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.

Fatherhood

The Ad Council has several PSAs running, including two promoting good parenting by fathers, but this one is my personal favorite. Actually, this is one of my very favorite commercials, period. Who wouldn't love to have a father like this?

I hope this ad inspires a few guys to get over themselves and not be embarrassed to be good parents in whatever form that takes.

Magic Jack

Hate the infomercial, but the product itself is actually pretty good.

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.

Super Bowl XLIII ads

NBC must have lost a bundle this year — it seemed like every third commercial was a promo for one of their new shows. At $3 million for a 30 second spot, that's a lot of money for promos. It was clever to get Budweiser to pick up half the tab on one of them. And when did 2D become 1D??

Some of the commercials were educational. We all know how to pronouce Hyundai now. Matt Light isn't a half bad dancer for a big guy. Ed McMahon and MC Hammer have a good sense of humor, in spite of their circumstances. Who knew Alec Baldwin was so funny? Talking babies are still cute. Danica Patrick should stick to driving.

Without question, my favorite commercial was aired early in the first quarter - the Dorito's Snow Globe commercial:




Too bad PETA didn't get to run their Veggie Love ad:



Watch the 2009 Super Bowl ads at Hulu:

Geico and Progressive

I never liked the caveman commercials from Geico, though at least the tagline tied into the general idea of so easy, even a caveman can sign up online, etc. The gecko is a silly play on words with Geico, and someone might be able to explain to me why the gecko has a cockney accent. But Geico has finally scraped the very bottom of the barrel with the plastic eyes. A pair of flat plastic googly eyes from a craft store sitting atop a couple small bundles of cash — the money you could be saving if you switched to Geico. Who is the target audience for this crap?




I like the Progressive girl just fine, but I think that series is getting ready to jump the couch.

Bring on the Super Bowl!

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.

Bud Light

It's time for a little comic relief.



This is a few years old, but still funny. Let's hope that the new ownership doesn't change whatever advertising firm the old ownership used.

Cell phone commercials

Is this the most insipid commercial on tv right now? My teeth hurt every time this stupid cloying crap is on. I really dislike commercials that show women, even unseen women, as clinging or needy or vapid. We have enough negative stereotypes to deal with; it would be so nice if some of these advertising firms would hire a few women to vet this kind of malarky.

And it isn't only women who are made out to be stereotypes - men often come out looking just as stupid. Are we to believe that men are dogs who cannot control their impulses? AT&T seems to think so; they also evidently think women should just tolerate it, because boys will be boys.



Maybe this one is funny if you watch "The Hills, but if you don't, it is yet another example of boys making commercials for themselves. Either that or they want to prove the adage that guys prefer pretty women to brainy ones, because guys see better than they think.

Hey, this should have been Lorena Bobbitt's defense all along - if boys will be boys works, why shouldn't PMS is a bitch? PMS is something that makes a woman act once a month like a man acts every day, right?

btw, if you talk to anyone who has one of these LG Shine phones, they will tell you that the mirror-like quality portrayed in the commercial is far from accurate.

Chi Chi's

Does anyone else find this series of commercials really stupid? The cyclops ad is no better than this p.o.s. I don't understand how a robot or a cyclops will sell salsa.

Anheuser-Busch has agreed to sell itself to the Belgian brewer InBev for about $52 billion. I hope InBev is smart enough not to change the Clydesdale ads.

Hotels.com

Hotels.com has a few pretty good commercials about how hotels get good ratings because of their website. Some even feature well-known actors. This one definitely takes the cake. Absolutely brilliant and you just have to love the guy getting the abs paint-job. Perfect.

American Express

No video that I can find, but this commercial has been around for a while and I'm certain you will recognize it. It's all about how to use your Gold Points.

It is in three parts. The first part starts off with a young man from AmEx saying, "I love this one..." He goes on to describe a man trying to buy his fiancée an engagement ring, only to be humiliated when his credit card is rejected. Then his fiancée tells him to get an AmEx card. But the AmEx employee loves this one? Huh?

Part two is ok, a man uses his points to get advance tickets to the concert of the year. Fine.

Part three isn't as blatantly ignorant as part one, but it isn't very good. Is it really so romantic to fly to Italy just to order tiramisu, a very ordinary dessert that can be had at most Italian restaurants in the US?

I guess AmEx is now shooting for a part of the Visa/MC crowd, those folks who never could qualify for an AmEx card in the past. I wonder how deeply invested AmEx is in foreclosing on people's homes...

Cars.com - Plan B

A funny series of commercials is beginning for Cars.com, where a guy gets a great price on a car because he did his research on Cars.com. He explains to the salesman that he is happy he didn't have to go to Plan B, which is a variety of things, like having a witch doctor shrink the salesman's head, or having the salesman eat brownies laced with horse laxative, or having the salesman fight Glondor inside a stone circle. Funny and clever.

Monster.com

This is my current favorite commercial. There's a perfect job for everyone. This is a perfect commercial. Monster.com has done several very good commercials, including Don't Fight Monday, Find Your Own Path and When I Grow Up, but this one, imo, is brilliant.

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.

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.

Presidential Ads, Take-two

That raving liberal Bill Maher has a new hero - Ron Paul. And why not? Of all the Republican candidates, Paul is the one who makes the most sense and seems the most interested in representing the American people instead of himself. TV commercials are sound bites, carefully edited and produced for Americans with extremely short attention spans. Whoever is doing these ads for Ron Paul is good. Paul appears less pandering than anyone running from either party, with the possible exception of Mike Gravel, who has no slick advertising campaign and gets no publicity whatsoever.

I don't agree with all of Paul's positions, but I agree with more than folks might think. I especially like that, at least so far, he isn't mincing words. Somewhere between Paul and Gravel is my ideal candidate. I wonder if there is any way to get these two to run on the same ticket...

Presidential Ads, Take-one

Wow, this is so...I don't even know what to call this. It would be a clever and funny commercial if Mike Huckabee were selling gym memberships or exercise videos. Unfortunately, he's selling himself as our next President.

For the uninitiated, Chuck Norris is almost as popular on the internet as LOLcats. There is a whole meme about Chuck Norris, about his toughness and his roundhouse kick. And it's funny stuff, especially since we know Norris himself is getting a kick out of it all (sorry about that).

But what bonehead decided having Huckabee do a parody of the Chuck Norris jokes was the way to get people to vote for Huckabee? How is having a sense of humor as important as having some real ideas for badly needed policy change? Is middle America really that dumb? I didn't think so, but Huckabee is from Arkansas, so maybe he knows something I don't.

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?