There are certain TV commercials that are memorable because of how effective they were. For instance, “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?” is a phrase that pretty much everyone in the English-speaking world is familiar with. Likewise, the whole “The Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign significantly increased the mental real estate that Dos Equis holds with consumers. Those are both examples of TV marketing campaigns that went incredibly well and are remembered for all the right reasons.
Then, there are some TV commercials that are remembered for all the wrong reasons. Some ads are so weird, unsettling, or even downright scary that we can’t forget them (even if we wish that we could). And, considering that marketing directors at large companies are often paid six-figure salaries, it’s pretty amazing that such awful advertisements ever made it to TV.
Nonetheless, we’re glad that these horrible TV commercials exist. And there were quite a few of these awful ads during the years from 2010 to 2019. So, get ready to take a walk down memory lane as we look at the 6 worst TV commercials of the 2010s.
1. PuppyMonkeyBaby (Mountain Dew)
Going down in history as potentially the worst commercial of all time (and not just the 2010s) is “PuppyMonkey,” a commercial that first aired during the 2016 Super Bowl to advertise Mountain Dew Kickstart. The commercial featured three men sitting on a couch, expressing that they were too tired to go out. Then, the most horrible abomination of a creature busts in the door and starts aggressively forcing them to drink Mountain Dew Kickstart.
At the end of the ad, the message “THREE AWESOME THINGS COMBINED” comes across the screen. So, I guess the idea here was that Mountain Dew Kickstart is a combination of three awesome things (Mountain Dew, juice, and caffeine), and PuppyMonkeyBaby is also a combination of three awesome things. But, in reality, both Mountain Dew Kickstart and the ghoulish PuppyMonkeyBaby creature are abominations. This commercial is pure nightmare fuel.
2. Doggy Dentures (Pedigree)
While we’re on the topic of animal abominations, back in 2012, Pedigree thought it would be a good idea to put human teeth in the mouths of dogs. The ad was to promote their Dentastix product, which was meant to support your dog’s dental health. And, instead of going the traditional route and saying, “Don’t you care about your best friend’s dental health?” or something like that, they decided to make a super weird joke.
The beginning of the ad pretends that they’re promoting “doggy dentures”, which appear to be human dentures in the mouth of a dog. The ad then shows several images of dogs with human teeth that are unsettling to say the least. No one wants to see dogs with human teeth and, certainly, no one wants to think about a dog wearing human dentures. This ad should’ve never been made.
3. Giffing Out (Kmart)
During the 2013 Christmas season, Kmart released an ad that can only be described as what happens when an old person tries to use hip lingo and fails miserably. The ad shows a couple (with their car’s trunk full of Kmart bags) that seems to be caught in a two-second time loop. Another couple looks on confusedly until the wife says, “Definitely giffing out. Look what they scored at Kmart.”
Presumably, the phrase “giffing out” is a reference to GIFs. So, by that logic, this couple has entered a GIF-like time loop because the deals that they got at Kmart were so amazing. First of all, GIFs and Kmart Christmas deals have nothing to do with one another, and the two things aren’t ever connected in a logical way in the commercial. It seems like some old person in the writers’ room said, “What’s something that young people are talking about?” and then another old person said, “GIFs!” and that was the end of it. I can almost guarantee that no one under the age of 40 worked on this commercial.
4. Singimals Kittens (Quiznos)
Never in a million years did I think I would be complaining about singing kittens. Look what you made me do, Quiznos. Back in 2011, Quiznos released a series of ads called the ‘Singimals” that featured singing animals lauding the amazing deals that you could get at Quiznos. And, they released one particular ad that featured three kittens singing about Quiznos to the tune of “Hot Cross Buns”. What’s not to like, right?
Wrong. The kittens’ bodies were animated in a very campy puppet-like style and their voices seriously sounded like scratching a chalkboard. The margin for error was massive. They could have just filmed three kittens nibbling on sandwiches and it would’ve been great. But, instead, they gave these kittens weirdly moving bodies and voices that are going to haunt me forever. They really did those kittens dirty.
5. Clean Your Balls (Axe)
You may recognize Jaime Pressly from her work on My Name Is Earl, Joe Dirt, or Not Another Teen Movie. However, in 2010, she made a notable appearance in an advertisement for Axe titled “Clean Your Balls”. And, now that you’ve read the title of the ad, you don’t even need to watch it. The entire thing is just Pressly talking about how the Axe Detailer is the perfect tool to clean your balls “so that they’re more fun to play with.” Every time she makes the joke, a group of men in the audience clap.
Now, I’m all for a little raunchy humor, but this ad is just unoriginal, unclever, and creepy. The whole “balls” double entendre reminds me of a joke I would’ve made when I was about 9 years old. Once again, I’m all for some raunchy jokes about genitalia. But if you’re going to make jokes like that, it should be done with more creativity, class, and tact. And there also probably shouldn’t be a room full of empty-eyed, sex-crazed men salivating at a woman as she talks about balls. That’s just creepy.
6. Wow! That’s a Low Price! (Staples)
While we’re on the topic of commercials that were amazingly unimaginative, let’s talk about a Staples ad campaign from 2010 that simply involved two actors looking at merchandise in a Staples franchise and screaming, “Wow! That’s a low price!” That’s the whole commercial. There might be one or two other words said in the ad, but no more than that. The entire thing is literally just two guys screaming about how prices are low.
Whoever made this ad should return the money that they were paid because it’s clear that they put in no effort whatsoever. It’s as if Staples an ad agency and said, “We want you to produce an ad that highlights how Staples has such low prices.” Then, the ad agency forgot about the project until 20 minutes before the deadline. Then, scrambling, some intern suggested, “Why don’t we just have two guys screaming that Staples has low prices?” And that was the commercial. What a disgrace.
