Is it me?

Or are the rest of you as sick of the Crissmiss commercials that are running nonstop on TV? It's November 27 and I'm already reaching for the remote control to mute each and every commercial break. Has it always been this bad and annoying in the past?

Throughout the years, my favourite Crissmiss carols have changed. When I was a real little kid, I loved "Sleighride" and "Winter Wonderland" the best. Then I went through a "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Do You Hear What I Hear?" phase in the mid-70's. But it was the Andre Cold Duck commercial that started running in 1975 or 1976 that caught my attention, because they used "Carol of the Bells", which has been my fave carol since then.

Unfortunately, this season, the Powers That Be have done a nice job of taking my fave carol and beating it into the ground. Over Thanksgiving weekend, I logged six, count 'em SIX commercials using "Carol of the Bells". Brian was in hysterics every time a commercial would start and I'd reach for my pen and paper, poised to jot down yet another tired rehashing of "Carol". The offenders are, as follows:

Walmart
Verizon Wireless
DirecTV/Qwest Broadband
The movie "Fred Claus"

The winner of the "Most Obnoxious Use of Carol of the Bells", however, goes to Hyundai, with their unbelievably annoying ad campaign using "Duh", which started to get old the first time with their use of "2001: A Space Odyssey" earlier this summer. I'm embarassed to be driving a Hyundai, lemme tell ya. And we're a 2-Hyundai family too!

The winner of the "Best Use of Carol of the Bells" goes to Garmin GPS because at least the new lyrics are really funny & clever, and the choir sounds great.

I've also noticed that a lot of ads are overusing music from "The Nutcracker" as well.

Needless to say, if I hear another carol of any kind, I'm gonna start taking hostages. I used to break out my holiday music tapes and listen to them in my car going to and from work. Unfortunately this season, the tapes will continue to gather dust in the back room.

Brian read a sad statistic the other day that says that most Americans are going into the holiday season this year in really bad moods. We're suffering from war fatigue, the constant bickering and scandals involving politicians, not to mention the massive foreclosures & bankruptcies and the price of gas. Could this be why the commercials are driving me mad?

All I can say is, if Kia runs their year-end sales event ad this January, I will slit my throat. Seriously. I'm sure the rest of you forgot the hell that was January, 2007, watching a bunch of fat, middle aged car salespeople lumber their way through "So Long, Farewell" from "The Sound of Music". It was an obnoxious song when the Von Trapp kids sang it, and it's ten times more annoying as a commercial jingle.

And it's not just the holiday ads with the singing that piss me off, I get apoplectic at the "guilt trip jewelry" ads as well. "Give her the gift she really wants! DIAMONDS!" or the one with the bitch who snaps at her husband, "He went to JARED!" And the bumbling husband cringes from his holiday mistake. I keep shouting at the TV, "Screw you bitch! You're lucky you got anything at all ya selfish pig!" And since when do couples give each other CARS as presents? How does that even work?

Hmmm.....maybe I should just quit watching TV? Nah. It's more fun to send emails to the companies bitching about their stupid ads.