Say What?: Commercials That Made Us Scratch Our Heads

[Brattinella]

Yeah, green M&Ms were the naughty ones.

[LoneHaranguer]

 

Yeah, green M&Ms were the naughty ones.

But, they're also female, so it wouldn't have worked for the old-fashioned scenario they wanted.

[pandora spocks]

The Flintstone Vitamins commercial always has the slogan, "Ten million strong and growing!"  It's been ten million as long as I remember but shouldn't the tally have grown larger by now?  How in the hell does Flintstones Vitamins arrive at that amount?

 

Adult gummy vitamins are the new vitamins fad according to TV.  Jeez, if taking a vitamin is so distressing that it has to be disguised like wrapping a pill in a piece of cheese for dogs, I worry for these adults when they have to face real problems.  I foresee car models with kitty cat knobs and juice box holders in the future.

Edited August 12, 2015 by pandora spocks

[Taylorh2]

When I was a kid, I thought Flintstone vitamins were gross.

[smittykins]

I've tried the adult gummy vitamins, and don't care for them; they stick to my teeth, and they invariably include berry-flavored ones(yuck).

[riley702]

I actually LIKE the Flintstones chewables. Gummies? Yuck. As a kid, there was this girl who used to sit beside me on the bus and she always had Flintstones chewables on her breath, so I assumed that was her Mom's last task as she shoved her out the door: "Here, take your vitamin!"

Edited August 12, 2015 by riley702

[bilgistic]

The Flintstone Vitamins commercial always has the slogan, "Ten million strong and growing!" It's been ten million as long as I remember but shouldn't the tally have grown larger by now? How in the hell does Flintstones Vitamins arrive at that amount?

Adult gummy vitamins are the new vitamins fad according to TV. Jeez, if taking a vitamin is so distressing that it has to be disguised like wrapping a pill in a piece of cheese for dogs, I worry for these adults when they have to face real problems. I foresee car models with kitty cat knobs and juice box holders in the future.

I hate the way the woman acts in the gummy vitamin commercial. She's all smiley and shruggy while she chews on her stupid gummy vitamin. I hate the concept of a gummy vitamin, but I know it's dumb for me to be bothered by that. I take a mouthful of pills twice daily for my various conditions. I take a giant non-chewable vitamin. I'm an adult.

My sister takes chewable vitamins daily with her daughter/my niece. I was baffled when she told me. My niece is going to think grownups eat candy vitamins. (Well...) Get the adult women's version! You can still have the ritual.

[Brattinella]

Anyone remember Chocks?

 

[bilgistic]

$2! Those look like 1970s vitamins, and $2 was a lot back then!

[Cobalt Stargazer]

$2! Those look like 1970s vitamins, and $2 was a lot back then!

 

According to Google, Chocks were around in the '60s, so yeah, that's like seven dollars in current money.

[riley702]

I take a mouthful of pills twice daily for my various conditions. I take a giant non-chewable vitamin. I'm an adult.

Ditto to the other pills, but I'm a self-indulgent adult, so I have fun with the vitamins.

[90PercentGravity]

I have Darth Vader gummy vitamins. .. I'm okay with not being an adult.

[bilgistic]

I'm really only an adult about my vitamins. I barely manage to be upright and somewhat presentable most days.

I don't like the way chalky antacids stick to the chewing surface of my teeth, and I remember chewable vitamins to be of a similar consistency. We didn't have vitamins but a few times growing up. I guess Mom thought we were getting enough nutrients through fish sticks and canned beefaroni.

Edited August 13, 2015 by bilgistic

[Brattinella]

 

fish sticks and canned beefaroni

 

Sounds familiar!

[LoneHaranguer]

 

According to Google, Chocks were around in the '60s, so yeah, that's like seven dollars in current money.

Actually it'd be around double that according to the online inflation calculators. There's an episode of the Twilight Zone where a guy fills up his bone-dry gas tank for a little over four dollars, so even that could be a very conservative estimate.

[backformore]

I tried the adult gummy vitamins.  They're OK.  Here's my beef with them though - 

I compared prices, thought I got the best deal - chose according to the price per pill.  

BUT- 

 

The Brand is ONE-A-DAY.   I guess I took it literally.  

The directions say to take TWO gummy vitamins  a day.   

I feel ripped off.

[Moose135]

The Brand is ONE-A-DAY.   I guess I took it literally.  

The directions say to take TWO gummy vitamins  a day.   

I feel ripped off.

 

It's one dose a day, and a dose consists of two pills...

[Maverick]

Then it should be called Once a Day

[Brattinella]

Yeah, they need to change that if it means more than one pill a day.  That's what One A Day means!

[yourmomiseasy]

The Flintstone Vitamins commercial always has the slogan, "Ten million strong and growing!"  It's been ten million as long as I remember but shouldn't the tally have grown larger by now?  How in the hell does Flintstones Vitamins arrive at that amount?

 

Adult gummy vitamins are the new vitamins fad according to TV.  Jeez, if taking a vitamin is so distressing that it has to be disguised like wrapping a pill in a piece of cheese for dogs, I worry for these adults when they have to face real problems.  I foresee car models with kitty cat knobs and juice box holders in the future.

 

The strong and growing refers to the kids, not the tally of kids.  As far as their sales totals remaining the same for 20+ years, I've got nothing, maybe it is the shitty marketing.

 

I like adult gummy vitamins.  I don't eat a lot of candy, so it is kind of like a justifiable splurge to have a gummy vitamin.

[bilgistic]

I also have an (ir)rational hatred for anything "gummy" because it's usually made with gelatin, which is boiled-down whatever's left over after everything including pet food is made from cows/pigs/chickens/horses. Boiled down beaks and feet. Enjoy your Jell-O!

[Ubiquitous]

Speaking of which, what the hell is Jello Ve?

[Sandman87]

Off! is running an ad where I think they're going for a 1970s "shot on film" feel. The only problem is that they forgot to do anything to the look of the ad, because the video is fine. It's all in the audio (tinny with uneven playback speed). The result is that it seems more like they're having technical difficulties than like an old commercial.

 

Boiled down beaks and feet. Enjoy your Jell-O!

As Gabe from Penny Arcade calls it: Jellied bone slime.

[BubblingKettle]

The son is fantasizing about the pretty girl at school...and he's actually looking at his dad. Strange.

[bilgistic]

I saw that one the other day, and I was super-creeped out. I don't think the correct message landed.

[Bruinsfan]

I don't wanna see what happens when Brian and his dad go on one of those father-son camping trips.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

The son is fantasizing about the pretty girl at school...and he's actually looking at his dad. Strange.

 

Um.....whut? o.O

[Actionmage]

Speaking of which, what the hell is Jello Ve?

 

It took me a second when I first saw this, but they are trying to be clever. Spell out the brand and the extra V and E. It's a mash-up of Jell-O and Love. I get what they were trying for, but it missed, imo.

[erikdepressant]

I also have an (ir)rational hatred for anything "gummy" because it's usually made with gelatin, which is boiled-down whatever's left over after everything including pet food is made from cows/pigs/chickens/horses. Boiled down beaks and feet. Enjoy your Jell-O!

Every time the stupid Jell-O "Faces" commercial comes on now, I hear the lyrics as "I want more bone, more feet.  I want more skin, more beak."

[pandora spocks]

Seeing Peter Brady do a commercial for Hair Club for Men

makes this baby boomer feel incredibly depressed. But a

former child actor has to make a living, right?

Edited August 15, 2015 by pandora spocks

[mojoween]

So Rashida is at her friend's house when her new beau calls on her iPad and Rashida asks to jump on her wi-fi.

Questions - her friend says "go ahead and try." If her wi-fi is that sketchy, why is she still using that service? The only reason that we used Time Warner for so long is because there wasn't anything else available, but now that there are more choices here Time Warner would have been given a very short leash on the shitty, shitty service they gave us for five years. We've had Fios for almost four years now and it is fantastic.

Also, is Rashida cheap? Or does she have a 1G plan? Because why doesn't she just answer the iPad on her data? Why does she have her iPad at her friend's house? If she was expecting new guy to call, why wasn't she already on wifi? Why is that blonde chick so weird? Talk about a psycho.

[Sandman87]

The ad for Straw Hat's new "Cheesy bites with new ranch crust flavor" does not make me hungry. "Ranch crust" sounds like the stuff that forms on the surface of a manure pile.

[90PercentGravity]

Straw Hat is still a thing?

[Ubiquitous]

I don't know where to begin with this ad!

 

http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7Px2/denorex-twice-a-week

[merylinkid]

The new rent.com ad is kinda funny.   The guy is asking a resident if she said the place was "stinky?"   She says yeah I did.   He says "well something does smell around here."   She points out he is standing in what is presumably dog poop.   "Told you it was stinky."   He keeps going on about the smell and then says "What did this .. a shetland pony."   Except he doesn't pronounce the first part of shetland very well and considering what he is standing in, makes it HILARIOUS.

[bilgistic]

I don't know where to begin with this ad!

http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7Px2/denorex-twice-a-week

Flames on the sides of my face!! Literal objectification of women! So gross!! What clueless asshole man thought this was okay? Was my boss in on the test panel?

[erikdepressant]

I'm sure there's a fetish somewhere for dressing up as a box of your favorite product.

 

The head-scratcher for me is why, in 2015, do advertisers still use this tired storyline for commercials?  A person comes home, hears sexy noises, and assumes the spouse is cheating; he/she throws open a door... but only to discover the spouse doing something hilariously innocent.  It hasn't been funny in decades.

 

[Sandman87]

Straw Hat is still a thing?

Pizza Hut bought out a lot of their stores a couple of decades ago but they're still around, mostly in California.

 

Incidentally, their Cheesy Bites are basically cheese-stuffed pizza crust rolls glued to the outside of their pizza crust, so you can have a cheese and dough appetizer before you eat your cheese and dough meal.

[Rick Kitchen]

I don't know where to begin with this ad!

 

http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7Px2/denorex-twice-a-week

What a horrificly sexist ad.

[CarpeDiem54]

I don't know where to begin with this ad!

 

http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7Px2/denorex-twice-a-week

WTF!? What a hideous ad. And you can see Head and Shoulders' hoohaw.

*goes off to check bottle of H and S in bathroom for obvious body parts*

[90PercentGravity]

Interesting. Denorex and Head & Shoulders are not part of the same company. The ad is for Denorex. I wonder if H&S even signed off on that.

Edited August 16, 2015 by 90PercentGravity

[riley702]

Wow, that's inappropriate.

 

[xls]

Anyone remember Chocks?

 

OMG! They were sooo good!

Any one else see the commercial with the hair stuff that come in a flip-over container just like the ones yogurt comes in? I can't find it.

[LoneHaranguer]

 

Interesting. Denorex and Head & Shoulders are not part of the same company. The ad is for Denorex. I wonder if H&S even signed off on that.

The makers of Denorex also make Prell, which was originally a product of Procter & Gamble, makers of Head & Shoulders, so there may be some kind of relationship between the companies. Something like that would be too small to show up on P&G's 10-K, and the other company seems to be private.

[Sandman87]

There's a Haynes commercial with the lines "Ready to break up with your bra?" and "Talk about a bra with benefits!"

I can't help wondering if maybe those ladies have misunderstood exactly what a bra is supposed to be for.

[LoneHaranguer]

Why is the character representing BK's new version of chicken fries wearing a lucha libra mask?

[pandora spocks]

See what beauty queens and supermodels use for an hourglass figure.

 

No more diets and exercising if you use Slim Belt.  Okay, you may get a waspish waistline but how do you account for your chunky things and butt, not to mention your double chin, that this contraption can't suck in?  Uh, oh, Slim Belt neglects this possibility but we'll be too busy admiring our sleek new physiques--at least the area from the ribcage to under the navel--to care.

Edited August 19, 2015 by pandora spocks

[Rick Kitchen]

Why is the character representing BK's new version of chicken fries wearing a lucha libra mask?

 

They're advertising spicy fries, so I guess that = Mexican.

See what beauty queens and supermodels use for an hourglass figure.

 

No more diets and exercising if you use Slim Belt.  Okay, you may get a waspish waistline but how do you account for your chunky things and butt that this contraption can't suck in?  Uh, oh, Slim Belt neglects this possibility but we'll be too busy admiring our sleek waists to care.

 

"chunky things".  LOL.  :)

[pandora spocks]

I'm blushing after I read your post, Rick Kitchen. "Chunky things" will remain

in my post since it encompasses so many parts of the female anatomy.

[erikdepressant]

I just saw this commercial.  I logged on here to viciously mock the commercial and the very concept behind the product:

But then I started thinking...  Do you think adults actually would enjoy this?  And not just the elderly, either.  I personally can't imagine spending money on something like this for myself.  Could coloring be relaxing, creativity-boosting, or therapeutic though?  Are they on to something?

 

First, I think they did their product a disservice by calling it a "coloring book," even though that's what it is.  Second, please feel free to never give me a page you completed from it as a gift.  Finally, if ever there was a best time to use black & white footage to highlight the problems an infomercial product resolves, it would be at the beginning of this commercial.