When my crack team of classic video game experts brought this Video Maniac Sports Accessories commercial to my attention I didn't know what to think. I looked at it for a few minutes and concluded that there was no joke there; this is a perfectly good advertisement as far as I'm concerned. But my team wasn't going to let me ignore this old school commercial. They insisted that I give it a second look and try and find the obvious joke. Of course, here I am with my back up against a deadline and I still don't see what all the fuss is about. As far as I'm concerned this is one of the better commercials we've looked at. I mean, it's a little dated, but who cares? Surely they've brought me older commercials, so I don't think this has anything to do with its age. I don't know gang, I just don't see it.

So let's try and itemize this commercial and see if we can uncover this ad's hidden horribleness. Okay, right off the bat I can see that this is a commercial for something called "Video Maniac Sports Accessories." Now, I don't know what that is, but it seems like some of those words don't go together. The one thing I know is that they sell accessories, so at least that's a good start. Do they sell sports accessories? Like, I don't know, balls, nets, and hoops. Or maybe they sell video accessories, like RF units, antennas and cabling? No wait, I know, they sell maniac accessories, such as chainsaws and padded rooms. Hmm, that can't be it. Man, what do these guys sell?

It says that they sell "video sports gloves," so I guess that means they sell gloves. That sounds like a video game accessory. They also sell "high quality screened T-shirts." Hmm, I don't know about you but that screams maniac. And finally, they list "sportswear and accessories," which totally sounds sports related. But seriously, do they really need to tell us that they sell accessories? The word "accessories" is in the name of the company. How stupid do they think we are?

Well, I don't know about how stupid you are, but I'm feeling pretty dumb right now. I've itemized the whole page and still nothing. Oh wait, could they be talking about the girl? It's just some blonde chick wearing a loose-fit top and a big censored mark as a bikini bottom. Wait a second, what's that censor mark for?? She's clearly wearing a bathing suit (you can see her right hand touching it). Are bikini's too risque for this magazine?? What does this have to do with the advertisement? Is that done as a joke? And seriously, what the heck does this company sell?

FROM: Beauty and the Bad Advertising