SNL and their take on things

You have to hand it to Saturday Night Live. I miss staying up late and having a good laugh once a week. SNL does a fine job with their parodies. Payton is in soooooooooooooo many commercials right now. SNL picked up on the TV viewers feelings perfectly! I can't rate this one, but wanted to share it.

10/4/07 edit - SNL has a pretty funny video parodying the recent visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his stance of "there are no homosexuals in Iran."

Flying hair

NuTone has a cute commercial running now. A couple is looking at a house, and as the wife walks around talking about paint colors, the husband is doing the more practical thing and checking the electricity. The bathroom lights work just fine, but the switch that is supposed to run the fan doesn't seem, to him, to be operational. He is unaware that his combover is standing on end. His wife gently tells him that the fan is working, and we get the punchline - the NuTone bathroom fan is so quiet, you don't even know it's running. Cute, and not insulting, unless you think the husband should still have enough nerve endings on his scalp to know when his hair moves.

Foreign TV commercials

Eat like a snake? OMG, can you imagine how that would play here? But it's too bad we don't have funnier commercials.

GE Wind Energy

GE has a winner with this tv commercial. The little boy clinging to his jar in the train is so precious, and what looks like a empty jar is not empty at all. Very nice. It doesn't hurt to have Donovan's first hit, Catch the Wind, as the music.

I guess I wasn't the only kid who saved things like jars of air and water, carefully labeled for date, time and location of collection.

There is a longer commercial about wind energy from the German company Epuron, that is obviously not made for US television, since it is two minutes long. Worth watching though.

On the Road

Key Dear came up for Queenee's birthday this weekend and brought me a copy of Kerouac's On the Road: The Original Scroll. Key Dear thought we could maybe all read a book every few months and have a discussion about it, so we'll start with this one. I know Anhaga has read it, probably several times, so it should make for a good discussion. Let's shoot for two weeks from now, October 1. S'alright?

9/11

It's been six years since the World Trade Center in NYC was destroyed, and while I don't want to dwell on all the feelings that brings up, I was reminded of another favorite commercial.

Budweiser did a beautiful job with this NYC tribute ad. Without one word of dialog, they pay their respects very effectively. I'm a fan of the Clydesdale series anyway, but this one never fails to bring a tear to my eye. Sentimental fool, perhaps, but so be it. I have to say I try not to watch the "Spot" ad, where the homeless dog gets sprayed with mud and ends up on the wagon. That one reminds me too much of the "Feed the Birds" old woman in Mary Poppins. I can't watch that movie because I can't get around the sadness of that scene.

Trivia note: the actress who played the Bird Woman was Jane Darwell. It was her final role of almost 200 film appearances. She was also Mrs. Dolly Merriwether in Gone With the Wind.

Kohler

Here's one that I find irritating on a couple different levels. I hadn't seen it for a while, but there it was early this morning, waving the 'stupid' flag. I would think men would be insulted by this ad. Maybe not.

First, we have a married (or at least involved with someone) guy who is so desperate to impress the gorgeous lady plumber that he starts flushing everything he can put his hands on. He must have flushed his brain earlier, before filming commenced. Are men really this stupid? I know of at least one who would stoop to this, but he is a vapid lying waste of oxygen, unlike most of the men I've known. I really want to believe he is an anomaly.

Second, if a woman looked like that, what are the odds she'd be a plumber instead of a model? Somewhere between zero and none? But it's a *guy* fantasy that any man can get the hottest chick in the room, if he manipulates her just right.

Third, "can't help it can't help it can't help it"? WTF? More excusing the poor guy for being stupid, thoughtless and selfish, because he can't control himself?

Crap like this could really radicalize me if I could take it seriously. At this point, though, I'd never buy anything branded Kohler.

Liberty Mutual

I've been trying to think of a commercial that pisses me off, but frankly I haven't been watching a lot of TV lately, so I decided to go with another one of my favorites. It doesn't hurt that these Liberty Mutual commercials are using music that I think is beautiful. The band's name is HEM.

I've said for years that I don't expect to change the world, but I think I can change MY world. I believe that's a good goal to have. Do the best you can, every day; be completely conscious of how what you say and do and think affects others. Lead by example. Take nothing for granted. Now I know I'm not successful at this every day, but I do make the effort and I do think about it all the time.

And that's what I like about these Liberty Mutual commercials. People are doing the right thing for someone else because it's the right thing to do, not because they expect a reward or anything in return. Someone sees someone else helping a stranger, and it rubs off, and they help someone in turn, and it goes around. It isn't just the person helped who is affected, it's someone who witnesses the act who absorbs the message and acts accordingly. I'd like to believe that the Golden Rule really could work, if only we would all pay attention and walk our talk.

I may not be the shining example I'd like to be, but I do try.

Priceless

The MasterCard Priceless series has been very good overall. One of my favorites of the current crop of ads is the Robot Dance. I just love this commercial. It's cute and funny and empathetic without pandering or making fun.

There are some good ones viewable on YouTube from other countries. This one for OxFam is truly gorgeous:

Others in this series that I've enjoyed are the Elephant, MacGyver and the Red Sox Series. Some, like the MacGyver spot, are a bit of an inside joke, and there are probably other locally aimed ads similar to the Red Sox commercial, but the point is establishing the brand. That they have accomplished with a catch line that is now part of the culture.

Not only did MasterCard give us a good series of ads, they've inadvertently given us a huge series of ad parodies. One of the best is Indecent Proposal.

Carry on, MasterCard!