5 Things That No Radio Ad Should Do

If you live in St. Louis and listen to the radio on a daily basis during your commute, you probably hear a bunch of different commercials from various businesses (local or afar). Now, if you're like me, you also want to bang your head on your steering wheel when you hear the ear splitting sound effects that some of these employ. Without further ado, here are the five most annoying things that get my hand reaching to change the station. Have you heard all of 'em? See for yourself-

1. Loud weights being dropped / gavels hitting blocks/ the sound of metal clanking:

Giving us a headache every half second in between what you're trying to say generally isn't a great way to keep people interested. Unless you're trying to sell ibuprofen.

2.  Police sirens or the sound of alarms going off:

Your sale might be so good it's criminal, but every time I hear police sirens, I have to do a double take and make sure there's not actually a police officer nearby trying to pass through traffic.

3. When the GM/CEO of a company voices every commercial in the same repetitive, monotone way:

             It's good to be consistent. It's not so good to be dull to the point of inducing yawns. In the internet world, it is the equivalent of a wall of text, akin to the thought of Ben Stein reading a short novel to you while you're locked in an empty room. This is the kind of stuff that puts you asleep at the wheel, and as we know, drowsy driving is never fun.

4. Mentioning the number you should call more than a few times:

The way this usually works is, it'll be a conversation between two or more people, and some guy will keep asking what the number to call is. We're not just talking once or twice, it'll literally be every few seconds. These types of commercials are usually guilty of #3 as well. What's that number again?!

5. Jingles designed to specifically get on your nerves:

I have nothing against La Bamba. It's a catchy song. But when you try to mimic it or parody it by adding in your own lyrics to tell people to come to your business, it usually doesn't end well. Imagine the song, then imagine instead of "La La La La La Bamba", you hear an awkward voice singing "You should be buying from us!"

What sounds or effects drive you crazy when you hear radio commercials in the car? Or do you skip 'em by using satellite radio or iHeartRadio with Entune?

The One Toyota Ad You Have to See

There have certainly been some interesting videos from Toyota this year. From the "how did they think of that?" department comes the series of ads featuring the Prius c and a spoof of the game of Life. They also made an original song to promote their 100 Cars for Good initiative. As a social media guy, one of the spots I really like is the Venza ad where the girl talks about setting up Facebook profiles for her parents and how they've already got 19 friends. Have you seen it? Or would you prefer an endorsement from your favorite childhood celebrity? Fear not, they recruited both BILL NYE and WINNIE COOPER from The Wonder Years to educate you on the Prius.

However, my favorite from Toyota's repertoire of Youtube content this year is the futuristic video they created below. Ever seen the movie Idiocracy? If you haven't, the gist of the film is that a man is sent to the future, where he finds that despite advances in technology, people have actually become less intelligent over time (a brilliant concept, if you ask me. Mike Judge is a genius).
The same principle applies to this alternate reality where a couple set off to work in the morning. I won't spoil any details, but the story behind it all is "a world without hybrids".

What is your favorite video from Toyota? Leave us a comment or tweet it to @LouFuszToyota with your thoughts!