You Use It? Then I Won't

Back in the day, it was very common to see companies use a big celebrity to hawk their product. The thinking was that ordinary people want to be famous actors and musicians, but also probably know that using the same skin care products is as close as they are going to get. And, for a while, this worked. However, as actors and musicians began to see being a spokesperson as an affront to their credibility, they became more and more reluctant to appear in commercials (at least in this country). Because no one wants to give an Oscar to the person who was selling detergent just a couple months back, being in commercials was seen as a career liability. As a result, the only people who were still willing to appear in commercials were less talented (because they had nothing to lose) and they were less credible. This is why today we have people like the Kardashians, whose only talent appears to be being themselves, selling products on infomercials.

The byproduct of actual celebrities being hesitant to appear in commercials lead to the evolution of product placement in movies. Sure, Tom Cruise the actor might not want to film a commercial for Mountain Dew, but Tom Cruise as Cole Trickle was more than happy to have his character drive a race car with a Mountain Dew logo on the front. To the company this was just as good as Tom Cruise filming the ad himself and they didn't even have to spend a day filming it. Everyone came out ahead. And, you know what? I was fine with that. I definitely preferred a movie character talking about how much they liked Pepsi to the new trend I see in commercials, which is to use un-named actors and make them the biggest jerks on TV.

There have always been jerks in commercials, but most of the time they are the antagonist, used only as a means to show how much better the people who used the specific product were. However, at some point it changed. The first one that springs to mind is this commercial for SoBe LifeWater which came out last year:

It appears the message of this commercial is that people who drink SoBe are douchebags. (And also big fans of LSD.) Um, I'm sorry, but who told you that would make anyone want to drink your water? I don't want anything in common with that guy.

Then, over the holidays, I saw this ad roughly 4,000 times:

It reminded me of an old Bill Cosby bit about people who smoked pot saying it enlarged their personalities. Cosby then wondered "Well, what would happen if you were an asshole? Wouldn't that just make you a bigger asshole?" That's what this commercial makes me think - people who have Sprint are rude, only through Sprint's network they can let people know just how rude they are faster than on Verizon. Not exactly a selling point, if you ask me.

Then, there is this one:

I hate this ad. HATE IT. And, because I watch the Golf Channel a lot, I have to deal with it constantly. The obnoxious guy didn't even hit the drive, making him all that more annoying. I don't want to use your golf balls, in fact I don't want to use anything associated with this commercial, I just want to take that man and beat him to death with a 9-iron.

Advertisers of the world, I beg of you: stop doing this. I don't know who started this trend, but I assure you there is a better way to sell your various products. Look at beer advertisements, they haven't changed since the beginning of time: fun party, hot girl, beer, end with a joke. Done. And if you can't afford a real celebrity to be in your ad, there has to be some once-famous actor who needs the money. I would rather see a Hilton sister trying to sell me golf equipment than that guy.