Say What?: Commercials That Made Us Scratch Our Heads

[ennui]

15 hours ago, backformore said:

I used to think that also.  Until I got a car with a remote.  It not only locks and unlocks, it also starts the car.  SO, when I'm leaving work in January, I can start my car, then get a cup of coffee, use the restroom, pack my stuff up, then walk over to my nice warm car with all the snow already melted off of it. 

It's nice in the summer, as well, to start the A/C.

[mojoween]

How the balls are you supposed to eat that slab o'pork monstrosity that Arby's is now advertising?

[ennui]

22 hours ago, Maverick said:

Many (maybe most) models no longer have a physical key.

How are you supposed to get in the car if the battery's dead? Either the fob battery, or the car battery ... you'd have to break a window. I suspect there is a physical key, even if it's only for emergencies.

Edited September 27, 2016 by ennui

[Bastet]

Most fobs have an emergency key.  I was trying to figure out how to describe the process, but then went looking for a video; here's how you get in - and then start - a Lexus if the fob is dead.

Edited September 27, 2016 by Bastet

[Brattinella]

55 minutes ago, mojoween said:

How the balls are you supposed to eat that slab o'pork monstrosity that Arby's is now advertising?

I LOVE slabs o'pork!

[Maverick]

 No, there is no emergency key.   At least on some models.   Mine has no key...and and no keyholes.   If you're battery is dead, you're just screwed.  You can't get in and you can't start it.   The car will display a warning that the fob battery is low, but if you don't heed it then it's your own damn fault for getting locked out.  It's the 21st century...keys are gong the way of the dinosaur.

[theatremouse]

This really does vary more based on make and model than you're implying.

[Maverick]

 No not all....nor did I say all.   But I know at least 3 different makes that don't offer physical keys. 

[frenchtoast]

Can we please take the car key discussion to the Small Talk area, please? It's starting to take over and it's not really the topic.

Thanks!

[erikdepressant]

This commercial from Ultimate Flora Probiotics has me stumped:

What exactly does "live digestively" mean?

[OSM Mom]

I'm afraid to ask. 

[Prevailing Wind]

As someone who's recently developed ungodly digestive problems, I'd rather not be aware of my digestive tract, thank you.

[erikdepressant]

Yeah, I've had my digestive problems a long time.  I've tried every probiotic I can find, and they don't seem to do much good for me.

[Prevailing Wind]

Quote

Yeah, I've had my digestive problems a long time.  I've tried every probiotic I can find, and they don't seem to do much good for me.

Moving to Small Talk...

[blackwing]

What on earth is going on in the Gucci Guilty perfume commercial?  There's Downton Abbey-like music, a scene of a gondola in Venice, two women in bathrobes dancing with each other, then dressed and looking like one wants to kiss the other, a glass of water with a dying/dead betta fish, then a man in a tub with one or two of the women, then the same man in bed with one of the women lying on him and a third person's hand (probably the second woman) stroking her.

What's the message?  Use Gucci Guilty and you too can have threesomes with two bisexual women?  Is this perfume for women or cologne for men?   And I am completely befuddled by the dying fish.

[Amethyst]

Count me in on the confusion for the Gucci Guilty commercial.  Like...is Jared Leto supposed to be cheating on his gf?  As it is, those girls look underage, so was that it?  Is it not supposed to be an orgy?  And I didn't even notice the dead fish.  So confusing.

It doesn't help that it doesn't sound like he's saying "Gucci", but rather...something dirtier.

[captain1]

Just watched this - very weird! But I don't think that's a dead fish - looked more like a leaf or a petal to me.

[Madding crowd]

I thought it looked like a false eyelash in the glass. I also thought at first the women were mother and daughter. Very confusing commercial.

[Prevailing Wind]

Well, look what time of the year it is -- the inscrutable Christmas perfume ads have arrived. I don't think we're supposed to understand them, but just buy the stuff.

[Jamoche]

On September 29, 2016 at 9:17 AM, erikdepressant said:

Yeah, I've had my digestive problems a long time.  I've tried every probiotic I can find, and they don't seem to do much good for me.

How about the yogurt challenge? "Enjoy our yogurt for two weeks..." Sorry, I couldn't even enjoy it for a day - that is the challenge, right?

[Neurochick]

On 9/18/2016 at 10:39 PM, Prevailing Wind said:

I've seen an ad for those VR phones you strap to you head featuring a young woman on a bus.  JUST what a woman alone needs - something to block out ANYTHING that's going on in real life around her.  That creep who just wrapped his hands around your neck?  Too bad you didn't see him coming, isn't it?

I thought I was weird for thinking this way; someone told me I must have a criminal mind to think like that.  Seriously though, VR phones are probably great, but I wouldn't use them when you're supposed to be paying attention to your surroundings. 

ETA:  The thing that bugs me about this commercial is, the girl's on the bus, she looked around and is grossed out, so she puts on the VR contraption so she's somewhere else.  When I was young, you picked up a BOOK to do that, except when you read a book, you can be aware of your surroundings. 

Edited September 30, 2016 by Neurochick

[Brattinella]

23 minutes ago, Jamoche said:

How about the yogurt challenge? "Enjoy our yogurt for two weeks..." Sorry, I couldn't even enjoy it for a day - that is the challenge, right?

X1,000,000

 

 

4 minutes ago, Neurochick said:

I thought I was weird for thinking this way; someone told me I must have a criminal mind to think like that.  Seriously though, VR phones are probably great, but I wouldn't use them when you're supposed to be paying attention to your surroundings. 

Men may feel comfortable wearing these things that blind you to everything around you, but not women.  We know instinctively that we are prey.  And if we are at all self-aware, we take precautions against this very real threat.

[WescottF1]

On 9/21/2016 at 0:28 PM, peacheslatour said:

There used to be a Shakey's (anybody remember them?) across from where I worked and they had a fantastic salad bar that was all you can eat. I still make salads at home based off of what I used to get at Shakey's.

YES!  We had a Shakey's here when I was a kid.  The building currently houses a really scuzzy bar.  Looks like now it's mostly out on the West coast/Pacific Northwest with one store still in existence in Alabama and one in Mexico City (!).

[peacheslatour]

I'm in Seattle and I haven't seen one in years. :(

[Amethyst]

7 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

I thought it looked like a false eyelash in the glass. I also thought at first the women were mother and daughter. Very confusing commercial.

Yeah, on second glance I'm pretty sure it's a discarded fake eyelash.  The woman is fiddling with her eye in the scene prior to it.

[Prevailing Wind]

Quote

I thought I was weird for thinking this way; someone told me I must have a criminal mind to think like that.

Going to Small Talk with this one...

[janeta]

The iphone7 ad entitled "morning ride," with Thunderstruck as the soundtrack, with a kid getting ready to go out, in a thunderstorm, with cloud to ground lighting, on a big pile of *metal* tubes and spokes.  Really?  What, is he a moron or  something??

 

Good music though.

Edited October 1, 2016 by janeta

[Haleth]

21 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

Well, look what time of the year it is -- the inscrutable Christmas perfume ads have arrived. I don't think we're supposed to understand them, but just buy the stuff.

Exactly.  It's ART.  You cannot explain ART.  (How bourgeois.)  LOL

[cynicat]

10 hours ago, janeta said:

The iphone7 ad entitled "morning ride," with Thunderstruck as the soundtrack, with a kid getting ready to go out, in a thunderstorm, with cloud to ground lighting, on a big pile of *metal* tubes and spokes.  Really?  What, is he a moron or  something??

Darwinism.

[ennui]

On 9/30/2016 at 11:46 AM, Jamoche said:

How about the yogurt challenge? "Enjoy our yogurt for two weeks..." Sorry, I couldn't even enjoy it for a day - that is the challenge, right?

I've lost track of the brands, but the one with Jamie Lee Curtis, apparently you feel worse before you feel better. That's why they recommend the two week trial. I guess it's a significant hurdle.

[Brattinella]

2 minutes ago, ennui said:

I've lost track of the brands, but the one with Jamie Lee Curtis, apparently you feel worse before you feel better. That's why they recommend the two week trial. I guess it's a significant hurdle.

I knew there was a good reason I don't like the stuff!

[ennui]

Saw a new Peyton Manning ad. Now he's sitting on a park bench in his bathrobe, and the elderly man sitting next to him bemoans retirement and tells Peyton to work as long as he can. 

Is the implication that retired people are lost and don't bother getting dressed?

[chessiegal]

38 minutes ago, ennui said:

Saw a new Peyton Manning ad. Now he's sitting on a park bench in his bathrobe, and the elderly man sitting next to him bemoans retirement and tells Peyton to work as long as he can. 

Is the implication that retired people are lost and don't bother getting dressed?

Well, now you're making me feel bad. I'm retired. It rained most of the day and the house was fully stocked with food and drink, so I never made it out of my jammies. It happens.

[ennui]

1 hour ago, chessiegal said:

Well, now you're making me feel bad. I'm retired. It rained most of the day and the house was fully stocked with food and drink, so I never made it out of my jammies. It happens.

Don't feel bad. You didn't leave the house, did you? Wander aimlessly for hours in your bathrobe? Annoy grocery check-out clerks? Spending the day at home in your jammies seems normal to me!

[chessiegal]

2 minutes ago, ennui said:

Don't feel bad. You didn't leave the house, did you? Wander aimlessly for hours in your bathrobe? Annoy grocery check-out clerks? Spending the day at home in your jammies seems normal to me!

Well, I did  go out on the back porch. And bathed. I do occasionally see people shopping in their PJs which has me scratching my head. :)

[Haleth]

Does anyone know who the new Colonel Sanders is?  (In the football commercials?)

[Brattinella]

Darrell Hammond?  Jim Gaffigan?

[AuntiePam]

I read somewhere (maybe here?) that the new Colonel is Rob Riggle.

[Jamoche]

"This is your brain on drugs" is back! No, this is an egg in a frying pan! But the pitch now is that the teenage kids of people who were teens when that first came out (like me, so get off my lawn) will be asking their parents about drugs. Funny, none of those kids are asking "did you really think that fried egg analogy made sense?"

No. No we didn't.

[bilgistic]

My favorite PSA remains, "I learned it from watching you, alright!? I LEARNED IT FROM WATCHING YOU!" Thirty-odd years later, my sisters and I still use that one on our mom for the dumbest things.

[smittykins]

Because I am perpetually 12, at "Any questions?" I ask "Yeah, can I have my brain scrambled?"

[Silver Raven]

The quarterback in the Colonel Sanders football ads is alleged to be Peyton and Eli Manning's little brother.

[Jaded]

42 minutes ago, Silver Raven said:

The quarterback in the Colonel Sanders football ads is alleged to be Peyton and Eli Manning's little brother.

That's their big brother who couldn't continue to play football due to health issues. I was looking him up recently or I wouldn't know any of this.

[mojoween]

Sadly I knew that was Cooper Manning without looking it up.

He is quite charming in his own right actually.  I love the Mannings.

[Jaded]

3 hours ago, mojoween said:

Sadly I knew that was Cooper Manning without looking it up.

He is quite charming in his own right actually.  I love the Mannings.

I was watching some of the segments he does for FOX Football on YouTube and he is really funny.

[Haleth]

I was too busy trying to figure out who the Colonel was to look at anyone else.  I think even Peyton would tell you that Cooper was the most talented of the three before he had to give it up.

Edited to add:  Riggle was just on the Today Show and confirmed he is the new Colonel for the next 6 months.

Edited October 4, 2016 by Haleth

[theatremouse]

I am scratching my head because... Bryce Harper in new T-Mobile ad: he is absolutely no Buster Posey...but he's not terrible in it? And this just makes me feel puzzled. I am certain this is more because of me than the ad itself, but I figured if anyone would sympathize, it'd be y'all.

[topanga]

On 10/3/2016 at 10:00 PM, mojoween said:

Sadly I knew that was Cooper Manning without looking it up.

He is quite charming in his own right actually.  I love the Mannings.

I learned more about Cooper and the entire Manning family through the ESPN (?) documentary. Yes, they were all talented until Cooper got hurt. He's oldest of the three. And the funny one. He absolutely loved pranking and playfully tormenting his little brothers throughout their childhoods. Eli took everything in stride--Cooper and Peyton both said it was hard to get Eli upset. But Peyton was always crying, whining, and snitching to his parents about Cooper's behavior. I'm not saying Peyton was wrong, but the contrast is hysterical. 

 

I kind of understand the point of the fake Jamie Foxx guys in the Verizon ads. But then again, maybe I don't. Are the impostors happy because they really think they're Jamie Foxx, i.e. they think their networks are as good as Verizon's? Or they think they look enough like Jamie Foxx to fool the average cell phone customer in order to convince them that T Mobile and Sprint are as good as Verizon? 

[AuntiePam]

2 hours ago, topanga said:

I kind of understand the point of the fake Jamie Foxx guys in the Verizon ads. But then again, maybe I don't. Are the impostors happy because they really think they're Jamie Foxx, i.e. they think their networks are as good as Verizon's? Or they think they look enough like Jamie Foxx to fool the average cell phone customer in order to convince them that T Mobile and Sprint are as good as Verizon? 

I think it's the second. 

I like the subtext in that ad, a dig at people who think "all black [or whatever race] people look alike".  There's another ad that speaks to that but I can't remember now which one it is.  Maybe one with Samuel L. Jackson.  ?? 

[topanga]

1 hour ago, AuntiePam said:

I think it's the second. 

I like the subtext in that ad, a dig at people who think "all black [or whatever race] people look alike".  There's another ad that speaks to that but I can't remember now which one it is.  Maybe one with Samuel L. Jackson.  ?? 

No, that happened in real life. 

But seriously, I'm searching for such a commercial and can't find one. 

BTW, I've read at least one article that calls the Jamie Foxx Verizon commercial racist because it implies that all black people look alike. I say absolutely not. The absurdity of the commercial is that the other two men, while wearing suits and having a similar shade of brown skin, do not look like Jamie Foxx. And it's supposed to be obvious to the viewer that they are not Jamie Foxx. *

*ETA, I didn't find the white Jamaican commercial racist either because there are white Jamaicans who speak in patois.

Edited October 5, 2016 by topanga