I feel the need to explain the picture before starting. This has pictures of my two books WILLIAM and Grayson & The Astronauts which I’m trying to advertise on the site but “I’ve written inappropriate stuff in-between”, literally. The books themselves aren’t inappropriate to anyone in their teens or above, maybe placing them on this blog post is inappropriate then.

That’s my point though. I was watching TV and an advertising commercial came on with a man in his underpants shaving his beard and his body to prove that an electric razor worked which is fine. The bit that made it inappropriate was the moment he pulled his underpants forward, glanced into then and looked at the camera as if to say ‘why not?’. Why did I have to see him do that? I want to know whether a product works not where people put it in their private time.

How about being stood in a room without a TV and hearing some good music coming from another room, it was Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel’s Make Me Smile. Hearing the music made me go into the room with the TV to see what they were advertising believing it would be something fun. Something to help with erectile disfunction, fun but not the sort I expected. Now every time I hear that song, a song I like I can’t stop thinking about erectile disfunction. I know marketers want adverts stuck in the audiences head so whatever music they use reminds them of the product but this is just wrong.

Why not make an advert about giving blood? That’ll help doctors. What a great idea, spur the country into doing something good for other people, this may save lives. A noble effort for a worthwhile cause. What could go wrong? Well… they could make the tagline/key phrase of the advert “bleed for the country you love”. Bleeding isn’t a nice activity and people don’t want to do it, this instantly makes people opposed to the idea.

Then there was the other one, the man who arrives at a woman’s house looking like they might be getting married or meeting the family or something. What are they selling? Suits? Mints? De-odorant? No, they’re selling cat-food. As soon as the door opens the man sees the cat and decides that no matter what else is going on he must feed the cat. Why? And this is backed by REO Speedwagon’s ‘Can’t Fight This Feeling’ which means another great song that I like is ruined by advertising.

I think these things are annoying and am more annoyed at how they can be allowed on TV in the first place. They’re sort of funny but for the wrong reasons.