Looking Forward to the Snarky Ad Backlash

I have had it with snarky ads.



Snarky: Rudely sarcastic or disrespectful; snide (Dictionary.com)



I'd add this definition: The sarcastic, know-it-all, snotty sense of humor that has become the lingua franca of the late 00's among a certain class of too-cool young adults.



The front-line of the snarky cultural revolution seems to be advertising. It's driving me nuts, and I'm hoping I'm a leading indicator for the rest of the world. The sooner we're rid of the snarky ad revolution, the better. Here are some of my absolute most hated snarky ads. If, after watching these, you can't see this trend, then I must be crazy.



T-Mobile Butt Dialing. Can these two people hate each other any more? The absolute awfulness exhibited by these two idiots turns my stomach. I hope each of them butt-dials 911 and a SWAT team traces the call and accidentally blows them away. This makes me despise T-Mobile and Blackberry.

E-Trade Baby. Hey, it's not cute, it's creepy. However, beyond that, the baby is a snarky jerk. Would anyone want to hang out with this creep, as an adult or a baby? Once again, E-Trade is literally out of my consideration set on the basis of these obnoxious ads alone.


Bud Lite Drawing Guy. The UPS drawing guy isn't snarky, he's just a walking cliche. But the Bud Lite drawing guy is snarky and enjoys making meaningless, ironic comments. I don't like any of the "drawing" ads, but the skier one is particularly bad.

Old Spice Neil Patrick Harris. The snarkiness emanating from Doogie Houser in this one far exceeds any nasty body odor one might have. I guess this has just become the only way to talk to the 20-30 generation (at least that advertisers understand.) Troy McClure was funny--in 1994. It's not funny anymore.

I'd love to come up with more, but to do that I'd have to watch more TV. Any comments suggesting other examples of this awful ad genre will be posted. And yes, I'm grumpy.