Say What?: Commercials That Made Us Scratch Our Heads

[Eliot]

16 hours ago, bilgistic said:

I'm irrationally bothered that neither Shirley nor Mary are wearing the mini-tank bag(?) strapped across their body. If one is carrying something around all day, it needs to be hands-free, especially since one now has so much freedom! That tank would be falling off the shoulder, and even though it's revolutionarily lightweight, one should still distribute the weight evenly.

I worry that when Mary's grandkids try to hug her they're going to inadvertently squish the tube and cut off her oxygen supply.

[Ubiquitous]

I don't know if there's a TV version of this, but this JimmyJohns ad I keep hearing is stupid. An old biddy calls JimmyJohns to complain about the nude delivery guy and he tells her "au natural" refers to their organic preservative-free sandwich meat. It turns out she's not complaining and is disappointed that she won't be seeing nude delivery boys.

But she called them b/c hers was nude! Did the delivery boy misunderstand too, or is there a naked lunatic running around pretending to be a delivery boy?

[funky-rat]

18 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

You'll also notice that Shirley in the first picture has the color muted while Mary's is bright and clear.

I never noticed that.  Good eye.

18 hours ago, AppleCore said:

funky-rat, you made me snort with laughter at this one! Now I'll look forward to seeing this mini drama :)  The color saturation really does bring it all home. I'm so glad Shirley was able to make it into the Technicolor dream world that Mary enjoys. Maybe now she'll stop cheating at bridge!

When my mom was younger, she was heavily involved in the American Legion Auxiliary.  She was in her 40's/50's, and the youngest one by a good 20 or so years.  I always think of those ladies (some of them less friendly than others) when I see that commercial, and some of the comments they'd make in casual conversation, and when they'd gripe about other older ladies.

17 hours ago, bilgistic said:

I'm irrationally bothered that neither Shirley nor Mary are wearing the mini-tank bag(?) strapped across their body. If one is carrying something around all day, it needs to be hands-free, especially since one now has so much freedom! That tank would be falling off the shoulder, and even though it's revolutionarily lightweight, one should still distribute the weight evenly.

Good point.  I didn't notice that either.  I have crappy shoulders, so I would not be able to pull it off if it wasn't crossbody.

16 hours ago, friendperidot said:

funky-rat, I didn't think you were minimizing COPD. I enjoyed your re-cap of the commercial. And I'm very happy to know the friend's name is Mary!

Ok - I was afraid you'd think I was making fun.

44 minutes ago, Eliot said:

I worry that when Mary's grandkids try to hug her they're going to inadvertently squish the tube and cut off her oxygen supply.

LOL!

[Prevailing Wind]

Quote

I have crappy shoulders, so I would not be able to pull it off if it wasn't crossbody.

No. Just no. Like me, you have such "incredibly smooth" shoulders, everything slips off.

[friendperidot]

Quote

  QUOTE

I have crappy shoulders, so I would not be able to pull it off if it wasn't crossbody.

No. Just no. Like me, you have such "incredibly smooth" shoulders, everything slips off.

I'm in this gang too, I have very narrow shoulders, I can't even keep a bra strap up. Grateful for razor back bras.

[bad things are bad]

Quote

 (although you know she's going to write a check when she gets to the register). 

And she won't get the checkbook out of her purse until it's time to pay...then she'll fumble for her pen, and have to record it in the registry...

Why yes, I do have some hostility to those people. They should have to wear a sign on their back "I'm going to write a check and I probably don't have my ID"

Back to commercials: we frequently see one for "free" braces that starts out "Do you have Medicare? In other words, do you carry the red, white and blue card?" I must be dense, but I do not see how the "other words" are more clear than the first sentence. 

[smittykins]

21 hours ago, AppleCore said:

funky-rat, you made me snort with laughter at this one! Now I'll look forward to seeing this mini drama :)  The color saturation really does bring it all home. I'm so glad Shirley was able to make it into the Technicolor dream world that Mary enjoys. Maybe now she'll stop cheating at bridge!

I'm surprised they don't have Shirley in B&W.

[Ubiquitous]

On ‎4‎/‎4‎/‎2018 at 3:16 AM, AppleCore said:

There is a newer commercial for Bio Oil stretch mark eraser that shows a woman struggling to walk up stairs. After she uses the product, apparently, she can now confidently walk with her friends! In public! It took me a while to figure out what they were even selling, but I still can't figure out how having stretch marks makes it difficult to walk up stairs.

She should be thankful she's not getting judgmental stares at the salad bar!

 

21 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

You'll also notice that Shirley in the first picture has the color muted while Mary's is bright and clear.

I'm surprised Mary wasn't fumbling around in monochrome.

Edited April 5, 2018 by Ubiquitous
Editted to fix image.

[Browncoat]

1 hour ago, friendperidot said:

Grateful for razor back bras.

Sounds painful!

[proserpina65]

1 hour ago, friendperidot said:

I'm in this gang too, I have very narrow shoulders, I can't even keep a bra strap up. Grateful for razor back bras.

My shoulders aren't narrow, but I do have what Trini & Susannah referred to as 'sloping Victorian shoulders', so bra straps are an issue for me, too.

Those oxygen tank commercials get me, because my dad was just thrilled to be able to half-way breathe - he didn't care that he had to drag the tank around with him.

[smittykins]

"This is a story about male packages."

*beat*

Oh, "mail and packages."

(United States Postal Service)

[Silver Raven]

11 minutes ago, forumfish said:

My uncle was on oxygen the last several years of his life, and he and my aunt traveled a lot. I asked my aunt if there was any way my uncle could get one of those portable oxygen concentrators, and she said his doctor wouldn't allow it. I wondered why, then thought maybe back then (my uncle's been gone nearly 7 years) they weren't as effective.

My Dad could never get his O2 concentration at a high enough level for his doctor to authorize one of the travel packs.

[janie jones]

8 hours ago, friendperidot said:

Grateful for razor back bras.

I wouldn't normally correct someone, but the ideas of razors at the back gives me the willies too much.  They're racerback bras! :)

[Prevailing Wind]

Unless you're in Arkansas - everything's Razorback there.

[friendperidot]

ok, I put a space where it didn't need to be, I knew if I didn't look it up, I'd get it wrong and someone would set it straight! But I still like bras that are made like that, they don't slip off the shoulders.

[janie jones]

8 hours ago, friendperidot said:

ok, I put a space where it didn't need to be, I knew if I didn't look it up, I'd get it wrong and someone would set it straight! But I still like bras that are made like that, they don't slip off the shoulders.

I think you missed what I said.  They aren't raZorback bras; they're raCerback bras.

[Ubiquitous]

On ‎4‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 12:57 PM, friendperidot said:

ok, I put a space where it didn't need to be, I knew if I didn't look it up, I'd get it wrong and someone would set it straight! But I still like bras that are made like that, they don't slip off the shoulders.

I am sure there are better ways to keep them from slipping off than razors! :-D

[friendperidot]

you're right Janie, I missed that, thanks.

[Ubiquitous]

I keep meaning to ask about this ad for the iphone, I think,  which shows how things were done in the 1990's and then today. The last one has a little old lady with a perm at a bank teller depositing pennies and then they show her at the teller  performing the transaction with her mobile device. Why is she even there?

[Dirtybubble]

I can't find this ad on youtube but there is a new Jeep commercial that is driving me nuts!  The narrator is speaking of his parents making love and creating him as being some sort of free spirit.  I can't tell if he's speaking as if he was the G.D. car or the supposed driver of this stupid car. 

And who the fudge talks about his parents having sex?  Ewww

[friendperidot]

what does "dirty bubble" have to do with parking a car? Two women in front seat of parking car, passenger asks the driver if she has to play that every time they park. The driver says no, then turns it back on and all the passengers are seat dancing. This maybe should go as a misheard lyric. I'm old, I don't like hip hop/rap, and don't understand most of what's said/sang. And besides one black SUV looks pretty much like every other black SUV, this one has the feature for parallel parking itself.

And this probably should go in the music thread, but I'm lazy today. There's an ad for some exercise equipment, the music is so militaristic, it sounds like scenes in tv shows/movies where there's unison running in basic training. I dislike that, but go around the house for hours repeating "uh, uh, uh" for everything. I am so not in the demographic for exercise equipment.

[Jamoche]

On 4/5/2018 at 6:13 AM, funky-rat said:

It would have made this commercial even better.  My husband said he thought the wheel rolled away too, so at least we both were wrong, lol.

According to Terry Pratchett and all the rules of screwball comedy, it ought to roll away!

[mmecorday]

Does a word get bleeped in the song featured in this commercial? https://www.ispot.tv/ad/wQF2/revlon-super-lustrous-lipstick-anthem-featuring-ashley-graham

[funky-rat]

1 hour ago, mmecorday said:

Does a word get bleeped in the song featured in this commercial? https://www.ispot.tv/ad/wQF2/revlon-super-lustrous-lipstick-anthem-featuring-ashley-graham

Yes.  The "f" bomb.  I googled what I could understand of the lyrics.  Song is called "Blow Your Mind (Mwah)" by Dua Lipa.

[peacheslatour]

How did Flo's moron sister ever come up with enough scratch to buy a house? From her job as a crash test dummy?

Edited April 11, 2018 by peacheslatour

[friendperidot]

I don't know how Janis, Flo's sister came up with the money, but I want to do that too. And her riding the exercise bike? that's my way of riding one.

[Mrs. Hanson]

On 4/4/2018 at 1:05 PM, funky-rat said:

Definitely not minimizing COPD - I knew a few people who had it - but that commercial is just so over-dramatic and over the top that it's laughable.

My mom had COPD before she passed, I never thought of the poster minimizing COPD - my mom would have laughed at the commercial.  It is just so over the top!  Shirley is straight up gangster mean while Mary is bursting with light!!!

[mojoween]

On 4/10/2018 at 11:36 AM, mmecorday said:

Does a word get bleeped in the song featured in this commercial? https://www.ispot.tv/ad/wQF2/revlon-super-lustrous-lipstick-anthem-featuring-ashley-graham

 

On 4/10/2018 at 1:24 PM, funky-rat said:

Yes.  The "f" bomb.  I googled what I could understand of the lyrics.  Song is called "Blow Your Mind (Mwah)" by Dua Lipa.

I mean, if you have to bleep it, why are you using it?

I do not abhor the Chevy ads, but in one of them the guy is welcoming everyone to the auto show, but he mangles it and it sounds like he is saying “otter show” and it irritates me every single time because otters are my favorite animal in all the land, and I want to see an ad about an otter show!

Edited April 11, 2018 by mojoween

[LoneHaranguer]

2 hours ago, mojoween said:

I mean, if you have to bleep it, why are you using it?

According to wikipedia, it charted #1 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs, so they're presumably aiming at a particular demographic.

[smittykins]

I hear it as "otter show" too, mojo.

Edited April 11, 2018 by smittykins

[Jacqs]

Can i ask something, as I'm among friends here? I'm sorry if i'm doing anything wrong. Have you noticed that a lot of television adverts featuring children use girls? Femininity is seen as so fragile that it's the go-to to evoke the innocence of childhood.

can you imagine a boy in this commercial? a boy wouldn't have worked in her place - the cuteness factor would be different for a start:

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Um.
 

[funky-rat]

1 hour ago, JacquelineAppleton said:

Can i ask something, as I'm among friends here? I'm sorry if i'm doing anything wrong. Have you noticed that a lot of television adverts featuring children use girls? Femininity is seen as so fragile that it's the go-to to evoke the innocence of childhood.

can you imagine a boy in this commercial? a boy wouldn't have worked in her place - the cuteness factor would be different for a start:

I grew up in the 70's and 80's, and we girls were told we can do anything that anyone else can do, and were encouraged to be strong and independent.  Then when I was in my late 20's/early 30's,  I saw this push back to make girls "girly" again.  The rise of everything pink (pink tools, pink camo, etc).  The rise of Princesses (looking at you, Disney) and the notion that every girl is a princess.  The rise of sexy clothes for kids (ever see a kid with "Juicy" on the butt of their pants?).  The elevation of motherhood to be the epitome of life and if you can't have kids, it sucks to be you.  I'm not saying girls can't be girly, but it just seems that we're back to the goals of many women (at least in my area) to get out of high school and get pregnant, and be a mom, and nothing else.  It makes me a little sad.

[Jacqs]

the 70s was also a time when the devastating second-wave put down to young boys that asked if a girl could do something was "Sure, can you have a baby?"- which is bigoted and excludes trans men and non-binary people. 

[funky-rat]

2 hours ago, JacquelineAppleton said:

the 70s was also a time when the devastating second-wave put down to young boys that asked if a girl could do something was "Sure, can you have a baby?"- which is bigoted and excludes trans men and non-binary people. 

I've never heard that here where I live, but no, that's not right either.

[Jacqs]

it pops up in a lot of 70s television that tried to be feminist - Laura in the Little House on the Prairie tv show does the "Sure! Can you have a baby?" at least once.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

5 hours ago, JacquelineAppleton said:

it pops up in a lot of 70s television that tried to be feminist - Laura in the Little House on the Prairie tv show does the "Sure! Can you have a baby?" at least once.

Just to be devil's advocate for a second, the Liberty Mutual ad where the two guys are stranded with a flat was just on, and the one who's on the phone with his father says. "I know what a lug wrench is, Dad!" then asks his friend in a whisper, "Is this a lug wrench?" And his friend goes, "Uh.....maybe?"

Is that better or worse?

[friendperidot]

Quote

what does "dirty bubble" have to do with parking a car? Two women in front seat of parking car, passenger asks the driver if she has to play that every time they park. The driver says no, then turns it back on and all the passengers are seat dancing. This maybe should go as a misheard lyric. I'm old, I don't like hip hop/rap, and don't understand most of what's said/sang. And besides one black SUV looks pretty much like every other black SUV, this one has the feature for parallel parking itself.

quoting myself, I think I have a better handle on what the song is, something about "backward angle" or "back fandango".

[Jacqs]

Karen Brockman in Outnumbered had the best answer to the "women can have babies!" cry: that she would like a beard, which she could shave off and that you cannot do that with a baby.

[Prevailing Wind]

She should wait til menopause. She'll most likely get a wispy goatee to go with the mustache.

[Jacqs]

the "women can have babies" thing is one of the worst things to come out of the 1970s. Luckily within a couple of decades most of the Baby Boomers that created it will no longer be a problem

[bilgistic]

1 hour ago, Prevailing Wind said:

She should wait til menopause. She'll most likely get a wispy goatee to go with the mustache.

I'm 43 and I angrily waxed my blonde mustache this week. I couldn't stand seeing it reflecting from the overhead lights in the bathroom any longer.

[janie jones]

On 4/11/2018 at 10:46 AM, peacheslatour said:

How did Flo's moron sister ever come up with enough scratch to buy a house? From her job as a crash test dummy?

Maybe she married a rich old man who died.

 

On 4/13/2018 at 5:58 AM, JacquelineAppleton said:

Can i ask something, as I'm among friends here? I'm sorry if i'm doing anything wrong. Have you noticed that a lot of television adverts featuring children use girls? Femininity is seen as so fragile that it's the go-to to evoke the innocence of childhood.

can you imagine a boy in this commercial? a boy wouldn't have worked in her place - the cuteness factor would be different for a start:

 

I can definitely see a boy in that commercial.  Probably one with a lisp.  What does the dad say at the end?

[Jacqs]

The dad says "that's why we picked Woolies for Christmas". Still wonder why they chose a girl for that ad.

[Brattinella]

http://forums.previously.tv/topic/3077-class-gender-race-etc-in-commercials/?page=1

[Ubiquitous]

The "Leggo my Eggo!" commercials have been running for years, but who would get into an argument about someone's Eggo and not just get another one out of the freezer?

[Jamoche]

3 hours ago, Ubiquitous said:

The "Leggo my Eggo!" commercials have been running for years, but who would get into an argument about someone's Eggo and not just get another one out of the freezer?

Or just about anything else. Maybe that's the problem - you've run so low on everything that all you could find was that one last Eggo that lurks in the back of the freezer.

[funky-rat]

22 hours ago, Jamoche said:

Or just about anything else. Maybe that's the problem - you've run so low on everything that all you could find was that one last Eggo that lurks in the back of the freezer.

I always assumed there was only one left, or the person who stole the waffle was just lazy and didn't want to make their own.  I never much cared for Eggo commercials, but I do like the most recent one where the kid says "Your name isn't on it" and all of a sudden, it is.

[LoneHaranguer]

On 4/15/2018 at 10:46 AM, Ubiquitous said:

The "Leggo my Eggo!" commercials have been running for years, but who would get into an argument about someone's Eggo and not just get another one out of the freezer?

It's disrespectful for someone to just grab something you've prepared for yourself, so an objection is appropriate.

[janie jones]

22 hours ago, LoneHaranguer said:

It's disrespectful for someone to just grab something you've prepared for yourself, so an objection is appropriate.

I think the OP meant "why steal someone's Eggo when they will rightly object, when you can just make your own," not "why not just let the person take your Eggo when you can make a second one."