Have you noticed all the radio ads lately in which the voiceover sounds like a little girl?

Where did the advertisers get the idea that listeners will take them seriously when the voiceover sounds like a 10-year-old girl?

Who started this stupid gimmick?

Off the tip of my tongue I can think of seven radio ads that use the little girl voiceover.

Instantly Ageless

Ritual Vitamins

City Beauty

Army National Guard

Noom

University of Arizona

Critcal Health News supplements

“Gallery of Lighting” (that’s what it sounds like)

Carnivora (the end of one of their ads)

Aurora Colorado Mental Health 

Indeed.com

Farmer’s Market TV ad

Sharpestprice.com radio ad (this one’s REALLY Bad)

Williams’ Jewelers 

AdoptUSKids.org

Centura.org

There are more, but I never made a point to get the name of the company. There’s at least three more.

What’s up with this? It’s dumb. Why would, for example, the University of Arizona use a pitchwoman with a little girl’s voice to compel adults to enroll in college-level courses? What the hey.

The childlike voice for Noom’s radio ad is just plain ridiculous. This company touts their ability to set women on the right course in life, yet uses a voiceover that sounds like she’s in grade school.

And perhaps the childlike voiceover for Instantly Ageless is meant to convey the polar opposite of the aging process: a child.

But no matter how you slice it, this fad of little girl voiceovers has got to stop. I’m sure that a lot of radio listeners are turned off.

Let’s face it: Many radio listeners will be distracted by the childlike voiceovers, be put off, and will not pay attention to the content of the ad.

Why not just use a non-gimmicky-sounding, adult-sounding woman’s (or man’s) voice? Enough of this dumb fad.