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Submitted by Garen Daly on Wed, 2008-04-16 19:05.
One of my favorite past times is deconstructing TV ads. Looking at them. Figuring who made the ad and who the target audience is. Sometimes I just scratch my head and wonder, how much money are these people making and do the deserve it? Take the one called ROCK ME GENTLY. This is a Jeep commercial where a 20-something male is riding down the road in his gas guzzler. It's a country scene. A squirrel pops through the moon roof and lands on the seat. Under normal circumstances, you'd have to assume the furry tailed rodent is rabid, but not here. The rodent joins in singing the 1974 bubblegum hit Rock Me Gently by Andy Kim. Then two birds come in as the chorus. A wolf drops through the roof, eats one of the birds, spits it out and then joins in the songfest. Ah, aren't we so happy and animal friendly! Makes me want to go out and buy a Jeep. NOT. Who the heck are they appealing to? Men who love show tunes? Males who love show tunes, as we all know, is a euphemism for gay. So are they appealing to the animal loving gay demographic? Probably not. If this were real, the guy in the Jeep would be more concerned about the bird pooping on his seats, the squirrel hollowing out the upholstery for acorn storage and wolf marking his territory with urine. Now there's an ad I'd like to see. Another commercial in heavy rotation is the Dodge Caravan ads. There are a couple of variants, but the theme remains the same. If your family is falling apart and no one is speaking to each other, buy a Caravan. Familial bliss is just a road trip away. You can play cards, watch movies, sleep and get to know each other. Forget the house, we're going live in the family transportation. Hey, wasn't living in your car considered déclassé? Oops, I forgot. The way the economy is going folks will have to sell their houses AND live in their cars. At least we'll now each others names. |
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It IS a stupid ad, but....
Submitted by bobobo on Mon, 2008-07-14 09:49.... It's almost interesting when one considers the sheer number of peculiarities in it. A Neil Diamond song?!? A very average looking guy listening to a Neil Diamond song?!? Singing animals?
The wolf spitting out the bird after the guy's disapproving glance adds a bit of the lion-&-lamb, Why-can't-we-all-get-along, world-harmony theme, which, in this context, seems vaguely ironic.
Maybe they're pushing a real-guys-aren't-PC campaign over at Chrysler- note the Dodge Caliber add with Tinkerbelle flying around, zapping urban scenes with her wand and changing them into their children's book cartoonish equivalents, until she encounters the Caliber. The Caliber is so non-cute that it bounces her spells back at her, and she gets knocked out of the air, crashing against a wall and falling to the sidewalk. A passing lout happens to be walking his bulldog(?). He points at Tinkerbelle and exclaims, "Silly Fairy!" Tingerbelle zaps him with her wand, and his jeans turn into white tennis shorts, his jacket into a sweater draped over his shoulders, knotted in the front, and his bulldog turns into a pair of Shi-Tsus.
AT the other end of the spectrum are two male-demeaning "Honey, what are you doing?" ads. A very self-impressed 30-something wife is discussing her Yoplait diet with a friend, listing the flavors she's had, without specifying that they're yoghurts. Her witless hubby, hearing about apple turnovers and cheesecakes, begins to search through the refrigerator looking for these treats, but there's nothing there but Yoplaits (refrigerator-domination?). She turns and asks "Honey, what are you doing?" in a scolding tone, and he stops and looks like a little boy caught microwaving the cat.
A man in evening attire is having a James-bond fantasy to the theme of "Secret Agent Man", ending with his snatching a credit card from the hands of a thief. His reverie is interrupted by the same question from his wife, in the same tone, and he explains that the credit card agency called him to say that they had blocked an attempt at the fraudulent use of the couple's card.
A Cheerios ad has an intimidated guy noticing that cheerios have 110 calories per serving and asking his wife if she's watching her weight. Under her withering gaze, he makes a bunch of excuses for his having the temerity to ask such a thing, until she asks him what else the box says, and he says, "Shut up, Mike" (or whatever his name is). What kind of male image is Madison Ave. trying to project?