Say What?: Commercials That Made Us Scratch Our Heads

[chessiegal]

8 minutes ago, Ubiquitous said:

I think the joke is the guy is good at catching footballs (because his hands are sticky, ha ha),

Yes, that's exactly the joke.

[Bort]

1 hour ago, LucindaWalsh said:

Okay after going years and not having this phrase come up this is the third time in just a couple weeks that I have had an Emily Litella moment in front of me here at PTV. Just putting it out there wondering what I am supposed to get from it (I believe when something happens in three's that it is for a reason). 

It's a skit from very early Saturday Night Live.

[spiderpig]

On ‎9‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 8:59 AM, Brattinella said:

Yes!  We delight in saying it along with her.  "I'm a spider!"

This ad runs a million times a week and I still hear her saying "I'm a spider".  I'm glad I'm not the only one.

[Moose135]

"When I drop off my cargo at 30,000 feet..."

Wow, just wow!

 

[mmecorday]

Quote

"When I drop off my cargo at 30,000 feet..."

Wow, just wow!

It used to be taboo to even show a toilet on TV, let alone someone on one!

[Stella Rose]

36 minutes ago, mmecorday said:

It used to be taboo to even show a toilet on TV, let alone someone on one!

And frankly, I miss those days. 

I am not a fan of bathroom humor or seeing people on toilets at all.  Yes, everyone does it, but honestly TMI for adverts.

[Jacqs]

reach for the stars but never have your mind in the gutter.

[Dirtybubble]

On 10/14/2018 at 11:40 AM, janie jones said:

Yeah, but (at least in any advertisement I've encountered) they don't refer to it as "the shit," they refer to it as "shit."  Their catchphrase, as kariyaki mentions is "I put that shit on everything."

LoL--I think the joke is that this nice old lady is saying "I put that shit on everything." being an urban slang for it is so good I put it on everything and the fact that she is saying it in front of the Queen and all these aristocrats...meh it's funny enough but after I've seen it 457 times it gets old.

[Bastet]

5 minutes ago, Dirtybubble said:

I think the joke is that this nice old lady is saying "I put that shit on everything." being an urban slang for it is so good I put it on everything and the fact that she is saying it in front of the Queen and all these aristocrats

I just saw it a couple of nights ago, and, yes, that's exactly how it plays.  I don't think the company/ad agency has any worries that there will be a mass of viewers who come away from the commercial associating the sauce with excrement.

[LoneHaranguer]

1 hour ago, Dirtybubble said:

LoL--I think the joke is that this nice old lady is saying "I put that shit on everything." being an urban slang for it is so good I put it on everything and the fact that she is saying it in front of the Queen and all these aristocrats...meh it's funny enough but after I've seen it 457 times it gets old.

That usage says that it's a go-to choice when you don't have a reason to pick something else, which could be for economic reasons rather than quality. The "the" in the urban slang you're referring to is important. How a word is said can be too (e.g. "bad" or "sick"), and ads will get that wrong too.

[spiderpig]

OK fellow commercial hags who also know opera...

There is a spot for what might be Audi SUV (I'm in the kitchen peeling potatoes) that features a coloratura singing "HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa". One octave up and it would be beyond human comprehension and into dog whistle range.

I've heard it before but can't place it.  I've tried youtube and The Google.

[Brattinella]

27 minutes ago, spiderpig said:

OK fellow commercial hags who also know opera...

There is a spot for what might be Audi SUV (I'm in the kitchen peeling potatoes) that features a coloratura singing "HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa". One octave up and it would be beyond human comprehension and into dog whistle range.

I've heard it before but can't place it.  I've tried youtube and The Google.

Can you narrow that past "Audi SUV"?  There's way too many.

 

From The Magic Flute.  And it is a Volvo.

https://commercial-song.net/2018/09/volvo-2019-xc-suv-range-commercial-song-woman-singing-opera/

Edited October 18, 2018 by Brattinella

[spiderpig]

26 minutes ago, Brattinella said:

Can you narrow that past "Audi SUV"?  There's way too many.

 

From The Magic Flute.  And it is a Volvo.

https://commercial-song.net/2018/09/volvo-2019-xc-suv-range-commercial-song-woman-singing-opera/

Thank you for saving what are left of my brain cells.  You're right - Volvo and The Magic Flute.  I can die a happy woman.

[Ubiquitous]

I'm not sure if this is a local ad or not, but there's an in which a mother looks on in horror as her two kids take a bath wearing pirate hats, followed the bathroom being remade with a big ass glass shower, much to her relief.  I have no clue what is going on.

[Silver Raven]

"Better Than Bouillon has tons of flavors... Beef, Chicken, roasted garlic." Your definition of "tons" is different from mine

[chessiegal]

So, the 2 people hawking Lipozene  weight loss product (the Peete's?) - when I first saw it I thought the woman was the guy's daughter, but I guess they are a couple?

[Bastet]

2 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

So, the 2 people hawking Lipozene  weight loss product (the Peete's?) - when I first saw it I thought the woman was the guy's daughter, but I guess they are a couple?

If it's Rodney Peete (former NFL quarterback) and Holly Robinson-Peete (actor), yes, they have been married for a long time.

[Haleth]

18 hours ago, Silver Raven said:

"Better Than Bouillon has tons of flavors... Beef, Chicken, roasted garlic." Your definition of "tons" is different from mine

And roasted garlic.  But yeah, that's still not tons.

(I imagine all the flavors are mostly salt.)

Edited October 19, 2018 by Haleth

[Rinaldo]

15 hours ago, Bastet said:

If it's Rodney Peete (former NFL quarterback) and Holly Robinson-Peete (actor), yes, they have been married for a long time.

It is those Peetes, and she has been a regular in tons (your definition of tons may differ) of series over the years, including 21 Jump Street (as long ago as 1987), Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, and For Your Love. I'm more familiar with her career than his, but they were married in 1995, and they're nearly the same age -- she's 54, he's 56. (Obviously it's more essential for an actor's career to do "appearance maintenance" than it is for an athlete.)

[Brattinella]

2 hours ago, Haleth said:

And roasted garlic.  But yeah, that's still not tons.

(I imagine all the flavors are mostly salt.)

I dunno, some of them sound pretty yummy to me.

https://www.betterthanbouillon.com/

[peacheslatour]

6 hours ago, Haleth said:

And roasted garlic.  But yeah, that's still not tons.

(I imagine all the flavors are mostly salt.)

Silver Raven mentioned roasted garlic. They also have clam and chili.

[Ashforth]

On 10/8/2018 at 2:22 AM, SmithW6079 said:

I've never met a celebrity, but I have a feeling I'd want to call them by their full name if I did, and I don't think I'm alone.  I think that's why they're addressing him as Dennis Quaid, not because they think we won't otherwise know who he is.

I ran into Kyle Chandler at the salad bar of my local grocery store. He was with his daughter who was making a salad and he said, look! they have peas! And I'm standing beside them and I nearly say, Give peas a chance! Because I always think I'm funny, but I didn't say it because I didn't want to be that weird lady (even in Austin). But then I looked at him and I'm thinking, I know you from somewhere, and I almost asked if he's a lawyer because that's the industry I'm in. But I didn't ask, and I looked at him and he looked at me, and it finally dawned on me who he was and I just nodded. And he did as well, and we went our separate ways. 

Yes, he is tall and very good looking. 

[ShutUpLutz]

On 10/13/2018 at 5:54 PM, peacheslatour said:

And the "professional" sports watching guys. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the difference between a professional and an amateur is that a professional is paid for what they do. So if I get Xfinity and become a professional sports watcher they are gonna pay me or what?

They are more commonly referred to as "sportscasters/play-by play/color commentators."

[janie jones]

13 hours ago, Ashforth said:

Yes, he is tall and very good looking. 

I'm glad you said because I was going to ask!

[stillhere1900]

On 10/19/2018 at 7:04 AM, Rinaldo said:

It is those Peetes, and she has been a regular in tons (your definition of tons may differ) of series over the years, including 21 Jump Street (as long ago as 1987), Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, and For Your Love. I'm more familiar with her career than his, but they were married in 1995, and they're nearly the same age -- she's 54, he's 56. (Obviously it's more essential for an actor's career to do "appearance maintenance" than it is for an athlete.)

Her dad was "Gordon" on Sesame Street. Not sure if she was one of the kids there

[Ashforth]

On 10/22/2018 at 9:10 AM, janie jones said:

I'm glad you said because I was going to ask!

In my fantasy world, once our eyes met we would immediately run away together. LOL

But not so in real life.

[Armchair Critic]

This commercial plays a lot on late night basic cable, when I have mentioned it to others nobody seems to know what I'm talking about so I will link the video. It just is an odd choice to promote children's cancer research. Also the dad laughing confuses the kid so it doesn't seem like a good lesson either. So this one is just WTF?!

Link to commercial on You Tube

[Brattinella]

 

Sorry, I just embedded above link from Armchair Critic.

Edited October 25, 2018 by Brattinella

[GaT]

I didn't know where to post this, but I thought this was probably the best thread for it. This commercial didn't make me scratch my head so much as it made me go "OH". For my entire life, whenever anyone made the "call me" motion with their hand, they held their hand up to the side of their head with the thumb near their ear & their pinky next to their mouth. At the end of this commercial, the woman does the "call me" thing, but instead of the way I've always known it, she holds her hand like she has a cell phone in it. I realized that the thumb & pinky thing no longer applies to life as we know it, I've had a thumb & pinky epiphany.

[Moose135]

55 minutes ago, GaT said:

At the end of this commercial, the woman does the "call me" thing, but instead of the way I've always known it, she holds her hand like she has a cell phone in it.

To me, it looks more like she is holding half a coconut, which would fit the commercial.

[janie jones]

15 hours ago, Armchair Critic said:

This commercial plays a lot on late night basic cable, when I have mentioned it to others nobody seems to know what I'm talking about so I will link the video. It just is an odd choice to promote children's cancer research. Also the dad laughing confuses the kid so it doesn't seem like a good lesson either. So this one is just WTF?!

Link to commercial on You Tube

I feel like I know what they were going for, like kids do the darnedest things and we must protect them, but not only is it a bad video because the kids are confused, it's a complete bore.

[sempervivum]

Fisher Price Food Truck toy- the food truck menu consists solely of 'hamburgers/hot dogs', ie fast food, and includes plastic food (little girl shown gnawing on a plastic burger).

Do parents today actually want to inspire their kids to be food truck operators or workers, or to eat fast food? This seems remarkably counter-aspirational.

[peacheslatour]

2 hours ago, sempervivum said:

Fisher Price Food Truck toy- the food truck menu consists solely of 'hamburgers/hot dogs', ie fast food, and includes plastic food (little girl shown gnawing on a plastic burger).

Do parents today actually want to inspire their kids to be food truck operators or workers, or to eat fast food? This seems remarkably counter-aspirational.

I always thought plastic food as a toy fetishizes food for growing minds.

[Brattinella]

Food trucks are swell!

[bilgistic]

It's my understanding that most food truck operators own the truck and business, so I'd say that's a great thing to aspire to. I'd bet they aren't going away anytime soon. As long as there are festivals, there will be food trucks (and "food truck fests"!).

I've had some outstanding food from food trucks.

That is all.

[BigBingerBro]

On 10/25/2018 at 2:17 PM, GaT said:

I didn't know where to post this, but I thought this was probably the best thread for it. This commercial didn't make me scratch my head so much as it made me go "OH". For my entire life, whenever anyone made the "call me" motion with their hand, they held their hand up to the side of their head with the thumb near their ear & their pinky next to their mouth. At the end of this commercial, the woman does the "call me" thing, but instead of the way I've always known it, she holds her hand like she has a cell phone in it. I realized that the thumb & pinky thing no longer applies to life as we know it, I've had a thumb & pinky epiphany.

 

The lady doing the "call me" thing confuses me every time I see it.  Does she want the Almond Joy?  Is she into the guy?  He's the one getting the call so it just does not make sense.  I'm wondering if there is a longer version in which the whole thing makes sense.  

[Maverick]

 I think she's hot for the guy because he has an Almond Joy.   She either think's he is really going to the Caribbean or has low standards.   Maybe both.   

[Tom Holmberg]

15 hours ago, BigBingerBro said:

Does she want the Almond Joy? 

No woman can resist a guy with a king-sized Almond Joy.

[Ubiquitous]

22 hours ago, Tom Holmberg said:

No woman can resist a guy with a king-sized Almond Joy.

Better than one with brown mounds in his pants.

[Tom Holmberg]

1 hour ago, Ubiquitous said:

Better than one with brown mounds in his pants.

That's those Baby Ruths.

[friendperidot]

ewwww! I love Almond Joy and Baby Ruth. But it's a good thing I have Smarties in the house, I'd have a difficult time after these comments.

[Brattinella]

4 minutes ago, friendperidot said:

ewwww! I love Almond Joy and Baby Ruth. But it's a good thing I have Smarties in the house, I'd have a difficult time after these comments.

Yep; pretty gross.

[Ubiquitous]

There's a booze ad in circulation that bugs me that basically features a guy going to a party but ending up at the wrong one, but he had a lot more fun than at the other, so I guess he went to right one after all. What I don't understand is that the boring party can hear the fun one directly above them, but the guy discovers he was at the wrong one when he discovers the room number (nine or six) was loose and turned upside down, meaning its on the same floor.

[LoneHaranguer]

3 hours ago, Ubiquitous said:

What I don't understand is that the boring party can hear the fun one directly above them, but the guy discovers he was at the wrong one when he discovers the room number (nine or six) was loose and turned upside down, meaning its on the same floor.

Some buildings use sequential numbers for its apartments, so six and nine wouldn't necessarily be on the same floor. When they aren't, you can expect nine to be on the upper of the two, and since it's directly above six, there are probably three apartments/floor with each floor numbered in the same pattern.

[proserpina65]

1 hour ago, LoneHaranguer said:

Some buildings use sequential numbers for its apartments, so six and nine wouldn't necessarily be on the same floor. When they aren't, you can expect nine to be on the upper of the two, and since it's directly above six, there are probably three apartments/floor with each floor numbered in the same pattern.

I spent a lot of time one day trying to work this out.  Good times. ;-)

[Tom Holmberg]

5 hours ago, Ubiquitous said:

he discovers the room number (nine or six) was loose and turned upside down

"Now if a 6 turned out to be 9, I don't mind, I don't mind..."

[mmecorday]

I watch the Investigation Discovery channel a lot -- a little too much. They're running an ad for one of their new murder shows and a woman says, "That was the last time I spoke to my husband alive." Huh? Has she been speaking to him beyond the grave?

[janie jones]

Well, compared to "that's the last time I saw my husband alive,"  you see him dead at the funeral, say.  You could also speak to him dead at the funeral.  It doesn't mean he's going to respond.  But I agree that it's a weird thing to say.

[docmatt]

Quote

I watch the Investigation Discovery channel a lot -- a little too much. They're running an ad for one of their new murder shows and a woman says, "That was the last time I spoke to my husband alive." Huh? Has she been speaking to him beyond the grave?

I feel like that's OK, a lot of people talk to dead loved ones. They don't expect an answer, but talking to them gives them some comfort. No problem there.

[Ubiquitous]

On ‎10‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 12:40 PM, LoneHaranguer said:

Some buildings use sequential numbers for its apartments, so six and nine wouldn't necessarily be on the same floor. When they aren't, you can expect nine to be on the upper of the two, and since it's directly above six, there are probably three apartments/floor with each floor numbered in the same pattern.

I have never heard of that before!

I saw the ad again last night and he was looking for room six and accidentally went to room nine, so how did he pass six?