What is up with these DISTURBING commercials, lately?

[Muppy]

So, Mac Tonight was recently named one of the most disturbing advertising mascots ever, but honestly, I think this is really cool, I like it a lot!

The mascot itself is a nice little nods to lounge singers, and I love the production design for the commercial: anything to city lights gets my approval.

Mac Tonight is one of my favorite mascots, and favorite commercials of all time. I love seeing him fly around on his Big Mac. I have no clue why anyone would find him disturbing ...

 

[D'Snowth]

Mac Tonight is before my time, but I have a feeling had it stuck around a little longer (especially considering it was going national just before the lawsuit from Bobby Darin's family) that I would have some very vivid memories of it. In a good way, that is, lol.

 

[mr3urious]

I would love to see Mac Tonight in a new commercial. The last time he had one was almost a decade ago in Singapore, but rendered in CGI and singing an entirely original song.

 

[Drtooth]

Mac Tonight is one of my favorite mascots, and favorite commercials of all time. I love seeing him fly around on his Big Mac. I have no clue why anyone would find him disturbing ...

He's so delightfully 80's. He even has that 80's retro 50's vibe to it. I loved seeing his commercials when they had them during cartoon prime time specials. I believe he had a series of small plastic figures and maybe a shirt or two. Shame they can't bring him back. Then again, I'm disappointed they discontinued the McDonaldland characters years ago. I miss Hamburgalar and Grimace. And that pirate guy.

Come to think of it, what other mascots were considered disturbing? I probably have to dig through the annals of my memory to drudge one up, but I can't think of anything wildly disturbing. Offputting, but not all together disturbing. And I don't count those Spongmonkeys from Quiznos. They existed before that, and before the Dadaism of the internet took off. Maybe the new Cinnamon Toast Crunch guys going all cannibal on each other. That's kinda...strange for a kid's commercial. I'm sure someone will post a link to whatever list these are on, and I'll probably sort of agree with one or two of them.

On the subject of disturbing for all the right reasons, I'm amazed by the Ad Council's dark and disturbing anti-smoking commercials. The ones where the teenagers go to the creepy after hours mini-marts with cashiers looking completely dead inside when the kids have to rip body parts off, the one where tobacco is anthro'd as a horrifying spider monster, and the ones where a small thug crawls out behind them and drags them outside to smoke. I actually like how well done and chilling these ads are, but mostly in comparison to "truth." Truth, of course being the tobacco company sanctioned, government mandated anti-smoking ads. And frankly, I find them disturbing on a different, less well done level. These commercials scream 50 and 60 year old tobacco execs saying "You know what them kids today like? That 'interned net' thing. Let's make an interned net funny like on Youtubes." Bet they just willfully stole cat videos off the internet without compensating the original uploaders and they can get away with it because it's part of their fake non-profit.

 

[Muppy]

Shame they can't bring him back. Then again, I'm disappointed they discontinued the McDonaldland characters years ago. I miss Hamburgalar and Grimace. And that pirate guy.

I miss those characters too! There's something special about the McDonaldland characters, and commercials that will never be replicated. Just look at this one!

I love the mix of puppetry, live action and costumed characters, in a "magical" world, that's so bright, colorful and inviting. Now McDonald's is by no means my favorite fast food place taste wise, but something about these commercials makes it my favorite. I used to watch these commercials all the time when I was younger, and I was so fascinated by them. It's really sad that they got rid of the classic characters for these guys ...

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go bleach my eyes.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

I miss those characters too! There's something special about the McDonaldland characters, and commercials that will never be replicated. Just look at this one!

I love the mix of puppetry, live action and costumed characters, in a "magical" world, that's so bright, colorful and inviting. Now McDonald's is by no means my favorite fast food place taste wise, but something about these commercials makes it my favorite. I used to watch these commercials all the time when I was younger, and I was so fascinated by them. It's really sad that they got rid of the classic characters for these guys ...

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go bleach my eyes.

I miss those characters too! There's something special about the McDonaldland characters, and commercials that will never be replicated. Just look at this one!

I love the mix of puppetry, live action and costumed characters, in a "magical" world, that's so bright, colorful and inviting. Now McDonald's is by no means my favorite fast food place taste wise, but something about these commercials makes it my favorite. I used to watch these commercials all the time when I was younger, and I was so fascinated by them. It's really sad that they got rid of the classic characters for these guys ...

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go bleach my eyes.

Mmmm, puberty was kind to the Hamburglar

 

[Mynameisdean]

While yes, Mac Tonight is a ok mascot, there's 2 big reasons he can't come back: the Lawsuit from Bobby Darin's family, and those YT videos that call him Moonman and use a text-to-speech program as his voice, having him do popular raps, but re-doing the lyrics so that it turns him into a white supremacist. The people who make it claim its a joke, and it is, but some people use it to be as unecessarily racist like "Moonman". Any new ads would make a lot of people think it's like that.

 

[scooterfan360]

that dove body wash commercial, the one where the woman says this before the commercial fades out, as she is rubbing the other woman's shoulders. stop me if this gets weird. the way that she was rubbing the other woman's shoulders, creped me out.

 

[D'Snowth]

ESPN/ESPN2 airs those stupid bag commercials all the time, and I don't even think Checkers is in the northeast.

We get ads for chains down here that aren't actually in our region either, like 7-11. Lately, we've been getting commercials for a Boston Market thing, I'm not sure if it's a grocery store or a restaurant, but we don't have them either. We were also getting ads for Popeye's and Zaxby's for years, and we only got them in the last few years. Likewise, we're still getting ads for Toys-R-Us, CiCi's Pizza, and Baskin-Robbins, and they all left our town long ago (the latter of which I'm really P.O.'d about, because I see they now have cookie ice cream sandwiches that look delicious, but if I want to try one, I'd have to make a special trip all the way up to the Smoky Mountains for them, since those are the closest ones we have now).

While yes, Mac Tonight is a ok mascot, there's 2 big reasons he can't come back: the Lawsuit from Bobby Darin's family

Yeah, they didn't seem to have any problem with this novelty Halloween song:

that dove body wash commercial, the one where the woman says this before the commercial fades out, as she is rubbing the other woman's shoulders. stop me if this gets weird. the way that she was rubbing the other woman's shoulders, creped me out.

They've been slipping that kind of tongue-in-cheek humor into commercials quite a bit lately. There's another similar one where a guy was trying a new deodorant and he kept feeling his armpits to the point that even the voice-over announcer told him to stop because it was too weird.

 

[charlietheowl]

We get ads for chains down here that aren't actually in our region either, like 7-11. Lately, we've been getting commercials for a Boston Market thing, I'm not sure if it's a grocery store or a restaurant, but we don't have them either. We were also getting ads for Popeye's and Zaxby's for years, and we only got them in the last few years. Likewise, we're still getting ads for Toys-R-Us, CiCi's Pizza, and Baskin-Robbins, and they all left our town long ago (the latter of which I'm really P.O.'d about, because I see they now have cookie ice cream sandwiches that look delicious, but if I want to try one, I'd have to make a special trip all the way up to the Smoky Mountains for them, since those are the closest ones we have now).

I think it must have to deal with cable stations selling commercials nationally, and then locally. So some chains are going to pay to put themselves out there to everyone, even if the closest store is states away. Or maybe this isn't how it works; I don't know too much about the inside of the TV industry, lol.

Boston Market is basically an "upscale" chicken place, so you're not really missing out unless you desperately need rotisserie chicken.