Ads That Make Uncle Sam Want To Hide His Eyes

Budweiser, Coke and Levi Blue Jeans: three iconic American products that in much of the world are synonymous with the United States, and vice versa. So that makes it even funnier that here are three commercials that people have thought to be among the worst, ever and they were conceived, vetted and produced in layers of committees for such huge companies. And you probably won't be surprised to learn they were all made in the 80s. I blame Reagan.
Anyway here is a Budweiser commercial that I feel must've been inspired by that scene in Top Gun-it's just not nearly a cool a concept this time around

Serenading someone in a bar-that's just embarrassing for everyone involved and especially if he didn't know/just met that girl to be singing about "Tracks of My Tears" is kinda creepy.

I guess I can sort of see how this idea was improved-have NFL stars rapping, like the Super Bowl Shuffle, but this time about Diet Coke.It's just really really bad, with the dancing and rhythm and what makes it worse is that like 3 of the best players ever were caught on film moving awkwardly and rapping about Diet Coke. Was this during the "Cola Wars" or whatever? because they do throw a slight jab Pepsi's way.(the Diet Coke commercial starts at about 30 seconds in)


And finally this is a very simple ad. Guy is sitting down. Guy rolls the cuff of his jeans up. Stands up, pirouettes, checks himself out then sits back down on a ledge and smiles. No doubt this caused a rush on Levi's 501 jeans.

I was thinking about it and it seems so weird to me when I'm watching whatever from the 80s and they mention that like people in Soviet Russia are amazed by blue jeans and kind of thought of them as an symbol of freedom, and that still today, a little, but the satirical stereotype of Americans usually involves blue jeans (and a cowboy hat but that's totally different.) Like in other countries and all the land in Russia they couldn't grow whatever blue jeans are made of (I assume cotton?-i've never thought of it really) Or are they just tied to America that they were verboten. I would hope that American Exceptionalism didn't refer strictly to jeans.

Sphere: Related Content