Last week I asked students about the commercials that anger them the most:

I miss the good old days of Tony the Tiger and the Snapple Lady. I haven’t purchased a Snapple since she left. And you have to admit, at first it was annoying, but after awhile, Mentos really were the “freshmaker.” Am I the only one now finding TV commercials not just annoying but actually being angered by those few seconds that appear on screen?

Take this as a prime example. You’ve got a car full of girls, dressed up for a night on the town. As they wait for the light to change green another car full of guys pulls up beside them. Eye contact is made, stereo’s are cranked and the engines are revved. Looks like we could be in for quite a race. But wait! The girls decide to show of their hydraulics and the car starts bouncing. So naturally the guys must show off theirs as well. Could this be a commercial for a new Fast and the Furious movie? Oh no my friends, because next the Vanilla Ice wannabe all decked out with his bling bling looks to his passenger seat. And who do we have sitting shot-gun? Vin Diesel? No, try again. A Poptart folks. That’s right and just when you think it doesn’t get any worse then this – BAAMM! They can not possibly be doing well in business since these commercials have come out. I know personally I have not bought a Poptart since. In fact I can feel my blood pressure raising as I just think about the commercial.

Or, how about Goldfish? You know the cheesy snack that smiles back – until you bite their heads off? Anyone else getting a bad visual here?

The fun doesn’t stop there however. Justin Timberlake had better have made a mint with his newest release, because I swear the first thing I hear when the TV turns on and the last thing I hear before it goes off is “bada da da da, I’m lovin’ it”. Justin, I’m sorry but I’m not lovin’ this.

Hopefully one of these days commercial execs will wake up and realize the damage they are doing to their products and that their brilliant ideas really are not so brilliant. Get it? Oh, I’m sorry, is this better? Can you hear me now?

Nadine Boulos-Jarvis

I haven’t been able to eat a Pizza Pop since they started the commercials with exploding pops covering slavering teenagers in tomatoey gore.

The worst ads are for Swiffer. From the “use it and throw it away” concept, which encourages consumers to keep on paying for a product they already own while simultaneously undermining a decade’s education about the environmental costs of the throw-away lifestyle, to the persistent suggestion that women live to clean their homes, and that the road to fulfilment begins with the purchase of a better broom (Isn’t that what every woman wants for Christmas?), these ads for the “revolutionary” maxi-pad-on-a-stick are wrong on so many levels.

I’m waiting until someone “invents” a broom that never needs refills and can be moistened with a bucket of water. Then again, what do I care? Unlike the moronic Swiffer-drones in the ads, I have little time for sweeping and I honestly don’t care much what people think of my floor. But why did they have to murder a perfectly good Devo song?

There is my biggest peeve: commercials that make you hate the songs you grew up with.

Tamra Ross Low