Say What?: Commercials That Made Us Scratch Our Heads

[Prevailing Wind]

Reminds me of Steve Martin's "The Great Flydini."

 

There are two Little Baby's shops in Philadelphia. I'm planning my summer road trip to go to Philly, so I put them on my itinerary.  If I happen to be near one of the neighborhoods, I'll check 'em out - but not because of The Great Flydini.  I, too, prefer eating ice cream out of my skull.

[peacheslatour]

GAH!!  What a horrific image!  Jeez Louise, folks, not EVERYBODY uses drugs!  That one needs to go.

Hey, I've smoked a lot of weed in my day, but that was absolutely disgusting!

[90PercentGravity]

Omg, that guy jizzing ice cream is like the best thing ever. I love it.

[Brattinella]

That is easily the worst ad ever.  Never gonna get that picture out of my head now.  I usually show hubby the funny stuff I run across: NOT THIS ONE.

[peacheslatour]

Omg, that guy jizzing ice cream is like the best thing ever. I love it.

Hmmm.....I think I need to have my sarcasm meter recalibrated....

Edited December 18, 2015 by peacheslatour

[90PercentGravity]

I guess I have a twisted sense of humor, because that totally cracked me up.

[ivygirl]

"Ice cream is a feeling." And apparently the feeling is "nauseated"?

[CoderLady]

I guess I have a twisted sense of humor, because that totally cracked me up.

 

Me too. What made it work for me was the sheer volume. It just went on and on and on until I was more fascinated with how they were doing it than anything else, though I admit I ended up really, really wanting ice cream. Yup.

[riley702]

Me, three. At first, it was "Eww!", but as the ice cream just kept going, it got more and more absurd and I had to laugh. And yes, I was wondering how they did it, was it really ice cream, and if so, damn - that couldn't have been comfortable.

[90PercentGravity]

The only thing I didn't like was the nuts and chocolate sauce. It was obviously fake and took me right out of it.

[Ubiquitous]

What's the point of the Wendy's ad with bacon and cheese personified by football players and everyone acting shocked by them together? "Cheese? AND bacon? On a hamburger? OUTRAGEOUS!!!!!" Ummm, they've been making those for a long time, Wendy's!

[90PercentGravity]

Maybe it was supposed to be a kosher game.

[riley702]

What's the point of the Wendy's ad with bacon and cheese personified by football players and everyone acting shocked by them together? "Cheese? AND bacon? On a hamburger? OUTRAGEOUS!!!!!" Ummm, they've been making those for a long time, Wendy's!

They've been making them at Wendy's for a long time - I've been noshing those Jr. Bacon cheeseburgers for what feels like decades.

[Maverick]

 So some lame perfume commercial has basterdized You're The One That I Want from Grease into some pretentious, breathless, "haunting" melody (I you watched Stalker on CBS last year this would have been one of the songs over the final moments of the show).  What makes this more confusing than annoying, though, is they have a guy singing ONJs part:  "You need a man and my heart is set on you."   Um, the hell?  That makes absolutely no sense, either standalone or in the context of the song.   Who approves this shit?

[Rick Kitchen]

I mentioned the first time I saw that ad that with the guy singing it, it really comes across like he's a stalker.

[Haleth]

Is that the one with Giselle and Daario Naharis?  The random combo of those two is amusing.

[Neurochick]

Um.

 

 

I'm the most confused about WTF Janis Joplin's Piece of My Heart has to do with this ad, since Natalie actually runs away from the wedding.

 

The hell?

 

Actually, I love that ad.  And I love that it's in black and white when she's about to get married and switches to color when she runs away.  No, I don't feel sorry for the groom because I can't even see him.  Yeah, she's probably in love with the guy driving the helicopter but SFW?

Edited December 24, 2015 by Neurochick

[xaxat]

So is Fred Willard really about to go down on Jennifer Coolidge?

 

 

I know they mention scotch, but really?

Edited December 28, 2015 by xaxat

[backformore]

Omg, that guy jizzing ice cream is like the best thing ever. I love it.

Yeah, this is going to work for me -  It is coming up on the time of year that I regret all the Christmas cookies and liquor and ice cream, all the extra calories I've consumed..  

After that ad, I think I can give up ice cream for a while. 

[Bastet]

So is Fred Willard really about to go down on Jennifer Coolidge?

 

Okay, what part of his commentary is actually some hip, new lingo referring to cunnilingus?  I get the whole "box" as slang for vagina thing, of course, but I'm not getting an allusion to oral sex from the context in which it's said.  Is "I'll take some of that schmotch" it?  If so, that's a new one to me.

Edited December 28, 2015 by Bastet

[xaxat]

Okay, what part of his commentary is actually some hip, new lingo referring to cunnilingus?  I get the whole "box" as slang for vagina thing, of course, but I'm not getting an allusion to oral sex from the context in which it's said.  Is "I'll take some of that schmotch" it?  If so, that's a new one to me.

 

It's not some new slang, just how I see the ad.

 

In their pidgin language Coolidge's character actually transforms "scotch" into "smotch". But when I see her attitude and the way she is sitting (and the fact that one guy is talking about cold sores), I hear "crotch, smotch". And then Fred talks about wanting some of that "smotch".

[revbfc]

http://youtu.be/2NTf01-PRUk

"Hey, Brendan! You might like this room where you can creepily peep on the neighbor girl."

[riley702]

Eww!

[CarpeDiem54]

http://youtu.be/2NTf01-PRUk

"Hey, Brendan! You might like this room where you can creepily peep on the neighbor girl."

Yeah, like I'm going to base a several hundred thousand dollar purchase on the fact that my emo pimply faced teenaged brat can spy on the neighbor girl.

[OSM Mom]

Yeah, like I'm going to base a several hundred thousand dollar purchase on the fact that my emo pimply faced teenaged brat can spy on the neighbor girl.

Doesn't everyone?

[Blergh]

There's this new men's health ad that has nothing standing out except that it features someone described as an 'anti-aging specialist' - and he's a white haired old man! LOL

  I mean, wouldn't it make more sense to have someone who looks decades off his actual age so folks get the idea he knows what he's talking about?

[revbfc]

There's this new men's health ad that has nothing standing out except that it features someone described as an 'anti-aging specialist' - and he's a white haired old man! LOL

I mean, wouldn't it make more sense to have someone who looks decades off his actual age so folks get the idea he knows what he's talking about?

Are you talking about Jeff Life of Cenegenics? That whole thing creeps me out.

[Brattinella]

Are you referring to the white-haired orange guy who pushes that wrinkle-filler stuff?

[Blergh]

revbfc and Brattinella,

 

 No, I'm not referering to either of these individuals. This person just seemed to be a generic older doc helping to pitch an otherwise unmemorable men's health product who was touted as an 'anti-aging specialist' yet didn't seemed to have sipped the Fountain of Youth himself. 

[xaxat]

Maybe he's a hundred and eight years old?

[Cobalt Stargazer]

They should have gotten Keanu Reeves.

 

 

https://herroprease.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/4_12_2011_keanu-reeves-un-balcon-sur-la-mer-red-carpet_1252812529.jpg

[ShellSeeker]

Oh, look, there's a new Little Baby's Ice Cream ad.

 

OK, so now I know it is possible for ice cream to look unappealing.

[theatremouse]

Fellow commercial commenting humans: help me out. I feel a little like I might be going insane. It doesn't help that I've been watching the Twilight Zone marathon this weekend. Admist said marathon, I have seen the Little Ceasar's ad approximately 100 times. The one with the dude giving a grand speech on hot and ready Deep Deep and Regular pizzas. I believe I have observed the following:

Approximately half the time, the Deep Deep image he gestures to is behind him on the LEFT, with the regular pizza on the right. The other half, they are reversed. What makes it more disorienting is his stupid "you can walk" robot pair of legs is always on the same side, right. So I don't think there's some mysterious, totally mirrored version of this ad out there. But he DOES gesture to the images, as one might when doing a presentation. And I remember thinking it looked weird in one when he gestures to his left first (because the audio doesn't change), because to an American viewing audience, going (house) right to left looks odd. Not that one can't point at either photo, but it just looked a little weird going right to left. But it became much much more weird when the next time I saw the ad this didn't happen, because the photos were reversed.

Like I said, I've seen this add dozens of times now, so I don't think it was a one-time brain trick. Somebody else tell me you've noticed this.

[Jamoche]

Mondegreen time, from separate ads: "We live in a pikachu world" and "Watching in a wishless wonderland". I do not envy anyone who has to try to sing all the consecutive consonants in "wish list wonderland", but the pick-and-choose guy has no excuse.

[Ubiquitous]

Fellow commercial commenting humans: help me out. I feel a little like I might be going insane. It doesn't help that I've been watching the Twilight Zone marathon this weekend. Admist said marathon, I have seen the Little Ceasar's ad approximately 100 times. The one with the dude giving a grand speech on hot and ready Deep Deep and Regular pizzas. I believe I have observed the following:

Approximately half the time, the Deep Deep image he gestures to is behind him on the LEFT, with the regular pizza on the right. The other half, they are reversed. What makes it more disorienting is his stupid "you can walk" robot pair of legs is always on the same side, right. So I don't think there's some mysterious, totally mirrored version of this ad out there. But he DOES gesture to the images, as one might when doing a presentation. And I remember thinking it looked weird in one when he gestures to his left first (because the audio doesn't change), because to an American viewing audience, going (house) right to left looks odd. Not that one can't point at either photo, but it just looked a little weird going right to left. But it became much much more weird when the next time I saw the ad this didn't happen, because the photos were reversed.

Like I said, I've seen this add dozens of times now, so I don't think it was a one-time brain trick. Somebody else tell me you've noticed this.

I never noticed the motivational weasel's PowerPoint slides being reversed, because I am distracted by the guy in the audience getting WAY too excited about what's being said and by the speaker leaving on the robo-legs.

 

Didn't motivational speakers become uncool after the 1990's?

[ennui]

We could probably have a separate topic just for Liberty Mutual.

 

I watched an ad where the guy in the suit with the coffee mug backs out of the garage and hits his wife's car. Then the voiceover talks about New Car Replacement. I thought, how do you back out of a garage and total a car? Whoever produced the ad didn't match things up very well.

[Ubiquitous]

Was it a Yugo or a "smart car"?

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Then the voiceover talks about New Car Replacement. I thought, how do you back out of a garage and total a car? Whoever produced the ad didn't match things up very well.

 

Maybe he hit the gas the way the guy in another commercial did, slammed through the garage door doing about forty miles an hour, and wrecked the car that way. Because that's how everyone backs out of their driveway, without looking behind them.

[theatremouse]

Didn't motivational speakers become uncool after the 1990's?

Yes, but I think there, they're trying to invoke TED talks rather than 90s style motivational speakers. Or, if not TED, then some other sort of giant conference announcement type spiel, like one might see at E3, which of course has nothing to do with pizza...but I suppose fits with robotic legs.

[Jamoche]

We could probably have a separate topic just for Liberty Mutual.

 

I watched an ad where the guy in the suit with the coffee mug backs out of the garage and hits his wife's car. Then the voiceover talks about New Car Replacement. I thought, how do you back out of a garage and total a car? Whoever produced the ad didn't match things up very well.

Could've been a Pinto :)

[chessiegal]

I had a co-worker who backed out of his garage after having an argument with his grandfather. He was so angry he forgot to open the garage door - car and home owner's insurance, all at once.

[ennui]

Maybe he hit the gas the way the guy in another commercial did, slammed through the garage door doing about forty miles an hour, and wrecked the car that way. Because that's how everyone backs out of their driveway, without looking behind them.

That would be an interesting car commercial. "So much power, you can hit 40 mph while you're still in the garage." 

 

Didn't motivational speakers become uncool after the 1990's?

 

Several of today's televangelists are more like motivational speakers than Bible educators.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Could've been a Pinto :)

 

Heh! Although I'm not sure a Pinto could total another car, since don't they just kind of randomly explode?

[Bort]

Heh! Although I'm not sure a Pinto could total another car, since don't they just kind of randomly explode?

I think that's the Corvair.

A big, honking Ford Ltd will do the trick at demolishing a modern car. Those things were gigantic and damn near indestructible.

[peacheslatour]

So how Country Crock Mommy keeps it real at the table?  By serving fake butter.  Yep, that's keeping it real, all right.  Probably also is sick of rotisserie chicken, so now serves KFC, cause that's super real.

[Muffyn]

Pintos exploded when hit hard from behind.  This was solved by placing a thick piece of plastic on the back of the gas tank.  Corvairs were known for flipping over at high speeds or when cornering at moderate to high speeds; i.e., take a freeway exit ramp too fast and enjoy your flight.  As to the Liberty Mutual idiots, regardless of what type of car they are driving it would take some serious effort to total another car when backing out of your driveway unless they were speeding and t-boned you. Then again, with how profoundly stupid many of the people in these ads are, maybe they backed out of the garage in a monster truck, hit another car, then revved up the engine and drove over top of it, crushing it in the process.  They then jumped out of the truck, chugged a beer, belched loudly and yelled, "Woohoo!  Look what I done did!"  Of course the driver of the car they crushed probably called their insurance company expecting sympathy and a health diagnosis rather than calling 911 for an ambulance and fire fighters with the jaws of life.  And somewhere someone was crying about Brad, poor Brad, that was now a pile of scrap metal.  

[meep.meep]

I once owned a Corvair, insured by Liberty Mutual.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Pintos exploded when hit hard from behind.  This was solved by placing a thick piece of plastic on the back of the gas tank.  Corvairs were known for flipping over at high speeds or when cornering at moderate to high speeds; i.e., take a freeway exit ramp too fast and enjoy your flight.  As to the Liberty Mutual idiots, regardless of what type of car they are driving it would take some serious effort to total another car when backing out of your driveway unless they were speeding and t-boned you. Then again, with how profoundly stupid many of the people in these ads are, maybe they backed out of the garage in a monster truck, hit another car, then revved up the engine and drove over top of it, crushing it in the process.  They then jumped out of the truck, chugged a beer, belched loudly and yelled, "Woohoo!  Look what I done did!"  Of course the driver of the car they crushed probably called their insurance company expecting sympathy and a health diagnosis rather than calling 911 for an ambulance and fire fighters with the jaws of life.  And somewhere someone was crying about Brad, poor Brad, that was now a pile of scrap metal.  

 

This is a hilarious post, Muffyn, but don't you mean moderate to severe speeds? XD

[LoneHaranguer]

 

I thought, how do you back out of a garage and total a car?

If the guy backed a big truck or SUV into the front end of a small car with lots of aluminum, that would destroy the car.

[AuntieL]

When I was in college my Dad forgot I was home for the weekend and backed out of our garage and into the side of my car (we had an l-shaped driveway). On two separate occasions. He never paid to get it fixed do I would have to hold the drivers side door when I went around a curve or else it would open. My Dad sold car insurance for a living.