Say What?: Commercials That Made Us Scratch Our Heads

[Ubiquitous]

Related to the hated Peloton commercial,  why did it take a year for her to lose four pounds? 

[Prevailing Wind]

Slow metabolism?  Perhaps she's not doing it to lose weight.

[peacheslatour]

Speaking of the Colonel Sanders/Mrs. Butterworth commercial. Who is playing Colonel Sanders.

[Bastet]

20 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

Speaking of the Colonel Sanders/Mrs. Butterworth commercial. Who is playing Colonel Sanders.

No one I recognize, but according to the internet (including the actor's own website) it's Craig Fleming.  Whom I've never heard of or seen before.  Which is fine, but a little odd since they'd had such a string of big names playing the Colonel. 

[peacheslatour]

4 minutes ago, Bastet said:

No one I recognize, but according to the internet (including the actor's own website) it's Craig Fleming.  Whom I've never heard of or seen before.  Which is fine, but a little odd since they'd had such a string of big names playing the Colonel. 

That is odd. No wonder I didn't recognize him. At first I thought he might be Woody Harrelson.

[friendperidot]

Been seeing this for a while, a new bear, says he's Smoky Cold Bear (I think) and he's reminding us about what Smoky Bear always told us, "Only you can prevent wild fires." Um, I realize that's more accurate, but I seem to remember that Smoky Bear always said, "Only you can prevent forest fires." And then Smoky Cold Bear goes on to say that the song was wrong, we did start the fire. I just find it an odd ad. I do realize that frequently wild fires are started by people, probably most of them, but I have no statistics to back that up. And I live in a state that gets hit by wild fires, so far, none in the city, but there are times I can smell the smoke when I'm outside. 

And if he's not Smoky Cold Bear, would someone please tell me what he's saying his name is?

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, friendperidot said:

And if he's not Smoky Cold Bear, would someone please tell me what he's saying his name is?

Smokey Colbert.  Because it's Stephen Colbert.  Betty White and Al Roker each did one, too.  Possibly other celebrities as well; it's a series commemorating the 75th anniversary of the campaign.

[Prevailing Wind]

Speaking of forest fires, I recall Pat Paulsen saying the major cause of forest fires is trees.

[friendperidot]

Thank you Bastet for clearing that up. I haven't heard any of the others.

[Calamity Jane]

17 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

Speaking of forest fires, I recall Pat Paulsen saying the major cause of forest fires is trees.

Pat Paulsen came to UNC Chapel Hill in 1972 when he was “running for president.”  During Q & A, a history-major friend shouted out, “Do you believe the bifurcation of benefices tends to obfuscate suzerainty?”  Paulsen stopped, stared at him for a good five beats, then quickly said, “Yes,” as he pointed to a new questioner. The auditorium exploded with guffaws. He was the master of dry, dry wit. 

[Brookside]

Why does Microsoft think I would want to buy a product being shilled by an obnoxious little girl talking to reindeer?

[peacheslatour]

9 hours ago, Brookside said:

Why does Microsoft think I would want to buy a product being shilled by an obnoxious little girl talking to reindeer?

I don't see why she's obnoxious. She asks the type of questions real little kids would probably ask Santa's reindeer.

[Brookside]

4 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

I don't see why she's obnoxious. She asks the type of questions real little kids would probably ask Santa's reindeer.

It's not the questions as much as the aggressive, sneering tone of voice and attitude (for me).  If she wasn't holding a laptop she'd probably have her hands on her hips.  I think it may be that she reminds me of a couple of friends' kids who were definitely obnoxious and whose parents thought they were cute.

Just a reminder to me really of why I usually hit the mute button as quickly as possible when the ads come on. 

[chessiegal]

The girl in the Microsoft ad sounds like any curious kid to me. I think it's cute.

Edited December 15, 2019 by chessiegal

[Brookside]

Capitol One:

"Wife doesn't update you about your credit card."

Yeah, well husband doesn't update me about his hookers.  (paid for with cash.)

Edited December 15, 2019 by Brookside

[Ubiquitous]

Why is a gross tacky $5 hooker with a speech impediment urging me to drink Pepsi?

[proserpina65]

23 hours ago, chessiegal said:

The girl in the Microsoft ad sounds like any curious kid to me. I think it's cute.

I hate precocious children in general, so I hate that commercial.  I find her to be obnoxious.

[dleighg]

Two different ones, both for one of those genetic ancestry testing things.

One has a husband and wife-- that's made clear-- and the guy finds out he's not Italian, he's Eastern European. And the wife says something like "we're not Italian?" She even says "one of our ancestors...." Now forgive me, but in my experience husbands and wives do NOT share ancestry unless, well, they perhaps shouldn't be married.

And now a new one where an adult woman is seen brushing her teeth, saying "We're Portuguese?" I thought we were Hungarian!" Now it's not clear who she's talking to, but she's certainly old enough to be living independently, and not old enough to have a kid old enough to have sent away for this test, so the implication, at least to me, is that she's talking to her husband/partner. Once again, partners do NOT share ancestry!

[Bastet]

On 12/16/2019 at 3:04 PM, dleighg said:

One has a husband and wife-- that's made clear-- and the guy finds out he's not Italian, he's Eastern European. And the wife says something like "we're not Italian?" She even says "one of our ancestors...."

She never says "we're not Italian", she says "I thought I married an Italian".  But then, yes, after he talks about his DNA results, she goes on to inexplicably say of his family tree that one of "our ancestors" they thought was Italian was instead Eastern European.  It's quite odd.

Edited December 19, 2019 by Bastet

[Colleenna]

1 hour ago, dleighg said:

Two different ones, both for one of those genetic ancestry testing things.

One has a husband and wife-- that's made clear-- and the guy finds out he's not Italian, he's Eastern European. And the wife says something like "we're not Italian?" She even says "one of our ancestors...." Now forgive me, but in my experience husbands and wives do NOT share ancestry unless, well, they perhaps shouldn't be married.

And now a new one where an adult woman is seen brushing her teeth, saying "We're Portuguese?" I thought we were Hungarian!" Now it's not clear who she's talking to, but she's certainly old enough to be living independently, and not old enough to have a kid old enough to have sent away for this test, so the implication, at least to me, is that she's talking to her husband/partner. Once again, partners do NOT share ancestry!

Must....resist....Arkansas....joke.....

[chessiegal]

29 minutes ago, Colleenna said:

Must....resist....Arkansas....joke.....

Better yet, West Virginia.

[mmecorday]

I think what I dislike most about the Alexa commercial with the burnt duck is that she let the duck burn in the first place. Wasn't she checking on it during the cooking process? Did she just go off somewhere and get caught up doing something else when she smelled smoke and realized her dinner was toast? Did she promise her date a duck dinner? If she did, he was probably disappointed in the garlic pasta with olives, canned tomatoes and parsley she ultimately prepares with assistance from her father. I can just hear her date's thoughts: Damn. She burned the duck and she's wearing a fucking necktie on her head. 

[Bort]

Also, does Dad not realize that “dinner at my place” usually means dessert at my place? I guess Dad is very progressive.

[Ubiquitous]

13 hours ago, mmecorday said:

I think what I dislike most about the Alexa commercial with the burnt duck is that she let the duck burn in the first place. Wasn't she checking on it during the cooking process? Did she just go off somewhere and get caught up doing something else when she smelled smoke and realized her dinner was toast? Did she promise her date a duck dinner? If she did, he was probably disappointed in the garlic pasta with olives, canned tomatoes and parsley she ultimately prepares with assistance from her father. I can just hear her date's thoughts: Damn. She burned the duck and she's wearing a fucking necktie on her head. 

Now that you mention it, why didn't she set a timer on her Alexa? 

[proserpina65]

21 hours ago, dleighg said:

And now a new one where an adult woman is seen brushing her teeth, saying "We're Portuguese?" I thought we were Hungarian!" Now it's not clear who she's talking to, but she's certainly old enough to be living independently, and not old enough to have a kid old enough to have sent away for this test, so the implication, at least to me, is that she's talking to her husband/partner. Once again, partners do NOT share ancestry!

She looks about college age to me, and could easily be talking to a parent or sibling.  (Hell, she could be in her 30s and still living with parents.)  That's how I took it.  Not that she is talking to a husband.

[Maverick]

 'Hi, we're Folgers.   We know know some of you thought our refreshed Peter Comes Home Ad was icky because his sister was hot for him, but it totally wasn't incestuous.  But you all are just twisted like those people who get weirded out by Somethin' Stupid.  But since you all have a problem with New Peter, you can just watch this commercial with a woman wanting sexytimes surprising her father in law in the shower.   Go ahead, claim it's weird all you want.  But it's not weird.  You know why   Because they're not blood relatives.  No incest!  Ha, ha!  The jokes on you.   Folgers in your cup, bitches.'

 I'm trying to figure out who's the dumber/more twisted...the ad exec that came up with this commercial or the Folgers exec that signed off on it.

[cynicat]

11 hours ago, Maverick said:

Folgers in your cup, bitches.'

They should just go with this tagline.  I'd buy it.

[BookWitch]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9SFe3UwQ2s This Remax commercial. At the end the woman just stands there like she forgot her cue or something. It's weird.

[peacheslatour]

"There it is. The coffee ring that's been there all week. And now it's shiny," What? The coffee ring is shiny now? I refinish furniture as  a hobby. The biggest scourge of most furniture finishes is Pledge. I don't know if they were reformulated but when I was giving classes on refinishing furniture, people would bring in their projects and if they had been using Pledge, the finish was ruined. So, instead of just scrubbing the surface with lacquer thinner and steel wool they would have to get into heavy duty paint strippers and some times that wouldn't even work. The wood will never take a stain and any finish you put on would fish eye and never cure.

[Haleth]

14 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

The biggest scourge of most furniture finishes is Pledge.

So what would be better to use, Peaches?

[peacheslatour]

3 hours ago, Haleth said:

So what would be better to use, Peaches?

End Dust or lemon oil. Pledge has, or at least it used to have silicone in it. Silicone has such an affinity for itself and such a non affinity for everything else it will graft to itself and the wood is essentially sealed beyond hope. Some people gave up on stain and finish completely and tried paint. Even that wouldn't stick.

[ctlady]

On 12/10/2019 at 12:49 PM, Ubiquitous said:

Related to the hated Peloton commercial,  why did it take a year for her to lose four pounds? 

Forgive me, but there was never a starting/ending weight ever mentioned in the commercial.  How do you know she lost 4 lbs?

[peacheslatour]

6 minutes ago, ctlady said:

Forgive me, but there was never a starting/ending weight ever mentioned in the commercial.  How do you know she lost 4 lbs?

At the end of the commercial she says "A year ago. I didn't realize how much this would change me. Thank you."

[ctlady]

2 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

2 hours ago, ctlady said:

Forgive me, but there was never a starting/ending weight ever mentioned in the commercial.  How do you know she lost 4 lbs?

At the end of the commercial she says "A year ago. I didn't realize how much this would change me. Thank you."

Yes, I know that - but no mention was made about her weight...starting or ending.  So where are people getting that she only lost 4 lbs??

[peacheslatour]

17 minutes ago, ctlady said:

Yes, I know that - but no mention was made about her weight...starting or ending.  So where are people getting that she only lost 4 lbs??

Because she looks exactly the same?

[CoderLady]

Someone early in the discussions made the assertion in a sarcastic post that the one-year change in her life was an overall weight change of 4 lbs, and through constant repetition it transformed from snark to fact.

[SoMuchTV]

27 minutes ago, CoderLady said:

Someone early in the discussions made the assertion in a sarcastic post that the one-year change in her life was an overall weight change of 4 lbs, and through constant repetition it transformed from snark to fact.

My New Year's resolution is, I am going to try to use that phrase wherever I can.

[greekmom]

The Amazon Prime video commercial with the guy who works at a hair salon and is watching the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

I don't get it.

[peacheslatour]

34 minutes ago, CoderLady said:

Someone early in the discussions made the assertion in a sarcastic post that the one-year change in her life was an overall weight change of 4 lbs, and through constant repetition it transformed from snark to fact.

It's from a tweet that made it onto Reddit:

'Peloton’s viral ad captures a ‘116 lb woman’s YEARLONG fitness journey to becoming a 112 lb woman’

 

[Bastet]

1 minute ago, peacheslatour said:

It's from a tweet that made it onto Reddit:

'Peloton’s viral ad captures a ‘116 lb woman’s YEARLONG fitness journey to becoming a 112 lb woman’

Yep; I don't even use social media, yet that was everywhere for a minute.  Not just here, but in emails and conversations - I know that four-pound joke and Eva Victor's parody  commercial well, while I'm not sure I've ever watched the actual commercial in its entirety.

[Jaded]

I've only seen the commercial I'm mentioning once few weeks ago, for that I'm glad. It was a commercial for St. Jude Children's Hospital where they had the kids playing musical chairs to demonstrate how many kids don't make it. I can't find it on YouTube and when I went to iSpot to look for it I saw this message where the video had been on their website.

[Ubiquitous]

On ‎12‎/‎19‎/‎2019 at 9:31 PM, Maverick said:

 'Hi, we're Folgers.   We know know some of you thought our refreshed Peter Comes Home Ad was icky because his sister was hot for him, but it totally wasn't incestuous.  But you all are just twisted like those people who get weirded out by Somethin' Stupid.  But since you all have a problem with New Peter, you can just watch this commercial with a woman wanting sexytimes surprising her father in law in the shower.   Go ahead, claim it's weird all you want.  But it's not weird.  You know why   Because they're not blood relatives.  No incest!  Ha, ha!  The jokes on you.   Folgers in your cup, bitches.'

 I'm trying to figure out who's the dumber/more twisted...the ad exec that came up with this commercial or the Folgers exec that signed off on it.

Holy crap! I saw that new Folgers commercial the other day! What the hell?

Why do I keep seeing this poorly-dressed cheap floozy telling me to drink "pespi"?

[mmecorday]

Quote

Why do I keep seeing this poorly-dressed cheap floozy telling me to drink "pespi"?

Because somehow the universe allowed Cardi B stardom.

[peacheslatour]

27 minutes ago, mmecorday said:

Because somehow the universe allowed Cardi B stardom.

It's a tentacle of the Kardashian Beast from the Underside of crappy pop culture.

[proserpina65]

On ‎12‎/‎21‎/‎2019 at 12:34 PM, ctlady said:

Forgive me, but there was never a starting/ending weight ever mentioned in the commercial.  How do you know she lost 4 lbs?

I think the original poster just picked a random tiny amount because the actress obviously hadn't lost any weight in the few days it took to film the commercial.  Since any other kind of change would be hard to visually convey, weight loss is the thing which gets commented on.

The commercial basically does a poor job of conveying how the Peloton had changed the woman's life in any substantial manner.

Edited December 23, 2019 by proserpina65

[CoyoteBlue]

Wtf is that cat in the Chewie dog commercial supposed to be? Specifically those pointy white things at his "waist"? Are they supposed to be paws? Does he have three paws on the floor? Argh!

Also, I could swear the kid is a boy and keep reading that's they're a girl?

[Silver Raven]

On 12/16/2019 at 1:52 AM, Ubiquitous said:

Why is a gross tacky $5 hooker with a speech impediment urging me to drink Pepsi?

Are you talking about this absolutely ridiculous ad with Cardi B?

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/Ipt6/pepsi-okurrr-featuring-cardi-b-mont-x-change

Edited December 26, 2019 by Silver Raven

[Jamoche]

41 minutes ago, Silver Raven said:

Are you talking about this absolutely ridiculous ad with Cardi B?

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/Ipt6/pepsi-okurrr-featuring-cardi-b-mont-x-change

"Stop trying to make 'fetch' happen!"

[cynicat]

On 12/23/2019 at 1:18 PM, peacheslatour said:

It's a tentacle of the Kardashian Beast from the Underside of crappy pop culture.

This is the best description I've ever seen for everyone and everything that has come from the Kardashian nucleus.  It's like a science fiction movie, or Dr. Who.  The Great Kardashian Beast with tentacles...

[proserpina65]

On ‎12‎/‎24‎/‎2019 at 11:15 PM, CoyoteBlue said:

Wtf is that cat in the Chewie dog commercial supposed to be? Specifically those pointy white things at his "waist"? Are they supposed to be paws? Does he have three paws on the floor? Argh!

Also, I could swear the kid is a boy and keep reading that's they're a girl?

I thought the kid was a boy as well.  And I think the pointy white things are just folds of skin since I believe it's one of those hairless Sphinx cats.  And a lightsaber, because the cat is dressed as a Sith lord.