Orville Redenbacher

Another good father commercial. At first I thought this one would be another stereotypical little-girl-tea-party ad, but it breaks new ground. First, this is a black family. There are still too many narrow-minded bigots who think that black families don't even exist as such, nevermind that their little girls have the same hopes and dreams as their daughters. But the clincher is when the big brother and father dress up and fold themselves into tiny chairs to be part of the tea party, all to get some popcorn. "Napkins, napkins." Too funny. My own father would have taken the whole bowl of popcorn away from me and told me I was selfish, so you can just imagine how much I appreciate this commercial.

I've been wanting to post about this ad for a long time, but had to wait to find it on YouTube. It wasn't on the Redenbacher site.

FreeCreditReport.com

This is a series that turned out to have legs. It's actually pretty cute, for the most part. I don't care for the bicycle one. And I wish they had learned to move their hands on the guitar necks for the "happy bachelor" ad.

As an aside, PopPop loves this particular commercial. Not because he has clue one what it's about — he doesn't even understand the lyric. He likes it because he's seen the Elder Pea sing the ditty. So it must be good!

EDIT: and here's a spoof of the ad. And I hope everyone realizes that there is a catch — your 'free' credit report is contingent on enrollment in Triple Advantage, which will run you $14.95 each month.

Over it

I am so sick of Sarah Palin.



A week from now this will probably piss me off no end, but for now, it's hitting my funny bone.

Reality vs. parody

from Today's Big Thing

Wow. I think this is more sad than funny, although it is pretty funny. And now, as expected, the blame for that interview is being placed squarely on Katie Couric's shoulders, although she did everything she could to make it easy for Palin. No wonder the GOP won't let Palin go on the Sunday morning talk shows.

Interview Palin

Q: What is the role of the US in Iraq and Afghanistan?

A: Afghanistan will lead to war and it doesn't have to lead, as I said, to a Cold War, but economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure, again, counting on our allies to help shore up our economy and putting it back on the table. I think that the example that you can't blink. So, I didn't blink then even, when asked to run as his running mate. We got to have nuclear weapons, what can we do about it. No way, not Americans. We do not believe in American ideals. And they attacked us. And now we are a free-thinking society. As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the solution to the terrorists and stopping them over there


This bit of Palinesque wisdom is brought to you by InterviewPalin.com.

STOP

I have to agree with one of the commenters; this looks a lot like a training video. Great satire!

Live news and farm animals

/ video no longer available /

Maybe it's late and I shouldn't have had that short martini, but I damn near peed myself watching this. News anchors should take a cue from actors, never work with children or animals.

I'm pretty sure it won't be so funny tomorrow.

edit: since that one disappeared, here's another one along similar lines:



See if that reporter ever says any birds are an infestation…

Revenge of the birds

I bet this guy won't be spending any time under trees for a while.

Holiday Inn

I like this commercial. In fact, there is a whole series starring Jerry Lambert as Ted. Check out the Humpback Whale, the Pillow Menu, and the Race Suit commercials.

Rounding up every cent you have...

FreeCreditReport.com

It's been a while since I've bitched about a tv commercial, and this one just recently started to piss me off. Bearing in mind that I'm recently divorced from a selfish lying pos, this commercial just bugs me no end. At first I thought it was funny, but the more I see it, the more insidious it becomes.

He married his dream girl and he's whining because they can't go out and buy a house, so her family is putting a roof over his head. Um, has he looked at the prices of houses lately? What the hell is his idea of a dream girl, a sexy, rich, hard-working breeder/doormat who will support his and put up with his selfishness? She's doing laundry while he hangs with his homeboys and is in her way, and he wishes he was still a bachelor? So stfu and move out already! What a loser. And what a crappy message to send: I wasn't smart enough to really think things through before getting married, and she didn't either, so it's all HER fault??!?

There is an equally stupid ad with the guy driving around in a beat up AMC Gremlin (remember those?). In that one, he has no one but himself to blame for his bad credit, but it's still a poor commercial. He didn't know his credit was whack? How do you suppose you get bad credit, the bad credit fairy? Even the tune in this one isn't good.

Luckily, the pirate waiter commercial is able to be funny and make the point that you might want to keep an eye on your credit report without resorting to stereotyping or inanity.

Nothing could stop the forest fire...

Jeep Liberty

I'm not sure I'd call this a successful commercial, because although I like it, I wouldn't identify it with Jeep if the blurb wasn't there at the end. When you see a Clydesdale, you think of Budweiser. I associate brown with UPS - and I'm not sure that's a good thing, but as an advertising hook it worked. This commercial doesn't say Jeep any more than it says Range Rover.

I like it anyway. The squirrel is especially good. I do have one question, though. What the hell kind of birds are those?

Say NO to dirt

No kidding, say NO to dirt! Nothing like being all glam and sitting on a bathroom floor next to the toilet, preparing to sniff whatever, when the toilet cleans up for you! Imagine what it can do with the pee that, miraculously, always ends up on the rim or the seat?

Where can I sign up for one of these?

Kohler gets one right, or even two

Wow, time flies.

I've been seeing a great Kohler commercial, one that is a sharp contrast to the loser I've already posted about. This one is clever, funny, and not offensive to anyone.

A plumber has just finished installed a new shower in someone's home. Of course, he needs to test it out before he can say it's good to go, and so he does. The thing is, you have no idea until the punchline that the man enjoying the shower (which is pretty amazing), listening to opera, is the plumber. You find this out when he walks out to the living room and tells the homeowners, "That should do it. Enjoy your new shower." He's dripping wet and still tucking in his shirt. Good stuff.

Now here is one you might expect me to take offense at - the burned hair advert. Yet another commercial playing the dumb blonde card? No, not quite. This woman is shown to be a person of some influence and power within her company, yet she is so enthralled with her new bathroom faucet, she burns her hair off. Again, funny without being offensive.

Then there are the genius commercials they do in other languages. I just love the French philosophical spy advert. It doesn't hurt that they are driving my dream car, a Goddess. One man is waxing pop-psychological and the other gets frustrated and tells him to knock it off ... until he sees the toilet. Why not do this type of ad in English and run it here? Come to think of it, that might be the most insulting thing Kohler does.

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."

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.

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!