Someone found the blog on that search term. Well, I’ve already written about the Weight Watchers ad from around Christmas, but there are definitely some others that make me turn off the sound or switch channels.
I detest whispering and whistling, and people humming or singing repetitively (especially when they can’t sing or don’t know the words or the whole song).
There’s one ad at the moment – actually, it’s been around for some months – where there is this woman going into hotels, spas, and things, and she whispers at the camera for the whole time. It drives me crazy and I mute or change channels the second it comes on. I can’t remember what it’s advertising (I don’t think I ever waited to find out – that’s how good the advertising agencies are), but I’ll edit this when I do.
EDIT: It’s for Secret Escapes. God, it’s annoying. And the blog is getting a lot of hits now I’ve mentioned the name – Secret Escapes is doing itself no favours here. All the hits are based on “annoying woman whispering” or variations on that theme!
EDIT: As of late 2014/early 2015 Secret Escapes has embarked on a new advertising drive. I must say that the woman is beginning to look a bit past it now.
Whistling seems to be the current favourite advertising ploy used by the agencies – Volkswagen had one on the radio recently that was played incessantly, and involved some tuneless idiot whistling a Beach Boys song. Fortunately, it was cut down dramatically for its short-lived TV run (although now they’ve got one with humming in it).
I’ll keep my eye out for others to keep this thread going (it seems to be quite popular, because anything that annoys me seems to annoy others judging from the hits I get).
EDIT: There’s an update to this topic here.