Lately I have watched a bit more regular TV and have constantly been bugged by the level of shamelessly horrible and commercials. Two series of commercials often succeed it driving me away from the TV:

1. 白花油王子
Very well described here. I scream for my sanity every time this gentleman comes on screen with i) his ninth-tier actor / actress friends or poor Chinese athletic champion friends, ii) the freaky doll of a baby, which he reportedly made in his own image, who wears a red mushroom on its head and a leaf in front of its willie, and iii) a moronic song that he wrote and performed with an appalling lack of talent.

I suspect God permit his series of commercials to exist simply to remind us that rich perverts can do whatever they like with pure pride.

If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.

~ Dorothy Parker(1893 - 1967), US author, humorist, poet, & wit

2. Hugo Boss fragrances
So far I've seen three on the telly.

A long time ago, probably the first product in this line, there was a woman crouching on a box or something, with a pair of lights dangling from her shoulder. Besides giving a Western interpretation of the Cantonese slang 車頭燈, I didn't see much of a problem with the spot.

Then a young man, deliciously naked in the upper body, keeps throwing a ball back and forth with - gasp! - another instance of himself. The spot itself is harmless. It's just that, when this fragrance was launched, they decided to make 古天樂 its spokesperson. In some promotion event, he, unfortunately, had to say the name of the product, and it was a ridiculously lazy Cantonese pronunciation of an already absurd name - "Bos in Moe-筍". Whenever we see this spot on TV, 銘漢哥 and I can simply never resist saying those same words and giggling at the innocent half-naked dude.

The one that really incurs my loathe and hatred, however, is Purple. A lanky, scantily clad lady, against the magnificent backdrop of NYC, suddenly flips out and starts doing some really stupid and DANGEROUS things. They include jumping into a muddy pond of water, in the middle of the street, and kicking it up onto unsuspecting fellow pedestrians, thrashing her blonde mane blindly in all directions, again in the middle of the street, and hopping in and out of a departing train.

Since when are these attributes of the Perfect Woman to which we're supposed to aspire? Why would any ad exec think that a freaky crackpot would sell a cheap, mundane fragrance? And how much damage do they intend to inflict upon the TV viewer by showing it every 8 minutes?

I was initially planning to compile something like a "Top 10 commercials that I absolutely hate", but in the process of research (i.e. watching TV) I was so constantly shocked and appalled by these two that my mind went blank. Any suggestions on additions to the list?