Say What?: Commercials That Made Us Scratch Our Heads

[peacheslatour]

46 minutes ago, Cara said:

“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!

Right? WTF does that even mean?

[CoderLady]

I think they're trying to avoid saying "When better chickens can be raised and killed, we will raise and kill them" but that's got to be what they really mean.

[janie jones]

Yeah, "When better chickens exist, we will raise (and kill) them."

[dleighg]

27 minutes ago, janie jones said:

Yeah, "When better chickens exist, we will raise (and kill) them."

a bit tangential but reminds me of "New Yorkers will wear black until they find a darker color." (I'm a New Yorker)

Edited May 23, 2020 by dleighg

[janie jones]

In the commercial for Amy Schumer's cooking show, she says that they're "self-taping" it.  Only in some of the shots you can see someone holding a camera.  By "self-taping," do they just mean there's no full-on camera crew?  To me, "self-taping" would not mean having another person taping it, even if that other person is your kid or roommate and not a professional.  That other person is not your SELF.

[theatremouse]

My understanding is there are several mounted cameras in fixed positions in the kitchen, and one camera being remotely controlled by a production person working from elsewhere, and one handheld camera which is sometimes operated by Shumer, sometimes by her husband, and sometimes (mostly) by their nanny when the baby is sleeping.

[chessiegal]

Yeah, the only other person doing video is the Schumer's nanny, who lives with them.

[Bastet]

Exactly; it's self taping by the members of the household (plus some mounted cameras).  There is no professional production crew on site.

[janie jones]

Ah, that explains who the other person is. (I still wouldn't call it self-taping, unless the nanny is also featured on the show.)

[OpalNightstream]

On 4/17/2020 at 2:52 PM, peacheslatour said:

And building elements out of rice crispies treats is another lazy trick. Can you imagine anyone on the Great British Competition using such shiftless shortcuts?

I don’t like the idea of someone’s hands all over the cake. Yuck. It’s gross to see someone handling fondant and then putting it on something you’re eating. I think of the fingerprints they have to smooth out. 🤢

 

Edited May 25, 2020 by OpalNightstream

[chessiegal]

22 minutes ago, janie jones said:

Ah, that explains who the other person is. (I still wouldn't call it self-taping, unless the nanny is also featured on the show.)

She is, to a limited extent.

[chessiegal]

Saw an ad for the first time for a flavored water drink called "Hint". It said that new customers could get 36 bottles for $36 - that's $1 per bottle! Has it come to this, that ad agencies have to do grade school arithmetic for consumers? That's just all kinds of wrong, and makes me sad. Reminds of going to Michael's a few years ago to buy ribbon, and the check out clerk didn't know how many inches were in a foot, or how many feet were in a yard.

[meep.meep]

The ad for Microsoft Teams seems to imply that only foreigners like Teams.  We have a British guy, a researcher from the University in Bologna, who gets a terrible camera angle, and some doctor (who I firmly believe is Canadian) explaining how he can totally use Teams.  When he says he can share his screen and show the X rays to everyone, watch the guy in the upper right with the red face mask - he totally cracks up.  Like a Yes Boomer moment.

 

[docmatt]

22 hours ago, meep.meep said:

The ad for Microsoft Teams seems to imply that only foreigners like Teams.  We have a British guy, a researcher from the University in Bologna, who gets a terrible camera angle, and some doctor (who I firmly believe is Canadian) explaining how he can totally use Teams.  When he says he can share his screen and show the X rays to everyone, watch the guy in the upper right with the red face mask - he totally cracks up.  Like a Yes Boomer moment.

I always want to explain to that dude that you don't have to wear a mask alone in a room.

[xaxat]

A bit of background. My streaming TV provider is YouTube TV. YouTubeTV is owned by Google and they occasionally use their search algorithm to inject targeted ads into the content I am watching. 

The injected ad that I see most? An ad for Kotex products. I have no problem with the ad, but I am a fifty something man. How did I become a targeted audience for them?

[crazycatlady58]

8 hours ago, xaxat said:

A bit of background. My streaming TV provider is YouTube TV. YouTubeTV is owned by Google and they occasionally use their search algorithm to inject targeted ads into the content I am watching. 

The injected ad that I see most? An ad for Kotex products. I have no problem with the ad, but I am a fifty something man. How did I become a targeted audience for them?

For a while I was getting ads for heavy moving equipment. I am a 63 years old woman with no ties to construction. WHY?

[peacheslatour]

Yes, because there are constantly people in my bedroom trying to blow my heating pad off with leaf blowers.

[Ubiquitous]

Why is Chris Rock trying to impersonate a basketball player? 

[janie jones]

46 minutes ago, Ubiquitous said:

Why is Chris Rock trying to impersonate a basketball player? 

I don't know what you're referring to, but my first thought was Lil' Penny.

[Haleth]

The commercial with Anthony Anderson and his mother confuses me.  She tells him her phone bill is too short or has only one figure or something and he replies it's because taxes and fees are included.  Well, yeah.  We all have taxes and fees included in our phone bills but they are itemized so we know what we are paying.  The fact that whatever this phone company is doesn't itemize it's bill is supposed to be a good thing?  Sorry, mom, but you are still paying taxes and fees even if they aren't shown on your bill.

[theatremouse]

I think the distinction they're trying to advertise is "when we tell you $X a month, that's really what it is." So yeah, she's still paying the taxes and fees whether they're itemized or not, but it's juxtaposed to "those others tell you $X, but really it's $X+Y+Z". The benefit isn't so much that it's not itemized but rather that they quote all-inclusive prices to being with. So they're sort of more transparent in one way, but less in another.

[Haleth]

Ok, that makes sense.  They are basically telling their customers "here's what you pay, don't worry about the details."  I don't think that's a good thing.

[chessiegal]

1 hour ago, Haleth said:

Ok, that makes sense.  They are basically telling their customers "here's what you pay, don't worry about the details."  I don't think that's a good thing.

I'm not sure it's a good thing either. My husband says consumer advocates pushed for years to get the phone bill details broken down so people could see exactly what you are paying for.

[xaxat]

I don't understand why she's with this guy.

She's obviously got a good job because that's a nice apartment and you know he's not paying the bills because he has a minimum wage job. And his career ambition is to become a better sign twirler?

[peacheslatour]

32 minutes ago, xaxat said:

I don't understand why she's with this guy.

She's obviously got a good job because that's a nice apartment and you know he's not paying the bills because he has a minimum wage job. And his career ambition is to become a better sign twirler?

Maybe she's his sister and she took him in because mom said if she didn't she would be out of the will?

[Bastet]

2 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

Maybe she's his sister and she took him in because mom said if she didn't she would be out of the will?

He calls her "Sweetheart", so they'd be some really freaky siblings.

[Ohwell]

I like the sign twirler.  At least it's honest work, he's not sitting on his butt eating Cheetos and playing video games.  And sign spinning has become a "thing" now, there's even a World Sign Spinning  contest.  I just think he should work harder on it so he can enter the contest.  

[Brookside]

11 hours ago, Ohwell said:

I like the sign twirler.  At least it's honest work, he's not sitting on his butt eating Cheetos and playing video games.  And sign spinning has become a "thing" now, there's even a World Sign Spinning  contest.  I just think he should work harder on it so he can enter the contest.  

Okay, I'm old, but this is wrong.  Who dedicates their life to becoming world champion of sign spinning?

[Ohwell]

I'm old, too, but I think the contest kinda cool.

Plus, if they can have a cornhole championship, then why not sign spinning?

[Zahdii]

7 hours ago, Brookside said:

Okay, I'm old, but this is wrong.  Who dedicates their life to becoming world champion of sign spinning?

Well, the guy up until now has expressed zero interest in anything around him.  He's been slack-jawed and disinterested in everything else.  

* He couldn't tell the woman who asked for directions to turn right to reach the highway.  He stared into space and finally nudged his sign in that direction.  
* He ignored his father when he showed up on the job to say he's proud the way his son is twirling his sign, with all the tone of someone encouraging a slow child, until the angsty asshole told his dad to wait until his break.  Dad immediately backs off lest the loser quits his job citing "I can't work like this!".
* He was caught napping on a couch clutching his sign, and when a woman (that I assumed to be his mother) nudges him and tells him he fell asleep with his sign again, loser insists he didn't and goes back to sleep.  
* Now he's got a girlfriend?  Are we sure she wasn't hired to get him out of the house, a la "Failure to Launch"?  Maybe when her contract runs out she changes the locks and he goes home to find his parents have moved away.

And the whole time Mara tells us to buy Progressive insurance, while letting us know she thinks it's all stupid and she's over it.

[janie jones]

On 6/7/2020 at 4:29 AM, Haleth said:

Ok, that makes sense.  They are basically telling their customers "here's what you pay, don't worry about the details."  I don't think that's a good thing.

It reminds me of car dealership commercials that boast that there's no haggling.  And I don't want to negotiate in the first place, but just because the price is set in stone doesn't mean that's the best price you could be getting.  I feel like you're paying a couple thousand extra for the convenience of not haggling.  Which you could do at any dealership.

[theatremouse]

It's different with the phone thing though, because (at least as I understand it), the taxes are what they are for the locality; the seller is required to remit them; but all the various iterated fees are usually just things the provider invents as a way to snag extra revenue while still advertising a particular price. So if they're giving you a "this is it" price for the phone bill, if you know your local tax amount you can back it out. There'd be no point in hiding "fees" that the vendor invented for itself in the first place. It boils down to "money we're charging cuz we chose to" and "taxes".

Plus no-haggle car places are not quoting an out-the-door price with the no-haggle price. Taxes still are what they are and any state required DMV fees are what they are and comes on top of the no-haggle price. The appeal of no-haggle car buying is primarily "do you find this exhausting? Our way is less so." 

[janie jones]

I said it reminded me of it.  I didn't say it was the same thing.

[Ubiquitous]

12 hours ago, Brookside said:

Okay, I'm old, but this is wrong.  Who dedicates their life to becoming world champion of sign spinning?

Well, according to Dominos Pizza,  there's a pizza box assembling contest.

[Silver Raven]

Uh, what?

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/IAFV/bleu-de-chanel-starman-song-by-david-bowie

 

[Ubiquitous]

There seems to be a new ad campaign for Subway which features a family with three big strapping college-aged sons whose mother keeps giving them the wrong sandwiches. Am I sppsd to know who they guys are?

[chessiegal]

32 minutes ago, Ubiquitous said:

There seems to be a new ad campaign for Subway which features a family with three big strapping college-aged sons whose mother keeps giving them the wrong sandwiches. Am I sppsd to know who they guys are?

Yes. Pro football players.

Quote

A new national campaign for Subway features football stars JJ, TJ, and Derek Watt. The three are featured to spotlight Subway's BOGO Footlong program.

 

[Browncoat]

I thought it was just random people, making a random theoretically funny comment about naming the children.  Never occurred to me that they might be people I should know.  Thanks for the info, @chessiegal!

[Haleth]

The Watt brothers.  JJ is an awesome human being, I adore him even though he plays for my team's biggest rival.  He's also in a series of American Family commercials.

[peacheslatour]

Where exactly do Corona's breweries keep their "pure beach vibes"? In large vats? Does Pete Rodriguez wave a magic wand over the vats? Do they manufacture them or do the harvest them from Acapulco?

[Haleth]

18 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

Where exactly do Corona's breweries keep their "pure beach vibes"?

I don't know but I would sure like some!

[Browncoat]

Every time I see a commercial for Hint Water, I think they’re saying “hemp water”,  and I can’t imagine that tastes very good.

[Ubiquitous]

I swear I keep hearing someone referring to an alternative brand of Depends as "poison in your pants".

[Moose135]

12 hours ago, Ubiquitous said:

I swear I keep hearing someone referring to an alternative brand of Depends as "poison in your pants".

It's actually "Poise in your pants" and GF and I think that's pretty strange to start with, so I can imagine your concern.

[Bobbin]

On Monday, June 08, 2020 at 10:44 AM, Zahdii said:

Well, the guy up until now has expressed zero interest in anything around him.  He's been slack-jawed and disinterested in everything else.  

* He couldn't tell the woman who asked for directions to turn right to reach the highway.  He stared into space and finally nudged his sign in that direction.  
* He ignored his father when he showed up on the job to say he's proud the way his son is twirling his sign, with all the tone of someone encouraging a slow child, until the angsty asshole told his dad to wait until his break.  Dad immediately backs off lest the loser quits his job citing "I can't work like this!".
* He was caught napping on a couch clutching his sign, and when a woman (that I assumed to be his mother) nudges him and tells him he fell asleep with his sign again, loser insists he didn't and goes back to sleep.  
* Now he's got a girlfriend?  Are we sure she wasn't hired to get him out of the house, a la "Failure to Launch"?  Maybe when her contract runs out she changes the locks and he goes home to find his parents have moved away.

And the whole time Mara tells us to buy Progressive insurance, while letting us know she thinks it's all stupid and she's over it.

I take the series as parodies of people in regular, boring office jobs: bureaucrats who won't help if it's not in their job description, doting parents who interrupt and embarrass you at work, Dagwood Bumstead asleep at his desk (again), etc.

[Bobbin]

This has probably been answered upthread, but what is the Jack in the Box commercial about with the angel wings? I'm never paying attention until it's nearly over. And who is the cute guy? (Even Jack thinks he's cute.)

[meep.meep]

Why does Marco Polo have a llama?

He went to China not South America.

[Ashforth]

4 hours ago, meep.meep said:

Why does Marco Polo have a llama?

He went to China not South America.

Okay, at first I thought this was a riddle and was SO CONFUSED. Only Wednesday and it has already been a long week.😟

[meep.meep]

Sorry.  There's some commercial with kids in a pool playing Marco Polo.  And Marco Polo himself is in the water with them.  As the commercial ends, the camera pulls away and you see Marco Polo's llama next to the pool.

[Haleth]

Is that one back in rotation?  It's a classic, despite confusion over the llama.  It still makes me laugh.