Top 10 Most Annoying UK TV Adverts

Oh, Barry. Where would our kitchens be without you? Barry Scott’s outrageous enthusiasm is a soundtrack for a generation. Introduced in the mid-2000s but spearheading Cillit Bang well into the next decade, this guy lived to clean, and didn’t we know it! But while a shouty salesman is pretty annoying, how about his show-off replacement? This guy’s probably even more insufferable. Where’s Barry’s humble penny trick when you need it?

While this sickly-sweet campaign does have its fair share of fans, the big kid capers become less and less bearable every time you watch them. In the office, on the rugby field, at the train station; no matter how they choose to shake things up, it’s still just goofy grown-ups trying to out-gurn each other. Still, at least Haribo hasn’t got one of those sing-song slogans to really turn your brain to mush. Oh, wait.

What is it with toothpaste and terrible adverts? Yes, it’s a tough task to turn the dentist into a likeable location, but let’s not go overboard with excitement, hey. The patient seems to have it all figured out in this Oral B ad; mind, body and soul she’s as healthy as can be. But to top it all, she’s about to get the best news she’s had all year. Oral B? Toothpaste?? What will they think of next?

Athletes in adverts is rarely a good thing, but to be fair to Adam Gemili, none of this is his fault. Rewinding to the ‘80s and rewording a classic, Müller’s Tasty B is a big grizzly with zero sense of personal space, who spits rhymes to shift rice. The only thing that could make this worse is if it wasn’t even an original idea. Which it wasn’t. Throwback to when Halifax sold savings accounts in the exact same way.

First off, Boots doesn’t boast a glowing reputation with actual Xmas ads. So, when they went and ripped off a genuine Christmas classic in the middle of summer, the entire nation was up in arms. Turning Wizzard into a poolside party anthem? No thanks. Tinsel for trunks, bells for whistles and baubles for bikinis? The whole thing is one step away from advent calendars in August, and it feels very, very wrong.

Just when spoken word promos seemed a thing of the past, Nationwide sent a plague of poets to commandeer our living rooms in 2017. Don’t get us wrong, poetry’s a beautiful thing and fair play to those performing. But when you’ve heard the same splashy lines on repeat for weeks on end, always delivered with an uncomfortable amount of unbreakable eye contact, it does begin to grate. It’s not big, it’s not clever, it’s just infuriating.

An ad which singlehandedly ruins cake and holidays, Hotels4u led with this not-so-cute couple for a mind-numbingly memorable 2013 campaign. Channelling all the worst aspects of an overly kitsch trend, the set-up’s quite simple; one wants, the other gets. But it took a series of excruciating ads (and a barrage of abusive Tweets) before producers finally put us out of our misery, and pulled the plug. Anything but this, cupcake.

We might’ve given the nod to the ‘satisfied seller sat on a car-shaped sofa’ concept here… But WeBuyAnyCar has a rich history of truly annoying ad campaigns. This incessant jingle from an earlier run gets under your skin and stays there. It started as a simple animation, before a big-budget news desk. Busting moves but shattering souls, there’s no denying that the name sticks. Clever marketing, but please God make it stop.

What to do when your rival invents an annoying mascot which becomes a commercial colossus? Supposedly inspired by Compare the Market’s meerkat, Confused.com inflicted us with Brian, a woeful robot with an agonising voice. Although the website aims to alleviate your stress, this guy brings you so, so close to breaking point. Brian was blissfully dropped in 2016, with James Corden taking over. But not before one last hurrah and a mockumentary send-off.

Here we go. The big finish. The pick of the price comparisons and an operatic assault on your senses. The Go Compare man, AKA Gio Compario and real name Wynne Evans, is annoyance incarnate. Grinding gears year after year, there was brief respite when a series of celebs tried to kill him off in 2012. Alas, a grand return was always on the cards. Throw in the ‘Fantastic!’ man for good measure, and try not to break down in tears.