of Groupon’s controversial campaign to spoof celebrity activism, which featured similar ads about whaling and deforestation. Many saw the “Tibet” ad as a satire of Westerners’ ignorance of Eastern cultures. Many more felt that its comic belittlement exemplified such ignorance. Either way, Groupon was prompted to finally pull their lazy and tasteless ad campaign, whose misguidance is still being studied.

Just For Feet


The sportswear retailer Just For Feet exploded throughout the 1990s. What should have been a triumphant promo during Super Bowl XXXIII ultimately caused an implosion. The sloppily edited commercial features a group of White hunters who track an athletic runner in the Kenyan savanna. They sedate him and force him to wear Nike shoes. The premise is too confusing, especially with the distraction of racist and xenophobic overtones. Just For Feet blamed the advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi, which had full creative control in the commercial’s production. Such a gross oversight didn’t exactly save the company’s tattered reputation going into the 2000s. Their malpractice suit against Saatchi & Saatchi fell through after Just For Feet declared bankruptcy, before being sold to Footstar, Inc.

HeadOn


One of the most notorious commercials ever, HeadOn’s cheap and annoying ad got the attention of millions and started an Internet phenomenon. The commercial simply consists of the lines “HeadOn. Apply directly to the forehead,” with a model doing just that. Not only is it painfully annoying, but no other information is given about the product, leaving viewers both irritated and confused. The ad soon became famous online, and was referenced in “Disaster Movie.” The company itself even acknowledged how bad it was in subsequent commercials.

Pepsi


The American political climate in 2017 could drive anyone to drink. Everyone may as well drink PepsiCo, apparently. Their “Live For Now” film features a diverse ensemble of young people drinking Pepsi and protesting police brutality. When celebrity socialite Kylie Jenner joins the demonstration, she convinces police to join the Pepsi party. It was the mother of all misguided virtue-signal commercials, which is really saying something. The company’s attempt to reach politically-minded youths was seen as a trivialization, complete with an homage to the 2016 photograph Taking a Stand in Baton Rouge. The commercial was itself met with much parody on top of historic online backlash. PepsiCo pulled “Live For Now” after one day, but may never live it down.

Holiday Inn


It's already tasteless to compare Holiday Inn’s luxury renovations to a woman's plastic surgery. Never mind that when she approaches an old friend at their high school reunion, he recognizes her as Bob Johnson. When this ad aired during Super Bowl XXXI, the criticism was not only of the budget hotel brand’s crudely humored method for sexying up their brand. Holiday Inn pulled the ad in response to transphobic protests. It holds a more mixed legacy in the trans community, especially as the actress Karen Dior was trans. The majority who deem the commercial objectifying at best, and transphobic at worst, see it as timelessly offensive. But those who embrace the beautifying fantasy affirm the ineffectiveness of the misguided product pitch.

Love’s


For this commercial, we’re going all the way back to the mid-’70s, when ads seemed to be wildly inappropriate all the time. In this ad, the company Love’s is advertising their fragrance called Baby Soft, which was meant to give adults the scent of a baby because “innocence is sexy.” If that wasn’t odd enough, we’re also treated to a full-grown woman seductively licking a lollipop. This commercial is wrong on so many levels, but mostly in how it implies that men are into the smell of babies. Let’s just never speak of this again, Love’s.



What are some other commercials that stuck with you, in all the wrong ways? Promote them in the comments.


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