Stirring the Pot: Controversial Commercials

[TVForever]

On February 3, 2017 at 9:31 PM, chenoa333 said:

Not sure if this has been mentioned but there's a Walgreens commercial that is so disturbing I don't even know what they were selling. But the commercial features 2 older grey haired women disrobing to hit the nude beach.

WTF Walgreens? I mean, kudos to older women who go to nude beaches but what the f do they have to do with Walgreens? Seriously, some of these commercials make people over 50 look just plain frigging ridiculous. STOP IT!

It's actually part of a series of ads with those two doing different types of "Next phase of life/Big adventure" type 

things. I think they're kind of fun, actually. You can probably see the others on YouTube.

[blackwing]

I guess I don't "get" the 84 Lumber ad.  Which is why I suppose it is controversial.

1) On the face of it, it appears to be about a Mexican girl who misses her dad.  It is suggested the dad illegally immigrated to the U.S.   So she and her mom decide to also attempt the same illegal immigration? Regardless of how you feel about illegal immigration, the ad makes it look like this mother and daughter are embarking upon a glorious adventure.  They're having fun and smiling and enjoying new discoveries, and it looks like a grand old time.  I'm sure it's anything but.

2) Am I supposed to want to shop at 84 Lumber now that it is public knowledge that they support illegal Mexicans?  I can imagine that those who favour illegal immigrants will want to buy things from there to support them.  But won't they lose business from those who are not in favour?  From a social message perspective, it's their money so they can do what they want, but from a business perspective I'm not sure if it makes sense.   I guess they must care about social message more.

[Mabinogia]

Thank you blackwing for the mini recap. I didn't pay much attention to the beginning and couldn't figure how why they were making this long, long, tediously long trek to the big wall with the convenient door in it that is unguarded and open.

[Constantinople]

On 2/2/2017 at 1:42 AM, Silver Raven said:

Whoops, I included the wrong link.  The Budweiser ad is here:

You don't here people saying, "Go back where you came from!"

If I understand correctly, Trump supporters are objecting to an ad about a white, German man named Adolf, who legally immigrated to the US, and who found a a welcome home in a slave state after being treated rudely by the New York coastal elite.

Strange days indeed

Most peculiar, mama.

Edited February 7, 2017 by Constantinople

[riley702]

15 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

I was working as a vet tech and so was a guy. We had the exact same hours, duties (in fact I had more, I did the books too) and responsibility. When I found out that he was getting paid more than I was I asked about it to the head vet and he said "What do you need with more money? You have a husband."

Grrr.

[Haleth]

21 hours ago, Archery said:

Weird that in the end the product that they're advertising doesn't make it into the ad. 

Are you talking about the 84 Lumber ad?  The construction crew was building the door.

12 hours ago, blackwing said:

I guess I don't "get" the 84 Lumber ad.  Which is why I suppose it is controversial.

1) On the face of it, it appears to be about a Mexican girl who misses her dad.  It is suggested the dad illegally immigrated to the U.S.   So she and her mom decide to also attempt the same illegal immigration? Regardless of how you feel about illegal immigration, the ad makes it look like this mother and daughter are embarking upon a glorious adventure.  They're having fun and smiling and enjoying new discoveries, and it looks like a grand old time.  I'm sure it's anything but.

 

You had a completely different take than I did.  I saw a mother desperate to escape the terrible conditions and poverty of wherever they were living (probably Central America) and embarked on a dangerous journey to a better life for her child.  Fun and smiling?  She had to beg for water.  Glorious adventure?  They had to walk miles and miles through the desert and found a wall.  I guess your idea of a grand old time is different than mine.  :)  Of course you are free to give the commercial any interpretation you want but it surprises me that someone would look at it and think fun!

Edited February 7, 2017 by Haleth

[DrSpaceman73]

Well I can see how people would be upset about the commercial by 84 Lumbar after watching it. 

I think building a wall is stupid for many reasons, but the point of the ad seems to be "We will gladly help illegal immigrants enter the country".  Which is breaking the law. 

But I am sure given their business in construction and the large Hispanic base they have as a result, they don't care.  Its the type of ad that doesn't really change minds, it just appeals to their base. 

[Archery]

4 hours ago, Haleth said:

Are you talking about the 84 Lumber ad?  The construction crew was building the door.

The construction workers and the wooden door don't appear in the 90-second commercial that aired.  In addition, from the WaPo story linked above:

Quote

Ultimately, 84 Lumber and Brunner came up with an edit that Fox finally approved and aired on Sunday. Gone is the wall, replaced by a less imposing barbed-wire fence at what appears to be the border.

So those of us who watched the ad during the game were left asking, "What product was that for?" There was no lumber in the ad.

[Moose135]

33 minutes ago, Archery said:

So those of us who watched the ad during the game were left asking, "What product was that for?" There was no lumber in the ad.

You can thank Fox for that.

[FormerMod-a1]

84 Lumber owner is pro-Trump, pro-wall despite Super Bowl ad

Quote

Debate over the ad stemmed in part from differences in the 90-second televised version and the nearly 6-minute uncut version posted online.

6 minutes????  I don't think I'll ever be watching a commercial that is 6 minutes long.

Quote

...

Magerko said Sunday in a statement that she backed Trump’s proposed “big, beautiful door in the wall so that people can come into this country legally.”

The televised version of the ad shows a mother and her daughter making an arduous journey, navigating treacherous terrain together, in a moving depiction of immigration's harsh realities.

At the end it directed millions of viewers to 84 Lumber's website for the full version, which tells a much different story. The uncut film ends with the family encountering an imposing wall at the border to the U.S.

Stymied, the mother breaks down crying. She hugs her young daughter before spotting an opening in the wall, a huge door. The mother and daughter push it open and run through.

The commercial then cuts to a man driving down the highway with tools and lumber in the back of his truck, having apparently just built the door.

"The will to succeed is always welcome here," the uncut film declares in a message not included in the televised version. 84 Lumber said Fox “banned” the full version from airing.

...

[theatremouse]

The 6 minute length doesn't get me in the sense of that's a really long ad (even though it is) but how many millions of dollars was that company planning to spend? I thought it was ridiculously expensive to get a 30-second superbowl spot. If they actually expected to be able to buy 6 minutes...how much business did they think they were going to get? Although I guess because the hot button discussion, if they like the publicity they're getting from having cut off the ad, who knows maybe they're making bank anyway. The financials alone are confusing the fuck out of me. And also sort of making me wonder if the plan was to never be able to air the whole thing in the first place...

[DrSpaceman73]

That's a good point, I can't imagine they ever intended to pay for a full 6 minute commercial during the SB.  That would be like $25-30 million+ on one add. 

[bilgistic]

15 hours ago, riley702 said:

 

On 2/6/2017 at 4:00 PM, peacheslatour said:

I was working as a vet tech and so was a guy. We had the exact same hours, duties (in fact I had more, I did the books too) and responsibility. When I found out that he was getting paid more than I was I asked about it to the head vet and he said "What do you need with more money? You have a husband."

My mother is semi-retired; she works part-time at a sewing machine and sewing supplies shop. The men that work there get paid $13 per hour. The women make $9. No reason why. My mother has been sewing since she was a teenager and she's now 68, so it's not like she doesn't have experience.

She raised my two younger sisters and me on her own. Why didn't she get a "father's" salary?

Edited February 8, 2017 by bilgistic

[LoneHaranguer]

13 hours ago, bilgistic said:

The men that work there get paid $13 per hour. The women make $9. No reason why.

The reason is that the women were willing to work for $9 and the men weren't. Businesses only offer what they think they can get away with based on past experience, and will notice patterns.

[bilgistic]

Of course! It's our fault as women that we get paid less! FFS.

[Eliot]

On 2/8/2017 at 0:46 PM, LoneHaranguer said:

The reason is that the women were willing to work for $9 and the men weren't. Businesses only offer what they think they can get away with based on past experience, and will notice patterns.

 

There are studies that prove that women are penalized for asking for higher salaries in a way that men aren't. But that's off topic for this thread.

[frenchtoast]

48 minutes ago, Eliot said:

 But that's off topic for this thread.

It was ok for a while, as it was linked to the Audi commercial, but it has started to drift into another lane. Let's swerve back to commercials, please.

[Eliot]

So I was watching the new Delta commercial that is set to the "Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go song." It shows a bunch of people rising early and heading out to the airport to catch their flights. In one brief scene, it looks like they've subtly included a same-sex couple among the early risers:

http://stuckattheairport.com/2017/02/03/off-to-work-you-go-with-deltas-new-promo/

About 26 seconds in. Kind of cool.

Edited March 1, 2017 by Eliot

[St. Claire]

On 3/1/2017 at 10:18 AM, Eliot said:

So I was watching the new Delta commercial that is set to the "Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go song." It shows a bunch of people rising early and heading out to the airport to catch their flights. In one brief scene, it looks like they've subtly included a same-sex couple among the early risers:

http://stuckattheairport.com/2017/02/03/off-to-work-you-go-with-deltas-new-promo/

About 26 seconds in. Kind of cool.

I've seen that commercial and that never even struck me! I don't know if that is good (in that having single sex couples in commercials is just normal and appropriate) or bad (in that I'm not paying enough attention to progress).

[ethalfrida]

Did I see a commercial where the dad was in the bathroom with is two girls and her was shaving the legs of the older one? Did I just see that?

[beadgirl]

I saw that, too. ...I don't know.  I think it's supposed to be about a father being a good father to his daughters and teaching them things their mother would have, but if so, the creators of the commercial picked an odd skill to show.  Maybe a reference to the time-honored tradition of men teaching their sons to shave?  Still a little off.

[ethalfrida]

1 hour ago, beadgirl said:

I saw that, too. ...I don't know.  I think it's supposed to be about a father being a good father to his daughters and teaching them things their mother would have, but if so, the creators of the commercial picked an odd skill to show.  Maybe a reference to the time-honored tradition of men teaching their sons to shave?  Still a little off.

OMG, every woman in my family would have lit into him for doing that! To me it is not proper at all. I don't know about some of these things these days. Thanks for your response. I wasn't sure what it was.

[Silver Raven]

The father wasn't shaving his daughter's legs, he was reading instructions to her and she was doing the shaving.

[peacheslatour]

1 minute ago, Silver Raven said:

The father wasn't shaving his daughter's legs, he was reading instructions to her and she was doing the shaving.

Yep. He was doing her a favor and I think it's rather sweet.

[theredhead77]

I just posted this in favorite commercial thread. This is the extended version.

[Silver Raven]

I detest the woman with the sour face when the dad is in the line for the ladies' room.

[St. Claire]

On 3/24/2017 at 10:38 PM, theredhead77 said:

I just posted this in favorite commercial thread. This is the extended version.

OK, this one brought out in onions in my cubicle. BTW, I think it's appalling how many men's rooms don't have changing tables. (Unless they really do have changing tables and my husband was just sly enough to make me believe they didn't so that he didn't have to deal with the pre-potty trained kids all those years ago.)

[Kromm]

1 hour ago, St. Claire said:

OK, this one brought out in onions in my cubicle. BTW, I think it's appalling how many men's rooms don't have changing tables. (Unless they really do have changing tables and my husband was just sly enough to make me believe they didn't so that he didn't have to deal with the pre-potty trained kids all those years ago.)

I have only seen a single men's room, in my entire life, with one. Ever.  It was in an Airport. And it wasn't even in the men's room proper. The way it was set up is that the entrance hallway to the men's and women's bathrooms formed a T shape. The changing station was at the apex of the T, mid-way between the openings into the specific men's and women's areas. It was in a little alcove, however--it wasn't directly in the hallway.

Other than that, I've seen them a few times in non-gender specific single occupancy bathrooms. A FEW times (not many). 

I probably don't work in or visit the right environments to see all of the lovely changing tables in multi-occupancy Unisex bathrooms. Those are like unicorns to me. I've heard of them, but not really seen them.

Edited March 27, 2017 by Kromm

[Silver Raven]

There's a changing table in the men's room at a book store I visit.  It's a Barnes & Noble.

[janie jones]

That guy obviously doesn't understand how the line for the women's bathroom works, because he doesn't need to get in it if all he's going to do is use the changing table.  Maybe that's why the lady rolls her eyes at him.

[Silver Raven]

Pepsi decided it would be a good idea to run an ad with pretty little Kendall Jenner creating world peace by giving a policeman a Pepsi.  The backlash was so strong, Pepsi has pulled the ad.

[peacheslatour]

24 minutes ago, Silver Raven said:

Pepsi decided it would be a good idea to run an ad with pretty little Kendall Jenner creating world peace by giving a policeman a Pepsi.  The backlash was so strong, Pepsi has pulled the ad.

 

WTF were they thinking with that idiotic garbage? 

[xaxat]

They knew exactly what they were doing. Creating controversy to get their "brand" out there. On a corporate level, they could probably care less if some (read- black people) were offended. 

The best response.

[bilgistic]

That ridiculous family of hers had to know what kind of controversy it would cause. But then, they live for it.

[Silver Raven]

19 hours ago, bilgistic said:

That ridiculous family of hers had to know what kind of controversy it would cause. But then, they live for it.

To the Kardashians, any publicity is good publicity.

[peacheslatour]

1 hour ago, Silver Raven said:

To the Kardashians, any publicity is good publicity.

I just don't get it. Who watches their awful show? Who gives a rats ass about anything they do? This is the kind of non-thinking that puts game show hosts in positions of power.

[LoneHaranguer]

15 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

I just don't get it. Who watches their awful show? Who gives a rats ass about anything they do? This is the kind of non-thinking that puts game show hosts in positions of power.

I think you mean "reality show star"; hosts are guys like Ryan Seacrest and Nick Cannon. Some people like being able to feel superior to the characters or people on a show.

[peacheslatour]

1 minute ago, LoneHaranguer said:

I think you mean "reality show star"; hosts are guys like Ryan Seacrest and Nick Cannon. Some people like being able to feel superior to the characters or people on a show.

Lol. I was being deliberately obscure so I don't get a scolding. ;)

[xaxat]

Karen Attiah writing in the Washington Post.

Quote

But Pepsi’s commercial was much more than just a marketing fail. It represents a pervasive and persistent white liberal fantasy of U.S. protest politics that trivializes the long and oftentimes dangerous work of resistance and protest, and at the same time marginalizes people of color who often are the drivers of such protests, at great costs to their lives and livelihoods. What irks me, as a black woman, the most about Pepsi’s attempt to make Protest the New Black is that it completely excludes black women from any meaningful part of the protest action.

[DollEyes]

On 4/5/2017 at 4:29 PM, xaxat said:

They knew exactly what they were doing. Creating controversy to get their "brand" out there. On a corporate level, they could probably care less if some (read- black people) were offended. 

The best response.

ITA. That Pepsi commercial was too much wrong on too many levels. For one thing, I believe that when they came up with the concept, there were either no Black people in the room at all or the one/ones who was/were there didn't say anything because they were afraid of getting fired. The few Black people who were in the commercial were either tokens or servants, like the assistant whom Kendall threw her wig at, hence the assistant's subsequent mean-mugging.  The ad's so-called "message"-that all the world's problems could be solved by Kendall Jenner and Pepsi, trivializing real protests/protesters and their issues in the process-made me roll my eyes to the point of blindness. Even worse, Kendall didn't even join the protest for the right reasons; she just did it to impress a guy. That the ad debuted on the anniversary of Dr. King's assassination proved just how tacky it was, which made Bernice King's brilliant response priceless. In fairness, Coca-Cola has made similar commercials, like the "America the Beautiful" ad from a few years ago & the old-school ad from 1971, the latter of which was revived in the series finale of Mad Men, but the difference is that those ads celebrated diversity, not exploited it, which is why they're considered classics while this one is a massive fail.  This ad was a combo of both bad taste and worse timing.

Edited April 8, 2017 by DollEyes

[janie jones]

I'd read about that commercial but had never seen it, so when I finally looked it up, I was actually surprised to find that it was even more offensive than I was expecting it to be.

[Silver Raven]

The San Francisco Police Department is suing Pepsi because in the "making of" video for that ad, one of the cops is seeing wearing an SFPD uniform.  The SFPD says that they did not give their permission to use their insignia.

[peacheslatour]

16 hours ago, Silver Raven said:

The San Francisco Police Department is suing Pepsi because in the "making of" video for that ad, one of the cops is seeing wearing an SFPD uniform.  The SFPD says that they did not give their permission to use their insignia.

What a clusterfuck.

[mmecorday]

Quote

This is the kind of non-thinking that puts game show hosts in positions of power.

About 20 years ago I was working on a screenplay about a man named Art Schmelby who was the host of a popular game show called "Las Vegas Lobster Lottery." He eventually took over the world. I suppose it could really happen.

[mojoween]

It makes me so sad because I love all things Pepsi and think Coke is the devil's sewage.  I hate when brands I favor do something so incredibly stupid.  I know that sounds ridiculous, but it's also why I'm sad that Chevy's ad campaign is so terrible.

[friendperidot]

Quote

It makes me so sad because I love all things Pepsi and think Coke is the devil's sewage.  I hate when brands I favor do something so incredibly stupid. 

I understand because I am that way too. And I so much prefer Pepsi products over Coke - I'm allowed, we all have our preferences, so if you prefer Coke, you're allowed, it's polarizing and I don't want to start a fight, but I don't like it when a product I like does something stupid, I take it personally, lol.

[Prevailing Wind]

I live in metro Atlanta. I think it's a law - you HAVE to drink Coke.  Personally, I prefer Ginger Ale.

[Ubiquitous]

On ‎2‎/‎6‎/‎2017 at 11:02 PM, Constantinople said:

If I understand correctly, Trump supporters are objecting to an ad about a white, German man named Adolf, who legally immigrated to the US, and who found a a welcome home in a slave state after being treated rudely by the New York coastal elite.

I remember one objection to the ad was about the depiction of the Busch guy as a poor immigrant when in fact, he was pretty well off when he migrated.

On ‎4‎/‎5‎/‎2017 at 3:37 PM, Silver Raven said:

Pepsi decided it would be a good idea to run an ad with pretty little Kendall Jenner creating world peace by giving a policeman a Pepsi.  The backlash was so strong, Pepsi has pulled the ad.

Wow, that was utterly banal. Using a Kardashian famewhore was an inspired choice.

[Jamoche]

On 4/12/2017 at 5:44 AM, Prevailing Wind said:

I live in metro Atlanta. I think it's a law - you HAVE to drink Coke.  Personally, I prefer Ginger Ale.

You can drink RC out in the boonies - actually, that may be the only place you can drink it.

[crazycatlady58]

I have not seen RC in years ,  was my favorite  after Coke.