Kevin's Top Ten Worst Commercials of 2024
Added 2025-02-15 00:00:24 +0000 UTCA brand new Patreon-exclusive video essay, and the third addition to Defunctland After Dark. Over the past few years, television advertisements have become more surreal, mean-spirited, and purposefully confusing. In this 2-hour video essay, Kevin breaks down his top ten worst most hated commercials of 2024. If you enjoy positivity and praise, this is not the video for you. If you're a certified hater, welcome to your happy sad place. Let's take these advertisers down a peg.
While this link will not embed yet, if you would like to watch it on YouTube, this is the link: https://youtu.be/OGMAPKY_EV0
Comments
What’s the over/under on us getting a 2025 version of this masterpiece? I want to make a Post Malone size bet.
Rivers G
2025-09-10 01:02:00 +0000 UTCRewatching this one again and realized I never added the Chloe Fineman context I know. Prior even to being known for doing celebrity impressions on IG, she was a frequent contributor on web based comedy channel SuperDeluxe (which was often bizarre, avant garde, and sadly now defunct). That was the earliest version I saw of her "eastern European" characters. Ooli the bjork-esque childrens show host I never saw outside of IG but she does seem to have some fondness for that character. The character she did for SuperDeluxe, I forget the name since they've scrubbed all the videos, but she was a recurring character of a young woman in Hollywood with a vibe that could be described as "euro trash" trying to live glamorously above her means. I think Fineman is actually hilarious and have been happy to see her success however... I just think her content is too weird for mainstream. I get that there's probably not much money in YouTube sketch comedy but she worked so much much better in that format and have no doubts trying to squeeze that into whatever modern SNL demands is a challenge. But your instinct was correct, these ARE characters she's been work shipping for the better part of a decade. I doubt advertisers expected anybody to know that but it kinda seems like, inexplicably, they did.
AK Barratt
2025-08-07 00:41:00 +0000 UTCthe only good legacy the BK Whopper commercials had were when one of the SiIvaGunner remix videos autotuned them to One Winged Angel
Danielle Schatten
2025-06-28 19:59:42 +0000 UTCYeah, I was gonna say, it seemed like vibrator was implied. It glow, buttons, I wanna feel this again and again, can I hold it As for the daughter listening… perversion? Idk.
William Komocsar
2025-03-19 15:03:42 +0000 UTCIt IS fresh
47Cartoonguy
2025-03-16 22:58:53 +0000 UTCI hate this video because the Whopper song just blares in my head for days afterwards, but also I can't stop watching it.
Ellen Kaluza
2025-03-02 21:50:23 +0000 UTCP.s. Errol Morris has been good but between the Elizabeth holmes documentary and the chipotle ad, he has really fallen down these past 10 years
Jenny Maurer
2025-02-28 05:33:43 +0000 UTCNah apparently it’s based on a 70s Burger King jingle
Jenny Maurer
2025-02-28 04:43:45 +0000 UTCAdmittedly I just joined for a month for this video . I’m a big fan of advertisement talk with a favorite podcast of mine being after these messages
Jenny Maurer
2025-02-28 04:41:29 +0000 UTCMe at first: aw man, I can’t wait to catch up on all the Patreon videos now that I’m a patron! Me, 45 minutes in and just now seeing the full run time: dear lord help me
Sabi Sgambi
2025-02-24 07:03:59 +0000 UTCI came here to say this, too, but I did a quick check and apparently they're okay with whatever pronouns. They said they/them feels most right to them, but that they really don't mind and they don't want it to be a big deal. So referring to them as she is perfectly fine.
Tessa & Maarten
2025-02-23 21:42:11 +0000 UTCwhopper whopper ad took me back to when the dolphins game would cut to a commercial break because of another tua sustained concussion. thanks kevin, took me out of the offseason for a second
ilikecheese
2025-02-21 18:47:03 +0000 UTCReleasing a snippet publicly was genius because i don't think id be able to sleep without getting all of this
Space
2025-02-21 00:05:15 +0000 UTCStill working my way through the video as I can. First, THANK YOU for calling out how terribly they butchered the concept of "Jake from State Farm." I hate those commercials so much. But yeah, I'm still sort of confused by what you didn't like about #10. It was too good at making you want McDonald's? Also, I can't tell if you're being genuine or trolling when you keep calling the Geico gecko a lizard.
Maddie Oleszczak
2025-02-20 18:11:40 +0000 UTCI too hated the Liberty insurance commercial with the wax figure. I hated the frisbee one though because who is throwing a frisbee on a pier like that. And then multiple frisbees coming from the same direction? Also it doesn’t look like a frisbee but looks like a lid of some sort.
Brody Gustafson
2025-02-20 17:38:45 +0000 UTCGod I love a deep dive
Gigglebyte
2025-02-20 17:25:56 +0000 UTCI love the deep dives into each commercial. 7th world war is a wildddd name! My least favorite commercial has been that Trivago ad where they all have veneers
Lindsey Keefer
2025-02-20 15:43:28 +0000 UTCDibs on "Loose-Leaf Chicken Thighs" as a band name.
Alyssa S.
2025-02-20 14:20:33 +0000 UTC"Florida, where I'm living..." Oh no, Kevin... I'm so sorry.
Rebecca Richards
2025-02-20 11:57:09 +0000 UTCDon't worry Matthew, your latino cred was confirmed and validated with the use of the El Chavo theme song. No further information is needed.
Sara Gonzalez
2025-02-20 05:15:42 +0000 UTCI ended up joining the Patreon because of the public cut of this video (Chipotle documentary ads) and honestly, I can't wait to watch the full thing as well as other things on the Patreon.
RKD
2025-02-19 21:19:20 +0000 UTCOn the topic of outrage over SNL being taken off the air (were that to happen): I think only the elite of the entertainment industry would be baffled or taken aback. Regular audiences would have seen it coming
Naope
2025-02-19 18:16:00 +0000 UTChi, i also joined from the chipotle ad preview on youtube! i thought the same thing with the last apple one. i think the bad, disjointed dialogue is supposed to be alluding to the innuendo that they have some sort of new sex toy, likely a strap-on
Sunny Pallister
2025-02-19 06:58:13 +0000 UTCThat was a master class in over thinking things that were never intended to be thought about that hard. I salute you. Also, the slightly off singing and general vibe of the OG Burger King jingle feels like it might be at least sonically inspired by Biz Markie's Just a Friend, but whether that was intentional or by accident I can't say. Either way the jingle is stuck in my head now.
Sara King
2025-02-19 03:45:23 +0000 UTCDoing my part for the cause by commenting "anyone else here from the Defunctland Patreon?" on episodes of My Kitchen Rules.
monstershaped
2025-02-19 01:50:27 +0000 UTCI, like another commenter, read the innuendo in the Apple commercial as being an adult toy. But! I think the commercial could have been saved if the daughter stormed in the room like "You got the new iPhone 16 and didn't tell me!" Kind of subverting the creepy weirdness by her, a teenager (who we all know love iPhones), actually being disgusted that her parents secretly having the latest gadget that her and her brother wanted.
Diamond
2025-02-19 01:41:58 +0000 UTCHi! I had several unsolicited thoughts! I joined based off of your youtube preview because I loved the passion you had in noticing and critiquing the details and cohesiveness of the ads. I would never have thought of or noticed these things but I absolutely agree, truly a banger video. I do not want to sully your enjoyment of the delivery room advertisement, but it does bother me that the later reverse shots of the son from behind the wife do not include the husband's arm on his wife's shoulder. I suppose on the flip side that could imply that the choice was entirely the actor's in the moment, which is perhaps better. Please preface this with the same disclaimers as you had when discussing it, but I think the final ad is meant to imply that the wife has gotten a new strap on of some sort, I guess electronic somehow. I think this is why the husband's lines include the implication of begging and 'getting to touch it'. It would also explain why it is singular and might glow. This doesn't improve the ad at all, and the dialogue still only kind of applies, but at least it makes a bit more sense with this assumption.
Sorry I taught you splendor duel wrong
2025-02-18 23:35:23 +0000 UTCthank you for your service in telling us this 🥲
Marrim
2025-02-18 22:16:04 +0000 UTCthat apple emoji ad played for like a month straight before every YouTube video i watched and it made me want to kms absolutely haunting
Gigi
2025-02-18 21:48:36 +0000 UTCWow, so glad I pay so i don't have to watch commercials anymore.
Just James
2025-02-18 21:00:04 +0000 UTCWant those liberty ads to be even worse? If I recall correctly, the location they are supposedly in isn’t even possible as a pier since the Statue of Liberty faces out towards the water (since she is welcoming the boats in). To have her at that angle in the background, all these ads would need to be on a ferry or other boat in the water, not a pier.
Mel Curtis
2025-02-18 19:38:41 +0000 UTCSo... I could be completely wrong here, but the Burger King commercials sound like they were directly inspired by Wesley Willis' songs. For context, Willis was an "underground" musician from the 80s and 90s famous for songs that are mostly just a single absurd line repeated multiple times off key, and over time they became memes - you may be familiar with "I Whupped Spider-Man's Ass" or "Rock N' Roll McDonalds." Again, I don't know Crown at all, but it sure feels like he's intentionally channeling Willis in his BK songs. The thing is...Willis was officially diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and was also homeless for a while, by all accounts he had a pretty rough life. His songs were less self-aware jokes as one may assume and more just him rambling whatever he was thinking at the time, and there's still debate to this day as to whether fans of Willis who went to his shows were laughing with him or at him (I imagine it was a mix of both, honestly). Because of that, a brand as big as Burger King co-opting Willis' style to sell burgers just comes off as remarkably shitty and tasteless to me. Willis even had a BK song! Ironically it's one where he roasts the hell out of them - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGXHsxqQEwU
Bigg
2025-02-18 17:08:40 +0000 UTCThere is another horrible Apple AI commercial about a hateful mother who resents that her daughters found meaningful gifts to give their father on his birthday, which she seems to have forgotten. So, she quickly has Apple AI put together some shitty slideshow that phones have been doing long before the AI boom and shoehorns herself into their moment, ruining it, and walks off like she’s some great hero looking very punchably smug.
Carriwitchety
2025-02-18 15:38:59 +0000 UTCIdk if anyone will see this but I am an elementary school teacher and I can confirm that kids sing the off-key Burger King song.
Elizabeth
2025-02-18 13:18:38 +0000 UTCI miss 70s and 80s commercials, where some random force of nature would pull a family out of a car while screaming and making them play Pole Position for the Atari.
Jomaster the Second
2025-02-18 12:51:05 +0000 UTCMaybe State Farm’s “Patrick Mahomes” character will get his own spin-off show some day
James Ribe
2025-02-18 08:01:04 +0000 UTCCan’t believe I just watched two hours of commercials…
Nic Freiri
2025-02-18 06:24:07 +0000 UTCThe Errol Morris bit you posted, the Chipotle shit, was so funny I had to come over. $2 for 2 hours of commercial hatred?! I fucking loathe commercials so Im strapped in. Thank you for this, incredible dedication.
Michael Rydzinski
2025-02-18 05:49:57 +0000 UTCHere's the main problem with those Salesforce ads, neither of those businesses would use Salesforce. Those businesses are too small the be consider a Small to Medium Business. This is a tool for a Customer Service rep who has over 200 accounts, and before they have their quarterly/yearly check-in, they get a summary where it says what their previous issues were and maybe even what they bought the service for. But that would require to actually put good notes into Salesforce, which I know from first hand experience, is impossible to make sales/customer service reps to do.
Joel Eblin
2025-02-18 05:13:26 +0000 UTCI somehow missed this one, and I'm glad.
Defunctland
2025-02-18 03:36:41 +0000 UTCJoined your Patreon specifically for this video, and I just have to add my most hated ad this year. I saw the wicked movie like 3 times because I’m a theatre kid and good GOD that one google AI ad where they had the AI sing wicked songs made me want to walk out of the theatre before the show even STARTED
Cyrus W.
2025-02-18 02:00:55 +0000 UTCfuck it we bundle
Diamond
2025-02-18 01:16:04 +0000 UTCThis is the stuff i pay for! I loved this!
timberjack
2025-02-17 21:44:02 +0000 UTCWorse comersial 👍
Keegan Sinur
2025-02-17 19:34:59 +0000 UTCThis was great! Honestly any long “ramble style” video from you is my fave stuff to watch
Kathryn Brennan
2025-02-17 07:30:47 +0000 UTCGreat video! I believe Bella Ramsey uses they/them pronouns-if you are able to make an edit or note.
Brie Brown
2025-02-16 18:13:10 +0000 UTCThis was perfect Patreon content, I really enjoyed it a lot. I agree with all of these, SUCH annoying ads during sports right now it drives me crazy. I've started actively muting when commercials come on, I used to just let it ride but now so many commercials are about weird obscure medical conditions and I can't take it anymore.
Blizzard Wuffy
2025-02-16 15:01:31 +0000 UTCAs a person who doesn't have ads on YouTube or any streaming services, plus no cable/regular tv, I have literally zero patience for ads. Watching this reminded me of how difficult it was to watch the Olympics because of the ads.
Moonie
2025-02-16 04:01:36 +0000 UTCI wanna let you know that I joined for patreon specifically for this video, and I was specifically hoping that my least favorite commercial was on the list, and it is your #1 worst and I feel so validated.
Rachel Chabot
2025-02-15 22:28:45 +0000 UTCI know you are super busy and would probably never do it, but I think you could make some amazing sports related content. As someone who is really into sports but doesn’t really vibe with the traditional bro-y nature of its external mouth pieces, your style would be much appreciated.
Ryan Eldridge
2025-02-15 20:21:15 +0000 UTCI understand, others have brought this up, but the focus on him holding it is what made me think of something to do with something new on her. Also, at the point that a mainstream iPhone commercial is about pegging, it at least proves why it should be my #1.
Defunctland
2025-02-15 19:59:03 +0000 UTCKevin, I hate to break it to you, but I think #1 is supposed to be about pegging. The singular and the 'press the button' makes most sense with some form of dildo lol
Sharada
2025-02-15 19:48:38 +0000 UTCAs someone from the Netherlands, this was an *interesting* peek into the world of American commercials. Not that we don't have bad commercials over here (trust me: we have more than plenty). And I loved your rising disgruntledness as you moved up the list :-)
Björn Hermans
2025-02-15 17:06:20 +0000 UTCSorry for the double comment but the Bosch commercial with Antonio Banderas during the Super Bowl was brutal, including a bizarrely resurrected Macho Man Randy Savage cameo.
Isaac Napell
2025-02-15 05:07:32 +0000 UTCThis is a terrible comment and I apologize in advance, but #1 makes slightly more sense if you assume the wife character has gotten a clitoral hood piercing, in so far as the singular/plural element is concerned. But that doesn’t make the ad any better and also probably makes her an even worse mom? Maybe don’t tell your teenagers about your new genital piercings?
Rachel Rakov
2025-02-15 05:06:53 +0000 UTCThe tone of shock and betrayal in your voice when you found out Errol Morris was doing the Chipotle commercials had me going.
Isaac Napell
2025-02-15 05:05:12 +0000 UTCThe Chipotle plot twist was almost on the level of Shapeland
Dr. Chunk
2025-02-15 04:43:19 +0000 UTCI definitely don't disagree with your #1, but the first one that came to mind for me was the Google AI Fan Letter commercial. I mean, even if you had no ethical issues with AI, and your writing standards were so low that you thought it would do a good job, it's just not... the point... of a fan letter. I think a different AI commercial even clowned on them for it, that's when you know it's bad.
Flando Maltrizian
2025-02-15 02:48:39 +0000 UTCDang, forgot about that, should have mentioned that
Defunctland
2025-02-15 01:12:53 +0000 UTCthe Danny Bundle Is Life ad is somehow even more full-circle, because Ted Lasso himself was *originally a commercial* too
Wally
2025-02-15 01:12:22 +0000 UTCHard agree with #1. A confusing and off-putting commercial.
Dennis Owens
2025-02-15 01:09:06 +0000 UTCi love finding out that kevin and i hate the same commercials for similar reasons
Jacob Sundstrom
2025-02-15 00:43:20 +0000 UTCI was surprised to have to hear about the horrific Super Bowl loss this Sunday, but less surprised than finding out Errol Morris did those commercials. It was as mind blowing as finding out I know hundreds of One Republic songs.
Dennis Owens
2025-02-15 00:39:47 +0000 UTCAlso, imagine copyright claiming a commercial. Someone is doing free advertising for you, you should be paying them dammit!
J Singh
2025-02-15 00:05:54 +0000 UTCReliable Vimeo, nothing beats that
J Singh
2025-02-15 00:04:44 +0000 UTC
