The Gadget Help Line

19 December 2007 by Silky

Previously I’ve considered the adverts for Confused.com as actually being TV’s Worst Adverts.

Filmed in an empty studio with sets hand drawn by a blind paraplegic. Badly scripted, badly acted, and badly filmed.

They were the rubbish advert barometer. But no more.

The advert for the gadgethelpline.com takes TV advertising to a new low in terms of quality.

Note from Silky: Sadly the advert is no longer available on the Tube, so here’s the opening credits to the Inspector Gadget cartoon instead:

Some speak of this being a work of genius and it’s amateurish production values does give it a certain charm but come on.

In fact it’s so cheap that I get the feeling that it might have been filmed in the basement of a house in Aurora. Which can only mean that in the next instalment we should expect a lot of “extreme close ups”.

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25Responses:

silas crippledick

Said on the 2 January 2008

I just shat a breadbin watching this!
Does MICK JAGGER need the money this bad?
Silky

Said on the 3 January 2008

I heard, Silas, that he did it for free because he was really grateful to The Gadget Helpline when they helped him set up his new Roberts DAB radio.

That’s what I heard, anyway.
hello

Said on the 8 January 2008

brilliant
possibly the thickest people in the world and the cheapest add – saw it on you tube loads of hits for little cash very cleaver but a bit too dumbed down.
message is if your a thick fucker buy this, apeals to those who wouldn’t have paid for it in the first place.
would you trust them with a bank account, easy win for MBNA though
giaco

Said on the 13 January 2008

OH MY GOD THERES A PSYCHO ON MY TV!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jellyfish McSaveloy

Said on the 31 January 2008

Note from Silky: I’ve removed this comments after receiving a request to do so from the company behind the Gadget Helpline.

They objected to some of the points in the comment on factual grounds and some on the ground that they were simply offensive.

I considered this request carefully. I believe that TWA should be an open forum for people to discuss adverts – and on the whole, I believe it is. However, I agree with the Gadget Helpline that the content of this comment was largely not about the advert but about the company itself. So I have removed it.

Regular readers will know that from time to time I do edit comments and that comments have cause controversy before but I’ve not had to delete a comment.

So this was not an easy decision.

However, after talking it through at length with my bit of fluff, she pointed out that I would be a “feckless cretin” not to remove it. Furthermore she added that case highlighted the fact that “as a concept” TV’s Worst Adverts is “fucking stupid and doomed to failure” and she is sure that the exodus of readers has already begun.

I hope not.

Cheers, Silky.
Ron Atkinson

Said on the 10 February 2008

It looks like the sort of advert you’d expect to see somewhere in Eastern Europe. It’s so bad I actually find it amusing. But yes, if it was half as long, it’d be more than twice as good.
Jonny Chestwig

Said on the 19 February 2008

This is so bad I just sawed my own cock off with a broken bottle as a protest. The Cillit Bang was toeing a fine line on the ‘so-shit-it’s-good’ front. This is just bowel-detonatingly awful.
R E Krishna

Said on the 4 April 2008

Hey everyone, don’t knock the gadget helpline. I was having awful trouble with my electric toothbrush, the power switch on it had absolutely no markings, consequently I couldn’t work out how to turn it on. The damn thing sat unused for months until luckily I saw this advert. I resolved to phone the gadget helpline feeling sure they would be able to help. Imagine my dismay when I couldn’t work out how to use the goddam phone. (A friend has kindly typed this for me.)
kenny

Said on the 6 April 2008

what a load of shit never seen it on tv yet never want to
Matt Beeching

Said on the 1 May 2008

I’ve only seen it on TV once and actually had to pinch myself afterwards. Now I carry it around in all its glory on my iPhone in search of others that may have seen its awful brilliance.
Pete

Said on the 12 May 2008

Umm. I’m speechless.
sophi

Said on the 10 June 2008

wtf dis is da biggest loada shite iv’e eva seen
sophi

Said on the 10 June 2008

wtf dis is da biggest loada shite i’ve eva seen in ma lyf
Jonny Chestwig

Said on the 10 June 2008

Spelling it ‘ma’ actually saves no time over spelling it ‘my’.
Silky

Said on the 10 June 2008

Surely that depends on which finger you press da “Y” key with Jonny, innit.
Jonny Chestwig

Said on the 10 June 2008

Safe Blud.

On a similar topic, it’s a bit like “Fish ‘n’ Chips”, which surely takes as long to type and “Fish and Chips”
Gina

Said on the 25 June 2008

I for one will not be ringing the Gadget Helpline on the back of this little incident. Then again, I wouldn’t have anyway, since I’m not at quite the right level of feckless stupidity as to fall for such a pathetic advert.
dave

Said on the 13 January 2009

good old TMTI!!! Like a sinking ship!!!
Dan

Said on the 13 January 2009

ah man is there anywhere else this can be watched? i really wanna see it again
JF pants

Said on the 1 May 2009

This website is shit..Out of touch and out of date..Give up loser
sarah

Said on the 23 May 2009

I haven’t seen this ad. but I agree with everything that’s been said………….
CovertJellyfish

Said on the 24 May 2009

# This website is shit..Out of touch and out of date.. #

And will you be phoning the Gadget Helpline to find out how to read the date on webposts?
Neil

Said on the 17 June 2009

This advert’s nowhere on the web, not even Google Video (which searches all the video sites at once) can find it.

The website looks dirt cheap though.
CovertJellyfish

Said on the 29 September 2009

So there is a helpline you can call which will help you get everything working??!??

You’d have to be really good on the phone for that….
joe

Said on the 2 April 2010

The ad is back on youtube in all its horrific glory