Where have all the Good Commercials Gone?

Recently I read a column on American Thinker about modern day commercials and how much they are trying to incorporate political correctness. I started to think about commercials of the past and how different they were back then.

I know it may sound strange but I used to enjoy watching most commercials on television. I didn’t necessarily like the show I was watching being interrupted but I was often entertained by what was interrupting.

It seems like most of the commercials for today are for prescription drugs, insurance, or charitable organizations asking for money.

What happened to the California Raisons singing “I heard it through the grapevine,” or Clara Peller asking “Where’s the beef.” Now the questions are do you have PD, ED, IBS, or any other group of letters.

Long gone are the cigarette commercials because we in society cannot make our own decisions about what is good for us and commercials will make us all want to smoke. (I don’t smoke by the way and never have but some of the commercials were entertaining.)

So far we still have beer commercials and Budweiser has made a lasting mark on society with some of their commercials. Who can forget the Budweiser frogs, or all of the different commercials involving the Clydesdale horses.

Doritos is fast becoming iconic with some of their commercials, especially since they started having competitions for new commercials written by ordinary people.

Don’t get me wrong there are still a few current commercials that are entertaining, like the Mayhem commercials by Allstate. Those are brilliant, in my opinion and they never seem to run out of material. Speaking of insurance, some of the Progressive commercials with Flo as their spokesperson have been pretty creative as well.

To single out a brilliant commercial that works on every level, but isn’t concerned with political correctness is the new Chevy commercial. There is a short version and a 4 minute long version. Both worth the time, look them up and I assure you, you will be entertained.

Some of my favorites of all time include the talking baby for E-trade. Great marketing idea. Several of the Volkswagen commercials were also fun to watch, especially the barking dogs doing the Star Wars theme, and finally, who could not enjoy the “What’s up” commercials for Budweiser. My favorite being the “We are not alone” commercial with the golden retriever reporting back to his home planet what he has learned from being on earth.

The original purpose of advertising was to introduce or describe the attributes of one's product to try and entice someone to purchase. Today it seems like companies want to include the statement that they are politically correct as well. I know that it can be subtle and maybe it doesn't really take away from the true message of trying to sell their product but it becomes a problem when that underlying message distracts the target audience.

I understand that some companies cannot tolerate any amount of criticism from the public so they try to please everyone by being politically correct in their advertising but they also need to remember that trying to please everyone they actually end up pleasing no one.

I don’t let any form of advertising fully influence my decisions in life but I still like to be entertained when I am watching television, especially since most of the shows now are also politically correct and not very entertaining. (Subject of an upcoming article.)

My memory isn’t what it used to be so let me know your favorite commercial in the comments.