It's been out there for weeks, now, but unlike so many other TV-based irritants that either fade or grow weirdly endearing with time -- Oprah, Geraldo, CSI, the list goes on -- that godawful commercial for the Ford Edge has somehow, improbably grown only more annoying the longer it sticks around.

It's not only the desperate, pseudo-rebellious pose ("I like to live on the edge-uh") of the car's theme song that rankles -- although we happily concede that the music is, indeed, a major component of the commercial's lameness. After all, as Eminem so sagely informed us all (and especially Moby) years ago: "Let go, it's over -- nobody listens to techno."

No -- what's even sillier and sadder than the audio portion of this disaster is the cheesy, car-driving-on-the-edge-of-walls-and-buildings video that accompanies the song.

Ford execs wonder why they're losing billions of dollars every quarter, and then they pour millions of dollars into ads that look and sound like they were made ten years ago -- commercials (invariably for American-made cars) that were laughable even back then.

The Edge might be a smart, well-put-together, reasonably priced small SUV. And that's fine. But until Ford can figure out a way to make the vehicle seem like a rational consumer choice, rather than an already dated, obnoxiously hyped punch line, we'll keep our distance.