Best and Worst Commercials

Being stuck inside for the better part of the past 2 years due to COVID concerns, I’ve seen a lot of great commercials on the TV and on social media and I’ve seen my fair share of terrible ones.

Here is a brief list of some good ones and some terrible ones. It’s in no specific order, and I’ll try to explain why I like or detest them. If you have any to add, please do!

Like: Any commercial for Tide Cold. These commercials with Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ice-T, and a combination of laundry / cold / ice related players like Vanilla Ice, Mark Messier and Falcons QB Matty Ice, are absolutely hilarious! The most recent one with Gordon Ramsey which ends with Stone Cold yelling, “That guy needs to chill out!!” is so good! I get quiet for these commercials.

Like: Any Skip the Dishes commercial with Jon Hamm. Watching him promote the brand (which I use and love) while pretending to be a Canadian makes for very funny commercials.

Like: Uber Eats commercial with Elton John and Lil Nas X is hilarious! It took me a few times of watching it to catch all the little funny bits.

Dislike: KFC “Chicken Rich” commercials. The jingle doesn’t match the commercial, it’s terrible and it doesn’t make me want to eat KFC at all… It doesn’t make sense that fried chicken and chicken rich are a good combination, which is why it’s not. I had to pause it after grabbing the link.

Dislike: Intuit TurboTax Free “Dance Workout” commercial. It’s terrible. You know they say any publicity is good publicity? It’s not true. This commercial, which has a fitness instructor in short shorts saying “free” over and over again while leading a class doesn’t make you think of a tax product, but makes you wonder why Intuit would make another terrible commercial. I had to ask friends, and they all wondered why the commercial led you to believe that someone was going to come free from the instructors shorts, and nothing else. It’s super-cringy. Shame.

Dislike: The BMO commercial about the couple who are out for dinner and the menu is in German and the female comments that she stopped taking the German lessons because the free trial ended. The BMO guy who tells her that she’s paying now is fantastic! I think he’s great and I really enjoy him in the commercials. He’s really awesome as their spokesperson! But what gets me, is that when she finds out she’s still paying she says something in German, which sounds like she’s saying “fuck me!” I had to watch that commercial quite a few times before I realized it wasn’t what she was saying, but regardless… It’s in poor taste. The rest of the commercial is great, and I see they’ve added subtitles now, but still… UGH.

Like: There is a commercial that I’ve seen recently about a family who have a massive hole in their kitchen. I’m not yet sure what the commercial is about, but I like that as they’re staring in the hole, the female says something like, “my cat is in there” and then you hear “meow”, and a second later the male says something like, “and it has my keys”… I just find that last little commentary to be very clever and quite hilarious! I think it’s for one of those non-dairy coffee creamers…

Like: One last one while I remember is a commercial for I believe, Chevy Silverado, and it involves a cat named Walter. This cat loves the winter, and seeing the cat outside partaking in all winter activities is hilarious, especially the scene where a guy is buried in snow, and the cat starts to dig him out. The guys looks at the cat and says, that’s amazing, and the guy who owns the car and the cat says, yeah… that’s the 2022 Chevy Silverado, and he proceeds to discuss the car. Then the guy says, no, the cat! The cat owner says something like, what? you’ve never seen a cat before… It’s clever, it’s funny and it’s cute. Well done!

What’s on your list?

Have I Mentioned How Much I Love Skip the Dishes?

The pandemic has changed the way I do things, and one of best things to come out of self-isolation (besides the weight-loss) has been an introduction to Skip the Dishes. I’ve been using this app quite a lot, and I really like it…

I’ve tried the other apps, and they’re good too, but I find with the Skip app, that some things are just easier to navigate, and they make ordering food really easy. Idiot proof, if you prefer, which suits this idiot just fine.

Just the other day, for example, it gave me the heads up that there were a few new restaurants which might be of interest to me, and as a result, we tried a place called the Rosedale Pantry.

There were many items to choose from at this restaurant – some vegetarian, some dairy free, some gluten free, but just mainly good looking food which sounded like it would be delicious. We ordered just about one of everything (Chicken Shawarma with Tahini, Grilled Salmon, Miami ribs, Caprese Quinoa, Dan Dan Broccoli, Kale Caesar salad, Kale and Beet salad, Middle Eastern salad, Roasted Sweet potatoes, Tahini Cauliflower, Tokyo Slaw, Mac & Cheese, and Wild Mushrooms – I wasn’t kidding when I said we tried almost one of everything) and within minutes, we could see that our driver was on the way to pick up the food.

We love watching the driver on the Skip app, as you get to see the car move through the city from their starting location to the restaurant, and then from restaurant to your home.

The food itself was really delicious, very fresh, very flavourful, and the portions were much larger than I anticipated they would be. Would absolutely order from there again, especially if you were having a post-COVID party and wanted to have salads and dishes of different foods for people to eat. Strongly recommend that!

The other cool feature of the Skip app that I have only had to use a couple of times, was when there was a missing dish, or error in the food. The customer service from these guys is spot on. They are polite, quick, and responsive. There is no waiting for weeks to have an issue resolved.

So it’s due to those reasons and likely a few more, why I choose to use Skip the Dishes when ordering food.

Also, if you’re in the Greater Toronto Area, make sure to check out the Rosedale Pantry.

Which food delivery apps do you prefer? What would you say is their best feature, and worst feature?