Say What?: Commercials That Made Us Scratch Our Heads

[heebiejeebie]

Thanks.  Now I have the image of seven cats all together trying to  frantically bury the unexpected entry to their box.

[Madding crowd]

What is the point of the car commercial (I think Honda but not sure), where the dad drives like a maniac with a little girl in the back and they play the song "Wild One". Obviously the little girl is pretending to drive, but isn't the dad endangering her life by driving like a crazy person just cause its fun? Then at the end she makes a gesture like again and we see him screeching around a corner. How does this make me want to buy this car?

[Brattinella]

Aw, I think that's a pretty sweet ad.  Dad isn't REALLY driving like a maniac, he's actually driving at a normal speed.

[Madding crowd]

No he was driving really fast around curves with the "don't try this at home"line on the bottom of the screen. Why would this make me buy this car?

[CoderLady]

They were in an empty parking lot, if that helps.

[Prevailing Wind]

I think the reckless driving is all in the imagination of the little girl.

[theatremouse]

Yeah, I think he was basically just doing circles in an empty parking lot at relatively normal parking lot speeds, but to the little girl, she interpreted as her own mock-fast driving. That's the game. The "do not try this" is standard required disclaimerism and doesn't necessarily imply actual trick driving.

[xaxat]

 

You thought a song about big asses would be a good way to sell food? Really Romano's Macaroni?

[Sandman87]

I had a friend whose granddaughter was being toilet trained in a house with 7 cats.  Where did she poo when she tried it on her own?  You guessed it.  The litter box.  Can Clorox help that?

When I was in high school, our cats taught our wolf/shepherd to use the litter box. Unfortunately she was a lot larger than the box, which meant that her butt would hang out over the side. I definitely used a lot of Clorox cleaning up those messes.

[MrsEVH]

Bret Michaels and Martha Stewart together in a Pet Smart commercial.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Not that I doubted your veracity, MrsEVH, but I just had to hit youtube to see it for myself.

 

 

How frigging weird.

[Bastet]

When I was in high school, our cats taught our wolf/shepherd to use the litter box. Unfortunately she was a lot larger than the box, which meant that her butt would hang out over the side. I definitely used a lot of Clorox cleaning up those messes.

 

Now, that would be a more effective advertising campaign than a parade of children too old to be shitting anywhere other than in the toilet.  "For life's bleachable moments"?  These families don't need bleach, they need doctors.

[ramble]

I just saw an ad for Minute Maid juice drops. I assume they knew what this would sound like:

http://youtu.be/lLlOtHECIa4

[callmebetty]

I just saw an ad for Minute Maid juice drops. I assume they knew what this would sound like:

http://youtu.be/lLlOtHECIa4

I've been wanting to comment on this commercial for a while. I was only listening when I first saw it. I had to rewind it and then call in someone else to verify I wasn't just hearing things. Who thought this wouldn't be misinterpreted?

[Tunia]

I saw a Lincoln car commercial staring Matthew Mcconaughey last night and immediately thought of this forum. I guess it's too "deep" for me because I don't get it.

 Whenever I see this ad, I thank God I'm not depressed or suicidal because all his talk about going back over one's life would surely make me go over the edge to the dark side.

[Aquarius]

I've been wanting to comment on this commercial for a while. I was only listening when I first saw it. I had to rewind it and then call in someone else to verify I wasn't just hearing things. Who thought this wouldn't be misinterpreted?

 

Well, this was my "new something" learned today.  I watched that spot and had no idea what was so controversial about it.  Thanks, Urban Dictionary.  LOL.

[Brattinella]

Can someone please explain what this "drop the juice" thing means?

[riley702]

I'm assuming it's a sound-alike for dropping a deuce, i.e., taking a dump (going #2).

[bilgistic]

Color me confused and old (yet still gutter-minded), because all I can think it might mean (in a double entendre) is ejaculation...?

I'm not looking it up on Urban Dictionary because I feel like having faith in humanity today.

Edited September 22, 2014 by bilgistic

[Rick Kitchen]

Well, according to Urban Dictionary:

 

 

Drop the juice
A multi-use expression denoting the consumption of alcohol, sexual activity, or general dynamism and merriment in the company of friends.

 

Maybe that's what the ad is going for.

[Brattinella]

Okay, so is it sex or poop?

[Prevailing Wind]

Both!  It's a floor wax! It's a dessert topping!!

[bilgistic]

Okay, so is it sex or poop?

I am crying-laughing! Thank you for giving me a new question to ask my befuddled coworkers, apropos of nothing!

Much like Apple singing about giant dongs, the ad folks at Minute Maid didn't do the research before they approved that commercial.

Edited September 23, 2014 by bilgistic

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Both!  It's a floor wax! It's a dessert topping!!

It's Compulsion by Calvin Kleen.

[OmegaX123]

I haven't really read much of this thread yet, but I came over just now (from TWOP, having been 'on sabbatical' and only just discovered that TWOP was dead and this site existed), and I have to say I'm confused about the thread naming - megathreads with the same or similar names to old TWOP threads (like this one), but talking about something else, like "Commercials That Made Us Scratch Our Heads" used to be about weird and wacky commercials but in the early pages of this one, at least, it seems to be mostly 'misheard commercials'/'what we thought we heard' material.

That said, I'm glad to know that a place like this exists again, I fully intend to stick around and even read up on the rest of this thread and others, and if I should find a commercial that fits in, I'll amend my posting history (by adding it to this post if I find that no one else posts here, however unlikely that is, between now and then, or in a new reply otherwise).

[GaT]

Um, what?

[Bastet]

I haven't really read much of this thread yet, but I came over just now (from TWOP, having been 'on sabbatical' and only just discovered that TWOP was dead and this site existed), and I have to say I'm confused about the thread naming - megathreads with the same or similar names to old TWOP threads (like this one), but talking about something else, like "Commercials That Made Us Scratch Our Heads" used to be about weird and wacky commercials but in the early pages of this one, at least, it seems to be mostly 'misheard commercials'/'what we thought we heard' material.

 

I think it helps to understand the overriding rule here is "Don't be a dick," rather than there being a series of specific rules; you may screw something up, but unless you're trying to be rude, it's easy to correct.  When deciding if a thread exists for a thought you'd like to express, go by the title - ignoring what it may have meant at TWoP - and the thread's introductory post and either post in the most-appropriate one of the existing threads or create a new one, understanding that if you create a thread for something best contained within an existing thread/forum you'll simply be directed to that spot.

[OmegaX123]

Re: the Little Baby's Ice Cream commercials: The worst part is the 'backstory' for that ice cream monster. There have been 'interviews' with it, and according to them, it crawled out of a vat of the shop's ice cream, new to life, and... just became the creepy thing it is in those commercials, I guess. Makes me wonder what they put in that ice cream, if it can spontaneously generate ice-cream-based life.

On the Instant Breakfast one: I definitely hear 'fresh milk', but I have earbuds in, and I can kind of hear how someone listening on regular speakers, especially TV speakers, might hear 'breast milk'.

EDIT: A post I just made on another thread made me think about this commercial, and this is definitely a headscratcher (especially on first viewing).

(hope I linked that right)

I mean I get the implication of the end of it (the guy 'chickened out' of eating the chip, so he became a chicken), but the whole commercial is just... what? What made them think that would sell chips (or 'crisps' to our British peeps)? It was so confusing that when my mother saw it, she told me about it but described it as 'people were abducted by aliens, and they're being forced to eat Doritos and getting turned into something'. Edited September 23, 2014 by OmegaX123

[Sandman87]

Both!  It's a floor wax! It's a dessert topping!!

It's a breath mint and a condom! It's new CondoMints™! Keeps you minty fresh every which-way, and special ribbing keeps your teeth their whitest!

[NYGirl]

I saw a Lincoln car commercial staring Matthew Mcconaughey last night and immediately thought of this forum. I guess it's too "deep" for me because I don't get it.

Apparently Ellen does too:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3pu5l3rRDo

[GaT]

It reminds me of the Brad Pitt Chanel No. 5 commercial, you just film a famous actor saying whatever, & it's supposed to be deep.

[Muffyn]

The McConaughey Lincoln commercial makes me think it's the car for the suicidally depressed.  Either he's going to drive that thing off a cliff or he's got the back filled with guns and he's planning on taking people with him.  

[Maverick]

It reminds me of the Brad Pitt Chanel No. 5 commercial, you just film a famous actor saying whatever, & it's supposed to be deep.

Which in turn reminds me of Taran Killiam doing a parody of Brad Pitt doing a Taco Bell commercial.   "Doritos Locos Tacos: it's like you opened a bag of Doritos and tossed in some meat and cheese...which is a really great way to make dinner if you have 10 kids"

[Aquarius]

Apparently Ellen does too:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3pu5l3rRDo

That was hysterical!  "Hey, whatcha doin' with your fingers?  You need a wet wipe?"  Bwah!

[Sandman87]

Yet another line from the Super Beta Prostate ad caught my attention tonight. According to them I will "experience less waking up to urinate" if I take their pills, so I guess I'd better invest in rubber sheets and adult diapers before I try it.

[Actionmage]

Um, what?--Any person watching that for the first time.

 

The ad, "Golf"- a part of The GAP's Dress Normal campaign, I guess, feels more Tarantino-esque to me than David Fincher-y simply due to the way the woman is dancing around, her vintage-seeming car and the oldie on the soundtrack (or oldie-sounding track.) But:

 

a) who's allowed to actually park that close to a public space like that? Granted, this is AdLand, but still, close enough to blare your radio, leave the car open and dance off away from it? With no one giving you the stink eye?

b)Why is she dancing behind that poor schmuck? He's plopped down his dough, got his bucket of balls, then has to deal with That Gal. She's pretty and all, but can't she try to distract someone else?

c)She may be dressing normal, but she is not acting normal. She's being precious for no reason. Just because the song's lyrics seem to match the action, doesn't mean what the woman is doing isn't a little off.

 

The ad is nice, even in black and white. The clothes feel very Laura Petrie to me, which is not a slam. If I hadn't known it was a GAP ad going in, I would've thought it was a BMW/ Mercedes Benz ad, as the specific brand is shown as The Woman is dancing away. 

 

IA with GaT-- um, what?

[riley702]

Just saw a Waggin' Train commercial for chicken jerky dog treats that left me shaking my head. It starts out "we take a 100% real egg..." (phew! Glad they didn't use the fake eggs!) "and hatch it into a 100% real chicken..." (ditto for not using, say, just a 90% real chicken. And what would the other 10% of that chicken consist of? But I digress). The oddest part was when they show the "newly hatched real chicken" dead and plucked on a platter! I'm pretty sure that's not what a 100% real chicken looks like when it hatches.

Edited September 29, 2014 by riley702

[riley702]

Here it is:

 

http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7rU5/purina-waggin-train

 

Hmm, I seem to be having problems embedding the ad instead of just linking to it. I did it the way I always have. :/

Edited September 27, 2014 by riley702

[Lola16]

Remember this Juicy Fruit gum commercial? "Take a sniff, pull it out. The taste is gonna move you when you pop it in your mouth"

No but I remember when Wrigley used real sugar in its gum.  Now even their non-sugar free gums have aspartame.  B@stards.

 

The hell?

 

We have a foster cat who is very gymnastic in her ability to catch the cat nip flavored versions of these treats.  She leaps, back flips and catches them in her paws and pops them in her mouth.  All seamless.  I have to video her doing it one of these days.

 

Both!  It's a floor wax! It's a dessert topping!!

http://www.break.com/video/ugc/snl-new-shimmer-commercial-704661

[Prevailing Wind]

Jeez, I miss Gilda.

[ParadoxLost]

Courtyard Marriott has these commercials I just don't get.  A woman is travelling in a horse drawn carriage in full  costume with her laptop.  A man is sailing on a Viking ship with a glass of wine.  Turns out they are in a lounge and/or bar of a Courtyard Marriott.  I don't understand what message they are trying to send. 

Edited September 28, 2014 by ParadoxLost

[GaT]

I just the one with the woman yesterday, & I don't get it either. She's Skyping with her parents, so why is she dressed olde tymey in a horse drawn carriage?

[heebiejeebie]

Nissan has an ad out with a couple driving through what I'm guessing is a stylized version of Pamplona (though the digital graphics seem more Italian to me).  This is just the latest in an overall theme that crops up again and again with car commercials.  They show the vehicle operating in a fantastical setting that is clearly not possible.  How does that sell a car?  I just do not understand the selling point of "here's our car, now watch it do something you will NEVER be able to do no matter what...isn't our great?"  I'm not talking hyerbole like using their car on a test track or using their car on the streets as a test track.  But the whole notion that if you buy this car you slip into the future by about two thousand years.

[Stella MD]

Speaking of car commercials, I want to punch the two parents in the Subaru commercial who keep rolling their eyes and making catty comments about Grandma while she and their daughter are in the backseat. Yes, Grandma is clearly a little weird, but teaching your kid to openly snark on adults and/or people who are different is clearly poor parenting. Also, have some respect yourselves for your mother/MIL! Can't wait for the kid to grow up and roll her eyes at her SO when they're old.

[ParadoxLost]

I just spent an entire commercial trying to decide whether I was watching a commercial for some really bizarre movie or a SNL sketch.  It was a commercial.  The boy that beeps brought to you by GE. 

 

I've never really understood why some companies advertise their brand and not their products.  Who are they trying to reach?  They are big enough that they don't need to recruit employees with advertising.  Are they marketing to stockbrokers?  To their industry and executives of other companies that might work with GE?

 

As I write this, Boeing did an add, I guess because they expect to find some TV watcher to buy a fleet of 747s .

[Sandman87]

I pointed this out once before at TWoP, but it's worth repeating: I wonder if the CARFAX people know that their company name is associated with Dracula?

[90PercentGravity]

I just spent an entire commercial trying to decide whether I was watching a commercial for some really bizarre movie or a SNL sketch.  It was a commercial.  The boy that beeps brought to you by GE. 

 

I've never really understood why some companies advertise their brand and not their products.  Who are they trying to reach?  They are big enough that they don't need to recruit employees with advertising.  Are they marketing to stockbrokers?  To their industry and executives of other companies that might work with GE?

 

As I write this, Boeing did an add, I guess because they expect to find some TV watcher to buy a fleet of 747s .

I just came here to mention this. That ad was truly bizarre.

[heebiejeebie]

Big Oil and the shale gas drillers

 

I just spent an entire commercial trying to decide whether I was watching a commercial for some really bizarre movie or a SNL sketch.  It was a commercial.  The boy that beeps brought to you by GE. 

 

I've never really understood why some companies advertise their brand and not their products.  Who are they trying to reach?  They are big enough that they don't need to recruit employees with advertising.  Are they marketing to stockbrokers?  To their industry and executives of other companies that might work with GE?

 

As I write this, Boeing did an add, I guess because they expect to find some TV watcher to buy a fleet of 747s .

 

It's called happy-feel-good.  Note that GE does this only less than say, BP bragging how many jobs they create in the US, or Exxon telling you how wonderful they are.  Or shale gas drillers telling you how natural gas fixes everything...see a trend yet?  I'll bet the less taxes a corporation pays the more nebulous the message is in their ads is beyond the whole "aw gee shucks".

[Cobalt Stargazer]

I pointed this out once before at TWoP, but it's worth repeating: I wonder if the CARFAX people know that their company name is associated with Dracula?

 

Wait, what? What ad is this?

[Bruinsfan]

The home he bought and moved into when coming to England was named Carfax.

 

Now I want to see the Car Fox sprout fangs and a little cape.