Christmas: Are they shoving it down our throats too early?

[D'Snowth]

HEH (as Drtooth says)! ALL stores are like that anymore!

 

[Drtooth]

I'm fortunate that I don't have to shop at Wal-Mart, I understand a lot of people have to. I just can't support their business practices.

I honestly hate their business practices, but the only thing keeping me away is the fact they're too far out on the highway. Though I'm very tempted to boycott them for getting Green Lantern TAS cancelled alone. Seriously, screw them and their crappy toy aisle.

Anyway, I'd boycott K-Mart too for that creepy "They're gifting out" commercials. What the heck?! That's supposed to get me buy crap at their store? People in a speedy loop like a bad gif file?! Of course, I kinda boycott K-Mart for the reason Tom Cruise said in Rainman... K-mart SUCKS!

 

[D'Snowth]

Kmart's like the red-headed stepchild of department stores, I mean really, they really have almost nothing there... their electronics department is a sick joke, it's almost like theirs is nothing but selections of $5 discount bin DVDs, a few not-too-popular brands of TVs, an odd assortment of computer accessories, and that's pretty much it.

Target has improved in recent years, they were kind of heading the same path as Kmart, but they kind of reinvented themselves not too many years ago, and have managed to bounce themselves back... they still don't quite have the vast selection that Walmart has.

Now, my only beef with Walmart (because I really don't know what these business practices of theirs is, if it's the way they treat their employees, that's almost every business today, so I don't get it) is how industrial they've gone in the last couple of years, they're not so much a department store anymore as they are a warehouse... seriously, like one Walmart store will take up like an entire city block, and the way they keep flipping their departments and sections around, you can hardly ever find anything. There's a newer Walmart location in one of the communities in my town (after they closed the perfectly good old one that had been there for centuries), and it's so large, to this day, I STILL haven't been through the entire store... it's like shopping at Satan's warehouse or something.

Of course, then again, grocery stores have that same problem too, especially in my town, where all the grocery stores are practically competing with each other in the industrialize overhaul. I kid you not, one Ingle's store in my town has a full walk-in beer cooler, AND an entire book aisle that's more like a mini-bookstore, with leather chairs and coffee tables and such. And did I mention this is supposed to be a grocery store? Heck, some grocery stores around here have FURNITURE aisles now! Seriously!

 

[Drtooth]

There's only one K-mart I can get to, and it looks like a freaking disaster area every single time I go there. And the worst part is, that thing was there since I was a kid, and it never looked that bad. it was far more organized. Had a lunch counter once too. But, ugh... it's just horrible and the prices aren't much better (if anything a little worse) than Target. Though they did occasionally have toys I've never seen at Target, Wal*Mart, or even TRU. They were the only place that carried the Xiaolin Showdown line, and I'm kicking myself for never trying to get any of it since everything but the large Dojo goes for a fortune. Like well over a hundred bucks.

But back to the thread... those "Gifting Out" commercials are awful. In fact, the one thing I hate about Christmas isn't so much the commercialism, but rather the commercials. They're ALWAYS awful. They're either inane or glurgy. Actually, I do have ONE favorite Christmas commercial...

Dear sweet GLOB! Truth in advertising!

 

[CensoredAlso]

Not surprisingly I am a huge fan of Christmas commercials from past decades, lol. Something went horribly wrong with commercials around the 2000's. I think they're just so terrified of becoming obsolete they resort to attention grabbing nonsense.

 

[Drtooth]

I don't think I ever really cared much for Christmas commercials anyway, but there's just so much I dislike about most commercials nowadays anyway. Of course, considering my multiple threads on how much I hate certain commercials, that should not be a surprise.

I do like the M&M's one with Santa, but I think they should redo that one. The character animation looks pretty stilted and outdated compared to newer M&M's ads, which have the fluidity of a Pixar film. Somehow Radio Shack's Christmas ads always annoy me. I'm glad Target doesn't have that creepy overly prepared woman commercials anymore. Uh... oh, you know what? The WORST Christmas commercial I've ever heard (it was a radio ad)? One where a chorus of supposedly co-workers singing about "Don't give us the loser gifts you got us last year, go to Office Max for gifts that WORK" to the Deck the Halls tune. Okay, there was once this Nintendo where a bunch of teenagers are complaining about how they never get the video games they want for Christmas and it was kinda funny... but at least with that they're dealing with immature greedy teenage boys. But that Office Max commercial was disgusting! I hope someone got fired for that one.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Well first off, radio commercials are different. They seem to be designed to be incredibly annoying by their nature, lol.

The worst holiday TV commercial I can think of was last year about the woman who was so into Black Friday, she even named her kid "Black Friday." Who the **** green lit that unfunny bit of nothing?

 

[D'Snowth]

I do like the M&M's one with Santa, but I think they should redo that one. The character animation looks pretty stilted and outdated compared to newer M&M's ads, which have the fluidity of a Pixar film.

Actually, THIS is the reason why they need to redo that one:

http://idget.comicgenesis.com/d/20051222.html

 

[fuzzygobo]

There's only one K-mart I can get to, and it looks like a freaking disaster area every single time I go there. And the worst part is, that thing was there since I was a kid, and it never looked that bad. it was far more organized. Had a lunch counter once too. But, ugh... it's just horrible and the prices aren't much better (if anything a little worse) than Target. Though they did occasionally have toys I've never seen at Target, Wal*Mart, or even TRU. They were the only place that carried the Xiaolin Showdown line, and I'm kicking myself for never trying to get any of it since everything but the large Dojo goes for a fortune. Like well over a hundred bucks.

But back to the thread... those "Gifting Out" commercials are awful. In fact, the one thing I hate about Christmas isn't so much the commercialism, but rather the commercials. They're ALWAYS awful. They're either inane or glurgy. Actually, I do have ONE favorite Christmas commercial...

Dear sweet GLOB! Truth in advertising!

Ugh, the K-Mart lunch counter. If the highlight of your day is a lukewarm hot dog on a stale bun and a half-melted Icee, you've got a raw deal, my friend.

 

[Drtooth]

Actually, the only time I ate there, it was an ice cream. And it came with an Aladdin character spoon. They were out of everyone but Jasmine. You can guess how that was mildly annoying to a die hard Genie and Iago fan.

Well first off, radio commercials are different. They seem to be designed to be incredibly annoying by their nature, lol.

Oh, the horrors I can't even begin to explain about the local McKinnon's Meat Market commercials... that's getting pretty off topic, but it was the worst thing you could ever hear. The whole thing was a 30 second Brown Note.

The worst holiday TV commercial I can think of was last year about the woman who was so into Black Friday, she even named her kid "Black Friday." Who the **** green lit that unfunny bit of nothing?

I'm starting to see a trend of "let's see how unfunny we can make commercials." Dunkin Donuts is the worst offender. Especially with the "This cup of tea is my cup of tea." "no dear, that's actually my cup of tea." Someone was paid to make that.