Ad Nauseum: The Wacky World of Dueling Satellite Dish Companies

Hello, boys and girls, and welcome back to the fastest growing TV commercial blog on the Internets, Ad Nauseum. PS: there's no way that some other far more important medium than this one doesn't do a TV ad commentary in some form with the name "Ad Nauseum" already. And whatever it is, I didn't pilfer the name...and if for some reason there isn't an "Ad Nauseum" already out there, well, I'm sitting on a gold mine, Trebek.

DirecTV has been pumping out weirdly funny commercials for several years now. How can we forget the opulent Russian billionaire with the mini-giraffe (I jump in it)? Or the series of cause-and-effect ads that end with warnings like, don't wake up in a roadside ditch? And what about the series of cranky husband and wife spots advertising the DirecTV "Genie," where DVR warning messages seem to follow the couple through their every move? Their latest cable's more annoying/worse than [blank] series of commercials definitely keeps up with the tradition.

Dish Network doesn't have nearly the stroke, as Jeff Jarrett used to say back in the ol' WCW days, as DirecTV, and as result I think they felt it necessary to go even a bit weirder in advertising their own better recording system than cable, "The Hopper." Unfortunately, while DirecTV usually hits a home run in terms of balancing being off-the-wall and humorous, Dish Network probably is more analogous with a broken-bat single in that respect. There's something about the oddball family of the real-life Peter Griffin and the crotchety grandfather that does make me crack a smile, but mostly it just strikes me as weirdness for weirdness' sake. Regardless, I think I'll stick with cable for now, guys.