Credit card commercials are inescapable. Try as you might, you'll end up seeing a ridiculous number of ads for credit cards over the course of a month. Some are tolerable. Others…not so much. The Awful Advertisements staff has already dolled out our fair share of criticism towards several credit card companies, but we didn't think that was enough. We wanted you, the reader, to sound off and tell us which credit card company has the worst commercials.
Below are some of the responses we received on Twitter. It's interesting to see which companies were named (Capital One – we're looking at you) and perhaps more importantly, which companies escaped your wrath (MasterCard). If you want to join future discussions with us on Twitter, give us a follow @Awful_Ads. Feel free to add your own opinions below.
Capital One
We assumed there would be plenty of Capital One responses and you guys didn't disappoint. What surprised us was how few mentioned Jimmy Fallon. Perhaps enough time has passed for viewers to have forgotten the dreadful Fallon doing bad accents and Fallon screaming at a child spots. Now the complaints are all centered around Alec Baldwin. Capital One is the big winner (er, loser) based on your feedback.
@awful_ads The Capital One Vikings have been running on fumes for years now.
— Jon Benne (@LordBenne) June 13, 2013
@awful_ads Capitol One.
— Eric Robinson (@ewrobinson1) June 13, 2013
@awful_ads Capital One is worst, Baldwin and the hairy buggers. Followed closely by the blue guitar guy.
— Charley Ashton (@SoonerCharley) June 13, 2013
@awful_ads The Alec Baldwin Viking ones for Capital One
— Curt G (@curtgOK) June 14, 2013
@awful_ads Understood. Jimmy Fallon ads with that brat kid annoy me the most.
— David Deines (@David_Deines) June 14, 2013
Discover
There were very few mentions of Discover in our little survey. That doesn't mean they're off the hook, but it appears most folks don't mind Peggy or the fact someone is actually picking up the phone when you call. Speaking of which, where is Peggy?
@awful_ads Discover's "We're just like you" campaign is preposterous. They're "just like every other credit card".
— Jeff Heyer (@heyerarchy) June 14, 2013
Chase
Very few mentions of Chase as well. However, it appears no one likes bad covers of Footloose.
@awful_ads Nah…the one with the dude singing the Footloose rip off. Awful stuff.
— Chad Reno (@CJR13) June 13, 2013
American Express
@awful_ads The American Express Private Pass commercial featuring the "Boring" guy and Alicia Keyes. No longer boring, just in loads of debt
— Benjamin Stone (@KBenjaminStone) June 13, 2013
We aren't sure which commercial the next reader was talking about, but his response was one we just had to include.
@awful_ads Whichever one has that weird lady in it. The one that dresses like a man. American Express, I think.
— Brendan (@thelumpedpoison) June 13, 2013
Visa
Sorry, Visa. Not even a company associated with Morgan Freeman's lovely voice is immune to bad advertisements.
@awful_ads do you smallenfreuden? No Visa, but your add effensucken
— Jason L (@special_j) June 14, 2013
Citibank
Several companies have gone the "prove you're fun by purchasing stuff you can't afford" route. It's always a bad route.
@awful_ads CitiBank's "you're boring!" commercial where the guy goes into massive debt to prove to his ex-girlfriend that he's NOT boring.
— Jen Gaffney (@jengaffney) June 14, 2013
All of them
This response kind of avoids the whole point of the question, but they make a strong case. At some point every credit card company has produced a stinker. Let it be a lesson that sometimes less is more and that you should always know which way the card should be swiped.
@awful_ads Yes. There's so bloody many of them and they're all awful.
— Douglas Murphy (@ColTroutman) June 13, 2013
@awful_ads all of them. No one ever slides the credit card the right way in an ad. STRIPE SIDE DOWN!
— Krall (@Kralldady) June 14, 2013
