Say What?: Commercials That Made Us Scratch Our Heads

[sempervivum]

Am I the only one who doesn't understand why Progressive Flo is out in somebody's backyard, batting away the newspaper that the delivery kid is trying to throw? I can sort of buy the 'protective' image of holding an umbrella over the open moonroof of the car, having an extinguisher ready for the guy grilling etc., but the newspaper thing?? What actual harm is throwing the paper going to do- muss up the hedge or something? Stupid.

[Browncoat]

3 minutes ago, sempervivum said:

Am I the only one who doesn't understand why Progressive Flo is out in somebody's backyard, batting away the newspaper that the delivery kid is trying to throw? I can sort of buy the 'protective' image of holding an umbrella over the open moonroof of the car, having an extinguisher ready for the guy grilling etc., but the newspaper thing?? What actual harm is throwing the paper going to do- muss up the hedge or something? Stupid.

You should watch "Better Off Dead" -- the paper boy in that movie breaks a window with every paper he throws.

[Bastet]

4 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

You should watch "Better Off Dead" -- the paper boy in that movie breaks a window with every paper he throws.

"I want my two dollars!"

[Ohwell]

Never mind

Edited May 5, 2020 by Ohwell

[Kiki777]

Was I smoking crack, or was there a commercial by the My Pillow guy hawking his autobiography ‘From crack addict to CEO’ - and the book comes with a discount coupon for a My Pillow!  ....Yay?

[Annber03]

Just now, Kiki777 said:

Was I smoking crack, or was there a commercial by the My Pillow guy hawking his autobiography ‘From crack addict to CEO’ - and the book comes with a discount coupon for a My Pillow!  ....Yay?

I was about to comment on that commercial myself. Just...why? 

And he says something at one point about using math to prove the existence of God or something, too, which...okay. 

[peacheslatour]

15 hours ago, Annber03 said:

I was about to comment on that commercial myself. Just...why? 

And he says something at one point about using math to prove the existence of God or something, too, which...okay. 

Yes, I see. So, a crackhead pillow salesman used math (or was it meth?) to prove something all the professional mathematicians, astronomers and philosophers have not been able to do? Sounds legit.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

I'm just not sure what to think.
 

 

[funky-rat]

On 5/4/2020 at 3:27 PM, Browncoat said:

You should watch "Better Off Dead" -- the paper boy in that movie breaks a window with every paper he throws.

The kid who played the paperboy really did break that window with a newspaper. 

[friendperidot]

On 5/3/2020 at 1:53 PM, Kiki777 said:

There’s a Pepto commercial where this woman is feeling icky on a plane and the flight attendants sing the infamous Pepto jingle.   But when they get to ‘diarrhea’ this one dude sings it solo and like REALLY croons it with everything he’s got.  And I’m like: poor guy! He thinks ‘diarrhea’ is gonna be his big break.  Some record exec’s gonna be like Hey somebody find me Diarrhea Guy, he’s gonna be the next big thing!

I love the Diarrhea Guy, I crack up every time. He looks nothing like my friend who is a flight attendant, but I think of my friend every time I see the ad.

Now, what does a purple cow have to do with Experion/Experian? I know where "purple cow" came from but what does it have to do with a cell phone company? Isn't that what Experion/Experian/however it's spelled, is?

[chessiegal]

47 minutes ago, friendperidot said:

Now, what does a purple cow have to do with Experion/Experian? I know where "purple cow" came from but what does it have to do with a cell phone company? Isn't that what Experion/Experian/however it's spelled, is?

No, Experian is  website that can help you boost your credit rating. I don't know what a purple cow is, and I have no idea what it has to do with boosting credit ratings, so I am also perplexed.

[friendperidot]

thanks, just goes to show how little I pay attention!

[CoderLady]

21 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

No, Experian is  website that can help you boost your credit rating. I don't know what a purple cow is, and I have no idea what it has to do with boosting credit ratings, so I am also perplexed.

Sorry, can't help myself:

Purple Cow

by Gelett Burgess
Published in The Lark, 1895

I never saw a Purple Cow,
I never hope to see one.
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one.

Edited May 6, 2020 by CoderLady

[Jaded]

 

On 5/4/2020 at 7:05 PM, Annber03 said:

I was about to comment on that commercial myself. Just...why? 

And he says something at one point about using math to prove the existence of God or something, too, which...okay. 

I was thinking about posting my annoyances with the former crackhead My Pillow guy in the annoyance thread until I him mentioned here. That commercial comes on more than once while watching a favorite game show 25 Words or Less daily which only lasts 30 minutes. I only had it in me to watch with the sound up the first time I saw it. He sounds like a crazy person in the commercial so I don't want to fathom how much worse things were when he was an active crack addict. 

Maybe he was a nut even before he got caught up in the drug world too. He creeps me out so bad and also visually reminds me of a thinner version of the character Paul Bearer from the WWF (now WWE). I want to take the damn cross he wears on that chain which is always placed over the collar in the front on his shirts and make him eat it. I'm 99.9% sure he started using the thing as a ploy to get more sales while doing pillow infomercials before he made it to the shopping channels too. Like how some people try and use the fact that they are a Christian to show they are trustworthy......

Edited May 6, 2020 by Jaded

[Annber03]

All right, well, that picture's gonna give me nightmares, thanks.

I didn't even know he was a drug addict until people started talking about that part of things here, but that's an interesting detail.

23 minutes ago, Jaded said:

I want to take the damn cross he wears on that chain which is always placed over the collar in the front on his shirts and make him eat it. I'm 99.9% sure he started using the thing as a ploy to get more sales while doing pillow infomercials before he made it to the shopping channels too. Like how some people try and use the fact that they are a Christian to show they are trustworthy.......

Mmhm. Similar to the people you often hear about on "Dateline", the "church-going folks" who turn out to have committed some horrible crime. 

There's more I could say about him, but that would get into politics, so I'll just stop there. 

[proserpina65]

13 hours ago, chessiegal said:

No, Experian is  website that can help you boost your credit rating. I don't know what a purple cow is, and I have no idea what it has to do with boosting credit ratings, so I am also perplexed.

Experian is one of the three major consumer credit bureaus.  When various companies pull reports on consumers before approving loans, credit cards, etc., Experian is one of the ones they pull.

[ABay]

Paul Bearer! @Jaded, that made my day! He was at the first live WWF (as was) event I went to.

[Browncoat]

I really don't get this US Cellular commercial where one guy in the parking garage is talking to this other guy at the US Cellular office, except there's no sound.  There's background music, and they're both moving their mouths like they're talking, but no voices.  I thought it was my TV at first, but there's background music!  I have no idea what they're trying to tell me with that.  

[Prevailing Wind]

3 hours ago, Browncoat said:

I really don't get this US Cellular commercial where one guy in the parking garage is talking to this other guy at the US Cellular office, except there's no sound.  There's background music, and they're both moving their mouths like they're talking, but no voices.  I thought it was my TV at first, but there's background music!  I have no idea what they're trying to tell me with that.  

Reminds me of the hospital I was just in - the NBC affiliate doesn't have any sound. Except for a continual 24/7 Hispanic radio station that has NO relation whatsoever to what channel 11 is showing.  And that was after I was off the morphine.

[friendperidot]

Coderlady, thank you, I know that's where the "purple" cow came from from, but I still do not see the connection between a cow - purple or otherwise - and a credit company. And Poserpina65, it's not a very effective ad for the product if people don't know what they are advertising for, whether it's a credit reporting service or a cell phone. And if I ever did give 2 flying figs for what they were advertising, I now really don't. It's still a really stupid ad.

[Pj3422]

I’m in that weird limbo area between scratching my head and getting stabby. The commercial? Trolli gummy worms crawling on a discount version of Groot. Why, just why? It’s not whimsical; it’s creepy.

[SoMuchTV]

Okay, I’ll be watching a show on Hulu, and there’s an ad at beginning. That’s not the head-scratching part. But the ad is for the actual show I’m about to watch. Why spend your ad budget on that?  You’ve already got me!  Wouldn’t it make more sense to show me an ad for a “you may also like” show?

[crazycatlady58]

1 hour ago, SoMuchTV said:

Okay, I’ll be watching a show on Hulu, and there’s an ad at beginning. That’s not the head-scratching part. But the ad is for the actual show I’m about to watch. Why spend your ad budget on that?  You’ve already got me!  Wouldn’t it make more sense to show me an ad for a “you may also like” show?

I cannot get used to advertising a show that comes on another network. I know that a company and own a lot of different " channels " but it just seems odd to say " Don't stay here watching this go to another channel ".  Of course I am old and had only 3 channels to choose from growing up.

[smittykins]

20 hours ago, crazycatlady58 said:

Of course I am old and had only 3 channels to choose from growing up.

“You know how many channels we had when we were kids?  Three!  And if the President was on, your night was shot!”[/Foxworthy]

Sometimes, when I’m watching the daily noon-4 pm mini-marathon of The Incredible Dr. Pol on Nat Geo Wild, there’ll be a promo for...the daily mini-marathon of The Incredible Dr. Pol.

[friendperidot]

I've heard this one for a couple of weeks now, (I don't watch tv, I mostly listen), for Healthy Wager where people bet on their weight loss. I'm not sure exactly how it works and I really don't care enough to waste time going to their website and reading the small print, but from the ads, I gather that you pay into the pot and place a bet on how much you will lose. I don't know if that's a one time bet or a weekly bet. I'm sure the lure is the possibility of winning some pretty good money, $2,000 - $5,000. But it seems like those who've won that big money have lost a lot of weight, around 50 lbs. That's not an easy weight loss and it doesn't happen overnight. What I'm puzzled about is how is this all achieved. I'm guessing there has to be a lot of people who don't make it, pay their money and then find they can't do it, so they drop out. And it sort of smells like some kind of Ponzi scheme to me. Somebody, somewhere has to be making a lot of money. And I don't think it's necessarily the people who have 50 lbs to lose. 

[proserpina65]

On 5/8/2020 at 1:21 PM, friendperidot said:

Coderlady, thank you, I know that's where the "purple" cow came from from, but I still do not see the connection between a cow - purple or otherwise - and a credit company. And Poserpina65, it's not a very effective ad for the product if people don't know what they are advertising for, whether it's a credit reporting service or a cell phone. And if I ever did give 2 flying figs for what they were advertising, I now really don't. It's still a really stupid ad.

I didn't say it was an  effective commercial.  I don't much like it myself.

 

[bad things are bad]

On 5/6/2020 at 4:59 AM, Jaded said:

I want to take the damn cross he wears on that chain which is always placed over the collar in the front on his shirts and make him eat it.

I'm inclined to grab that part of the chain that is so awkwardly and obviously showing and give it a GOOD twist, and yank. Just till he howls. Freaking Pharisee. 

[peacheslatour]

On 5/5/2020 at 2:52 PM, Cobalt Stargazer said:

I'm just not sure what to think.
 

 

I don't get it. What's the problem?

[Cobalt Stargazer]

1 hour ago, peacheslatour said:

I don't get it. What's the problem?

I was confused because it starts in what looks like an office setting, then moves to a public cafeteria. Maybe more women do that in public than I thought? I don't know.

[peacheslatour]

3 minutes ago, Cobalt Stargazer said:

I was confused because it starts in what looks like an office setting, then moves to a public cafeteria. Maybe more women do that in public than I thought? I don't know.

I've seen it everywhere. Sometimes you just gotta fix it, you know?

[Ashforth]

On 5/4/2020 at 7:03 PM, Kiki777 said:

Was I smoking crack, or was there a commercial by the My Pillow guy hawking his autobiography ‘From crack addict to CEO’ - and the book comes with a discount coupon for a My Pillow!  ....Yay?

It is a long, long commercial. One of the strange things he says as he describes the drama of his life is that there are "pitchers" (pictures) in the book that validate what he's saying. So he has photographic evidence of his fourteen (FOURTEEN!) Near Death Experiences? This I've gotta see. Except that there is no way I would purchase or read this book.

[Red Bridey]

There's a new commercial for Advil, black and white photos of women working, momming, exercising, to a soulful song with the last refrain, "I'd like to braise you like I should." Um, what? (I know, it's probably not, but that's what I hear.

Edited May 15, 2020 by Red Bridey
Autocorrect strikes again

[Red Bridey]

On 5/3/2020 at 2:53 PM, Kiki777 said:

I agree that Motaur is kinda cute.  Also: dude from Allstate commercials, Jake from State Farm, and the Maytag man.  The quarantine is doing odd things to me huh?

There’s a Pepto commercial where this woman is feeling icky on a plane and the flight attendants sing the infamous Pepto jingle.   But when they get to ‘diarrhea’ this one dude sings it solo and like REALLY croons it with everything he’s got.  And I’m like: poor guy! He thinks ‘diarrhea’ is gonna be his big break.  Some record exec’s gonna be like Hey somebody find me Diarrhea Guy, he’s gonna be the next big thing!

That Pepto soloist guy is Randy Rainbow. He does song parodies (political) on YouTube (I presume, I usually just see them on FB). I am thrilled he's making good coin on a national commercial. Like even though I think JG Wentworth is a terrible company taking money from financially-distressed people, I am glad some opera singers (again, I presume) are making money singing that ridiculously catchy jingle.

[Popples]

1 hour ago, Red Bridey said:

There's a new commercial for Advil, black and white photos of women working, momming, exercising, to a soulful song with the last refrain, "I'd like to braise you like I should." Um, what? (I know, it's probably not, but that's what I hear.

It's a terrible cover of Fatboy Slim's "Praise You."

[Red Bridey]

Never heard it before, but then I am certainly not in Fat boy Slim's target market. But girl singer needs to enunciate better so as not to be taken for a cannibal.

[peacheslatour]

1 hour ago, Red Bridey said:

Never heard it before, but then I am certainly not in Fat boy Slim's target market. But girl singer needs to enunciate better so as not to be taken for a cannibal.

You really need to watch their video Weapon of Choice featuring a razzle dazzle dance number by Christopher Walken.

[Red Bridey]

Oh yes, I've seen that!

[Haleth]

21 hours ago, Red Bridey said:

That Pepto soloist guy is Randy Rainbow.

I had no idea!  Yeah, his parodies are all over FB.

[ABay]

His turn on the Sondheim 90th birthday celebration singing "By the Sea" was welcome relief as was the woman who sang "The Miller's Son."

[Browncoat]

I can't decide whether to be amused or horrified by the Orbit gum ad where the guy has a peacock tail.

[peacheslatour]

30 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

I can't decide whether to be amused or horrified by the Orbit gum ad where the guy has a peacock tail.

I'm amused.

[Browncoat]

4 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

I'm amused.

That little shiver that he gives when she strokes his tail at the end pushes me towards amused, but I'm still on the fence.

[Haleth]

He's creepy doing that tail shake thing like a horny peacock.

[Ubiquitous]

Why is everyone impressed by the obnoxious guest with a major speech impediment at the wedding producing a six pack of Sam Adams beer? Are they in the one place you cannot purchase it?

On 5/18/2020 at 2:18 PM, peacheslatour said:

I'm amused.

That Orbitz commercial with the man's peacock tail reminds me of a question on a game of Say Anything I played on Xmas.

[Red Bridey]

I choose to be amused as well. I think that geeky guy has cojones.

[Prevailing Wind]

On 5/15/2020 at 9:54 AM, Red Bridey said:

That Pepto soloist guy is Randy Rainbow. He does song parodies (political) on YouTube (I presume, I usually just see them on FB). I am thrilled he's making good coin on a national commercial. Like even though I think JG Wentworth is a terrible company taking money from financially-distressed people, I am glad some opera singers (again, I presume) are making money singing that ridiculously catchy jingle.

I looked it up on ispot.tv...they say he's Olivier Renaud. And when I carefully watched the ad, nah...that's not RR. This dude's got a much fuller face.

[Red Bridey]

Okay, I stand corrected. Now I am not so happy for him. (Snerk)

[janie jones]

Are you guys talking about the "diarrheaaaa" guy?

[Prevailing Wind]

On 5/20/2020 at 8:19 PM, janie jones said:

Are you guys talking about the "diarrheaaaa" guy?

Yes.

 

[Cara]

“When better chickens are hatched, we will hatch them”

Am I the only one who  doesn’t understand the Tyson moto? Every time the commercial comes on it bugs me!