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Say What?: Commercials That Made Us Scratch Our Heads


Lola16
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33 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

My DH starts in January, no lie. He's just that crazy about Christmas. First he hits the after Christmas sales (we got our artificial tree for half price plus twenty percent in store discount), he then continues shopping catalogs by having me circle stuff I like. He personally writes cards to about one hundred of his clients, he does this in July while watching the wretched Hallmark Christmas in July hogwash and on it goes until now when he just kicks back and relaxes. He's crazy, I know.

This is simply awesome.  You are one lucky lady!

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1 hour ago, Brattinella said:

This is simply awesome.  You are one lucky lady!

I know. I love him dearly but his obsession with all things Hallmark drives me crazy. He loves movies like Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail. Most women would kill for such a hopeless romantic. I just laugh because other than looking pretty girly, I'm a tomboy at heart and my favorite Christmas movie is Die Hard.

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28 minutes ago, theatremouse said:

Muppets have a very long history of appearing in ads. Jim did tons.

I actually think that's how they got their start. I grew up in Baltimore in the fifties/sixties, and would see lots of local ads with them. (I think they were based in DC.) When they got famous, I didn't understand the sudden attention, since I figured everybody already knew them as the critters for the local bread company. (Or whatever they hell they were hawking.) 

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Wow! I just saw a commercial for Hugo Boss (maker of the uniforms the SS wore in Nazi Germany) men's cologne using Franz Ferdinand's Take Me Out. A song about the assassination  of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that led to WWI. Meta.

Edited by peacheslatour
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1 hour ago, peacheslatour said:

Wow! I just saw a commercial for Hugo Boss (maker of the uniforms the SS wore in Nazi Germany) men's cologne using Franz Ferdinand's Take Me Out. A song about the assassination  of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that led to WWI. Meta.

I'm not sure it's specifically about the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, but yeah, that's weird.  (Love that song though.)

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1 hour ago, proserpina65 said:

I'm not sure it's specifically about the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, but yeah, that's weird.  (Love that song though.)

They said it was.

The single release of "Take Me Out" came with the B-side, "All for You, Sophia", based on the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, whose name was Sophie, not Sophia. The band chose the name Sophia rather than Sophie to give the song a better ring. The song mentions the assassin Gavrilo Princip, the Black Hand, the location of the Appel Quay and "Urban" (Franz Urban), the name often mistakenly given to Leopold Lojka, the driver of the car.

In addition to this, in 2004 the band played a number of "secret" gigs under the pseudonym "The Black Hands", alluding to the secret society that was held responsible for the assassination of Franz Ferdinand

From Wiki 

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6 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

They said it was.

The single release of "Take Me Out" came with the B-side, "All for You, Sophia", based on the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, whose name was Sophie, not Sophia. The band chose the name Sophia rather than Sophie to give the song a better ring. The song mentions the assassin Gavrilo Princip, the Black Hand, the location of the Appel Quay and "Urban" (Franz Urban), the name often mistakenly given to Leopold Lojka, the driver of the car.

In addition to this, in 2004 the band played a number of "secret" gigs under the pseudonym "The Black Hands", alluding to the secret society that was held responsible for the assassination of Franz Ferdinand

From Wiki 

I did not know that.  Previously.TV is educational! ;-)

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On 12/20/2017 at 10:39 PM, Milburn Stone said:

I actually think that's how they got their start. I grew up in Baltimore in the fifties/sixties, and would see lots of local ads with them. (I think they were based in DC.) When they got famous, I didn't understand the sudden attention, since I figured everybody already knew them as the critters for the local bread company. (Or whatever they hell they were hawking.) 

Wilkins Coffee

Wilkins and Wontkins are the muppets.*   Wilkins looks like an early Kermit and it sounds kind of like Kermit and Rowlf doing the commercial.

*did you know there is a Muppets Wiki?

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On ‎12‎/‎20‎/‎2017 at 11:14 AM, janie jones said:

I had a customer last week for whom I offered to order an item that we didn't have in stock.  "...Unless you need it right away," I said.  He said that 3-5 business days was fine for shipping because he was just trying to do some "early Christmas shopping."  WTF?  If a week and a half before Christmas is "early," then what does he call shopping in October?

Is he starting early for 2018?

 

5 hours ago, elle said:

Did you know there is a Muppets Wiki?

If it's Danny Horn's, then yes, I do. He runs the Dark Shadows Every Day blog.

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7 hours ago, Ubiquitous said:

If it's Danny Horn's, then yes, I do. He runs the Dark Shadows Every Day blog.

It is this one.  Is that the same? (I could not find an owner name)

 

7 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

OMG thank you so much. I didn't know Dark Shadows Every Day existed! Yay, I know where I'll be for the next few weeks.

You, me, my best friend, my sister-in-law...see you there!

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I don't know what the ad is for (probably a department store) -- the one that starts with a family singing a Christmas song (Jingle Bells?) and their neighbors all leave their houses and join in, singing different songs.  I suppose the songs are supposed to blend together, making us go "Oh yeah, we're all different but we can come together nicely".  Except that the jumble of songs sounds like crap. 

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"When you tell your boss you were at the doctor, but your shirt smells like you were at a steak house, maybe it's only half washed."

I have so many questions about this. First, does the smell of a steak house really stay with you on your clothes?  And, are you supposed to run home and wash your clothes after lunch?  Or is the detergent supposed to miraculously counteract the steak house smell?

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9 hours ago, bilgistic said:

I don't eat at steakhouses, but when I eat at a Mexican restaurant, my clothes smell like the food.

Do you drink Dos Equis?

(thinking about that - why does The World's Most Interesting Man drink Dos Equis and then say, "Stay thirsty" ? Does XX not quench thirst?)

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11 hours ago, Silver Raven said:

"When you tell your boss you were at the doctor, but your shirt smells like you were at a steak house, maybe it's only half washed."

I have so many questions about this. First, does the smell of a steak house really stay with you on your clothes?  And, are you supposed to run home and wash your clothes after lunch?  Or is the detergent supposed to miraculously counteract the steak house smell?

I haven't seen this commercial, but it sounds like it wasn't on the person's lunch break.  You wouldn't go to the doctor on your lunch break.  You'd take time off and possibly use some sort of PTO or sick pay or something.  So the real question (in my mind) is why is the person taking time of from work to take some sort of extended lunch?

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So the real question (in my mind) is why is the person taking time of from work to take some sort of extended lunch?

I'm thinking that the guy works for a boss who expects him to take no more than an hour for lunch. If he went to a really good steak house, there was probably waiting time for a table.

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I play solitaire on an MSN game site. I refuse to pay for it, so I get ads. And they are all so very annoying. Before Christmas it was some freaky stuffed animal, I thought at first the name was "furked" but I think it was "fur real". I don't know, I turn the sound off on my computer most of the time. The there were ads for Play Do, some real imaginative play items, like a Play Do Easy Bake Oven and a Tangled Head device that you crank the clay out for hair. I think those would be boring after the first use.

But now, there's some sort of picture printing device from HP. One ad shows a couple of girls taking lots of selfies, hanging them on strings of twinkle lights, then mom & the girls looking at all the basically same pictures taken at the same time of the same people and oohing and ahing. Another ad shows a couple of teen girls exchanging gifts and they each got the other this device, then they proceed to take the same 200 selfies of them together and printing them out. A third, well, you get the picture. I guess I'm old, I have no interest in 200 selfies, actually I have zero interest in one selfie. I have never taken a selfie and have no plans to in the future. What a lot of self obsessed people! I do like looking at old family photos, but we didn't take pictures of ourselves every 5 minutes, getting film developed was an expense we just couldn't afford more than a few times a year for special occasions. But I really don't get all this obsession with selfies.

"hey you kids, get off my lawn!"

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We take selfies when we travel. Seriously, if your standing in front of the Eiffel Tower, you need a selfie.

I'll hand it to HP - when I saw that small printer, the Sprocket, I realized they have a real big market to tap into. The device isn't expensive, and it gives them a market for ink and paper.

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2 hours ago, Brattinella said:

When we travel, we take pictures of each other in front of landmarks.

Yeah, but if you want a picture of both of you, you either need to do a selfie or hand your phone to a total stranger to take your picture. I'm not trusting enough to do that. 

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I've always taken selfies, before I ever heard the word "selfie" or before social media existed.  I'm glad that selfies are now a thing because people don't come up to you and offer to take your picture anymore.  No, stranger, I will not hand you my camera.  I can handle it myself.  Anyway, I think selfies are more dynamic than posed pictures taken by someone else. 

But no, I don't have 200 of them.

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Sometimes when we're doing selfies, someone will come up and volunteer to take a picture and we oblige. I've done the same thing. Sometimes we ask someone to take a picture of us. Pictures are memories. So wonderful that electrons are cheap, and we don't need film anymore. On the other hand, doing film photography is now an art form.

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On ‎12‎/‎26‎/‎2017 at 11:36 PM, Silver Raven said:

"When you tell your boss you were at the doctor, but your shirt smells like you were at a steak house, maybe it's only half washed."

I have so many questions about this. First, does the smell of a steak house really stay with you on your clothes?  And, are you supposed to run home and wash your clothes after lunch?  Or is the detergent supposed to miraculously counteract the steak house smell?

I've been meaning to ask about this one as well. I initially thought they were smelling where he went to eat the previous night because he wore the same shirt the next day, then I wondered why it still smelled from the night before, then I wondered why they think he was up to no good because his shirt smelled like where he had supper the night before, then I wondered if they meant he washed it before going to work, but not very well...

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On 12/27/2017 at 10:51 AM, janie jones said:

I haven't seen this commercial, but it sounds like it wasn't on the person's lunch break.  You wouldn't go to the doctor on your lunch break.  You'd take time off and possibly use some sort of PTO or sick pay or something.  So the real question (in my mind) is why is the person taking time of from work to take some sort of extended lunch?

I don't do it often but I have gone to the doctor on my lunch hour before and been back to work within an hour.  I have coworkers who have done this as well.  Probably depends on how close the dr office is to where you work and what the doctor needs it do.

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On 12/26/2017 at 11:36 PM, Silver Raven said:

"When you tell your boss you were at the doctor, but your shirt smells like you were at a steak house, maybe it's only half washed."

I have so many questions about this. First, does the smell of a steak house really stay with you on your clothes?  And, are you supposed to run home and wash your clothes after lunch?  Or is the detergent supposed to miraculously counteract the steak house smell?

One morning I had a a meeting at the office of a client who was a smoker. (His office, his rules.) In the afternoon, I had a doctor's appointment. I'm sure my doctor could smell the smoke on me as he asked in a subtle/not subtle way "You haven't picked up any bad habits recently, have you?"

I doubt that detergent could have helped me in that situation.

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17 hours ago, Brattinella said:

I've always handed my camera to a stranger to take our pictures, and never has it been snatched.  I dunno, different times I guess.

Me too.  Pictures of friends and me in front of the Eiffel Tower, the Parthenon, Loch Ness (that monster was right behind us, I swear), on a vaporetto in Venice - never had a problem.

3 hours ago, Ubiquitous said:

I've been meaning to ask about this one as well. I initially thought they were smelling where he went to eat the previous night because he wore the same shirt the next day, then I wondered why it still smelled from the night before, then I wondered why they think he was up to no good because his shirt smelled like where he had supper the night before, then I wondered if they meant he washed it before going to work, but not very well...

I do think that is what those commercials are getting at.

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On 12/26/2017 at 8:36 PM, Silver Raven said:

I have so many questions about this. First, does the smell of a steak house really stay with you on your clothes?

If you're cooking the steak yourself, it does get on your clothes.

If you get that smell from the restaurant, they seriously need better ventilation.

But either way, the smell goes away after a wash. It even goes away after a rinse. So the "half-washed" bit is still a head-scratcher.

Edited by Jamoche
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I do think that is what those commercials are getting at.

But that makes no sense after the "When you tell your boss you went to the doctor" line.  It's accusing you of taking more than an hour for lunch, not of washing your clothes from the night before.

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On 12/27/2017 at 9:35 PM, Brattinella said:

I've always handed my camera to a stranger to take our pictures, and never has it been snatched.  I dunno, different times I guess.

And when I see people trying to take pictures of themselves, I always offer to take one for them.  Maybe it helps that I usually have a big "real" camera and a bag full of gear, so they assume I won't make off with their phone/point&shoot.

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On 12/26/2017 at 11:00 PM, bilgistic said:

I don't eat at steakhouses, but when I eat at a Mexican restaurant, my clothes smell like the food.

That's from fajitas. It comes to the table sizzling, and the spices and oil combine to make your clothes and hair, and the clothes and hair of everyone near you, smell like grilled meat.

I guess a steakhouse could have the same effect if you're close to the kitchen or if your steak is served on a sizzling platter.

Edited by backformore
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18 minutes ago, backformore said:

That's from fajitas. It comes to the table sizzling, and the spices and oil combine to make your clothes and hair, and the clothes and hair of everyone near you, smell like grilled meat.

I guess a steakhouse could have the same effect if you're close to the kitchen or if your steak is served on a sizzling platter.

There's also Japanese steakhouses, where you're right next to the chef while they're cooking.

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