Say What?: Commercials That Made Us Scratch Our Heads

[Bastet]

On 11/11/2023 at 7:59 AM, chessiegal said:

The first time my husband saw a Botox Cosmetic ad, he said - are people really that vain?

[KWalkerInc]

The Ocean Spray commercial where everyone at the table starts involuntarily gyrating violently because the cranberry sauce is jiggling is very, very odd.  I don't like cranberry sauce very much, but I can stand it for Thanksgiving.  We at least put it sideways in a glass dish (because we're SO fancy, ha) instead of having it stand up, so maybe that's why I've been lucky enough to not have one of the seizures depicted in the commercial. 

 

[Kimboweena]

5 hours ago, KWalkerInc said:

The Ocean Spray commercial where everyone at the table starts involuntarily gyrating violently because the cranberry sauce is jiggling is very, very odd. 

Yeah, I saw that one for the first time last night.  One of those commercials that makes me go, "What the f*ck am I watching?!"

Edited November 13, 2023 by Kimboweena
punctuation change

[Crashcourse]

I don't get that cranberry sauce commercial either.  What's with all the shaking?

[Browncoat]

But if you stand it up like that, how can you use the lines on it as guides to cut it?

[CrystalBlue]

People service cranberry sauce like that 😯?  Don't they break it up with a kitchen utensil and put the sauce in a bowl or serving dish to make it look like it is, well, actually sauce?

[dleighg]

I make my own from whole cranberries, but I do believe that a lot of people put it sideways on a plate (not typically upright, because how would you easily cut it?)

[Haleth]

4 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

People service cranberry sauce like that 😯?  Don't they break it up with a kitchen utensil and put the sauce in a bowl or serving dish to make it look like it is, well, actually sauce?

I've never heard of anyone doing that.

[jennifer6973]

6 hours ago, Haleth said:

I've never heard of anyone doing that.

I haven't either we either put it upright in a bowl or sideways depending on the mood of the moment.

[Shelbie]

12 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

People service cranberry sauce like that 😯?  Don't they break it up with a kitchen utensil and put the sauce in a bowl or serving dish to make it look like it is, well, actually sauce?

I have only ever seen it served like this. I serve it like this.

[peacheslatour]

1 hour ago, Shelbie said:

I have only ever seen it served like this. I serve it like this.

Same.

[callie lee 29]

15 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

People service cranberry sauce like that 😯?  Don't they break it up with a kitchen utensil and put the sauce in a bowl or serving dish to make it look like it is, well, actually sauce?

Nope!!! That would ruin the perfect can formed lines. The lines give me the best thickness for sandwiches!

[dleighg]

9 minutes ago, callie lee 29 said:

ruin the perfect can formed lines

That made me think: most cans for other stuff don't have ridges like that, So the whole "lines" thing is intentional, right? (I don't buy this product but I make sauce from cranberries even though I don't eat it, so no judging here)

[peacheslatour]

On 11/13/2023 at 8:53 AM, Crashcourse said:

I don't get that cranberry sauce commercial either.  What's with all the shaking?

I finally saw it. They go totally spasmodic. And why THREE of them? Jeez.

[jcbrown]

Apologies if this has been mentioned here before but WTH is up with the Consumer Cellular commercial where the woman is talking to customer service while people behind her jump into a pool? I don't get it. At all. It seems deeply stupid.

https://abancommercials.com/consumer-cellular/jumping-into-pool-commercial/222385/

Edited November 16, 2023 by jcbrown

[SoMuchTV]

This one has been bugging me for a while and I finally caught it where I could pause and rewind. It’s a Downy ad with people in a laundromat throwing cash around and taking about how much your clothes are worth. And the fine print says “actual impressions of paid individuals”. So they’re saying there were people who said/did those things, they paid them, then in the commercial we’re seeing actual impressions of those people? I’m sorry, but what?

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, jcbrown said:

Apologies if this has been mentioned here before but WTH is up with the Consumer Cellular commercial where the woman is talking to customer service while people behind her jump into a pool?

It's not people, it's the same person (her husband, I guess?) doing various jumps and dives from different locations, calling her name each time, but she's too mesmerized by the "amazing" details the customer service rep is telling her to turn around and watch.

Dumb, but that seems to be the basic premise.

[Gharlane]

Why is Jennifer Coolidge (I think that's her name) speaking with a fake Fargo North Decoder accent in those Discover Card commercials?

On 11/11/2023 at 3:49 AM, Ancaster said:

For whatever reason, I'm being bombarded by ads for Botox for normal people who just want to look a bit younger/lose the frown lines etc.  In the first one, which played a few times and was pretty innocuous, the person did actually look a bit younger while still looking normal.  Now though they're playing lots of different ads with people who are looking more and more fake, and there's one where for some reason the woman's totally smooth forehead just makes me focus on her unattractive gummy smile, probably not the desired effect.  Or do some people find gummy smiles and plastic foreheads attractive?

Yeah, that's a real headscratcher! The one I saw often has a very douchey-looking youngish man fretting about his forehead wrinkles and when he returns, all i can do is see how his face doesn't move at all! 

[Ancaster]

On 11/13/2023 at 2:17 AM, KWalkerInc said:

The Ocean Spray commercial where everyone at the table starts involuntarily gyrating violently because the cranberry sauce is jiggling is very, very odd.  I don't like cranberry sauce very much, but I can stand it for Thanksgiving.  We at least put it sideways in a glass dish (because we're SO fancy, ha) instead of having it stand up, so maybe that's why I've been lucky enough to not have one of the seizures depicted in the commercial. 

 

 

That is one disturbing ad.  It certainly does not make me want to rush out and buy a can of Ocean Spray cranberry sauce.  Fail.

[Trini]

13 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

This one has been bugging me for a while and I finally caught it where I could pause and rewind. It’s a Downy ad with people in a laundromat throwing cash around and taking about how much your clothes are worth. And the fine print says “actual impressions of paid individuals”. So they’re saying there were people who said/did those things, they paid them, then in the commercial we’re seeing actual impressions of those people? I’m sorry, but what?

The real people weren't "photogenic" enough, I'm guessing. They want the "realness" of unscripted reactions, but the polish of full production.

[SoMuchTV]

2 hours ago, Trini said:

The real people weren't "photogenic" enough, I'm guessing. They want the "realness" of unscripted reactions, but the polish of full production.

I tried to make an explanation like that make sense in my brain, but it still implies that there were "paid individuals" hanging around the laundromat with baskets full of cash for some reason, then they got other people to do impressions of them in the ad. 

Or - and probably this is what you're saying that I wasn't processing - the "actual impressions of paid individuals" is only supposed to apply to the random people reacting to the guy with the basket of money.  I suppose that could make sense. I will officially go think about something else now.

[Trini]

2 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

I tried to make an explanation like that make sense in my brain, but it still implies that there were "paid individuals" hanging around the laundromat with baskets full of cash for some reason, then they got other people to do impressions of them in the ad. 

Or - and probably this is what you're saying that I wasn't processing - the "actual impressions of paid individuals" is only supposed to apply to the random people reacting to the guy with the basket of money.  I suppose that could make sense. I will officially go think about something else now.

It's definitely a weird disclaimer. But yeah, option 2.

Tracked down the ad BTW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbG9LQXRf4k

They most likely did do that whole demonstration with random non-actors at some laundromat, and paid them since it was for an ad. Then for whatever reason, they decided to re-create it instead of using the actual footage. (Again, this is my best guess.)

[PrincessPurrsALot]

19 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

This one has been bugging me for a while and I finally caught it where I could pause and rewind. It’s a Downy ad with people in a laundromat throwing cash around and taking about how much your clothes are worth. And the fine print says “actual impressions of paid individuals”. So they’re saying there were people who said/did those things, they paid them, then in the commercial we’re seeing actual impressions of those people? I’m sorry, but what?

[Prevailing Wind]

My mom actually had a cranberry sauce serving set. It was a long, narrow-ish rectanglular dish and the serving utensil's "bowl" was flat and round as a slice of jellied sauce.  When I inherited Mom's stuff, I tried to give it my SIL, since she hosts all the big dinners, but she had inherited her mother's. LOL.

Oh, look, there's a bunch of 'em on eBay...

[heatherchandler]

On 11/1/2023 at 12:12 PM, Shrek said:

WTF is Dolly doing schilling for Cracker Barrel ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Is this weird?  Is she a known Cracker Barrel hater?

[Jaded]

11 hours ago, heatherchandler said:

Is this weird?  Is she a known Cracker Barrel hater?

There have been a whole bunch of people hating on Cracker Barrel recently. I don't think Dolly is one of them. Since Dolly associated her name with Duncan Hines the Cracker Barrel isn't that surprising.

Edited November 24, 2023 by Jaded
It was Duncan Hines not Betty Crocker

[Crashcourse]

While I've liked Dolly over the years, now I wish she'd take her two cantaloupes and go away and chill.   

[peacheslatour]

Dolly Parton is a national treasure. She has donated millions and millions of dollars to charity and literacy programs. She's won just about every philanthropic award there is. I will die on this hill.

[Browncoat]

49 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

Dolly Parton is a national treasure. She has donated millions and millions of dollars to charity and literacy programs. She's won just about every philanthropic award there is. I will die on this hill.

And she wore a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader outfit for the halftime show yesterday.  Despite that, I agree she's a national treasure.

[Gharlane]

Is it me, or is it very difficult to understand what the carolers in the Verizon commercials are saying? I swear I have no idea what they're saying or what is happening!

[dleighg]

15 minutes ago, Gharlane said:

Is it me, or is it very difficult to understand what the carolers in the Verizon commercials are saying? I swear I have no idea what they're saying or what is happening!

not just you. I've now seen it approximately 300 times, so I've learned all the words. But it's a fail on the get-your-message-across-easily front.

[Ghost of TWOP Past]

On 11/24/2023 at 2:48 PM, peacheslatour said:

Dolly Parton is a national treasure. She has donated millions and millions of dollars to charity and literacy programs. She's won just about every philanthropic award there is. I will die on this hill.

It was also recently revealed that she helped with the funding to get Buffy the Vampire Slayer started on tv. 

[Haleth]

On 11/24/2023 at 6:39 PM, Browncoat said:

And she wore a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader outfit for the halftime show yesterday.  Despite that, I agree she's a national treasure.

And she looked damn good in it.

[Shrek]

My surprise was seeing Dolly in an ad rather than who it was for, I know absolutely zero about Cracker Barrel or ever even seen one but had never seen her in a commercial or if I had it never registered in my limited brain. 

[Bastet]

On 11/26/2023 at 8:58 AM, Shrek said:

My surprise was seeing Dolly in an ad rather than who it was for, I know absolutely zero about Cracker Barrel or ever even seen one but had never seen her in a commercial or if I had it never registered in my limited brain. 

She wasn't in the commercial, but she re-wrote her working woman's anthem "9 to 5" as a "5 to 9" jingle for some gig economy propaganda commercial a couple of years ago (it premiered during that year's Super Bowl).

Despite that and donning the uniform of that odious team, she will always be my queen.

I don't know much about Cracker Barrel - it doesn't look like my kind of restaurant and I don't even think we have any around here - but she's not straight-up shilling for them, it's a partnership, promoting their new rewards program and her new rock album.  There's some contest involved, with "custom-designed Dolly Rockin' chairs" as the prize.

Edited December 2, 2023 by Bastet

[chessiegal]

One of the few times I've been in a Cracker Barrel it amused me that along with tons of other stuff in their store they sold rocking chairs like you would have on a front porch, think The Andy Griffith Show. I'd take a Dolly Rockin' chair!

[Jordan Baker]

I wasn't sure where to put my thoughts on the Timothee Chalamet commercial (for Bleu de Chanel). Holiday commercials? It does seem that fragrance commercials appear mostly during the holidays. Commercials that outrage, etc.? It does annoy me, but I don't think my reaction rises to the level of outrage. So Scratch-Our-Heads it is.

Let me say that I've seen TC in three movies--he was good in Ladybird, very good in Call Me By Your Name, and somewhat forgettable in Don't Look Up. I have nothing against him; I think he's a talented actor. But this fragrance ad is just odd. Who is the audience? Is it people who find TC so appealing that they'll run out and buy Bleu de Chanel? Is it people who know that TC is dating a Kardashian (ugh) and just want in on anything Kardashian-related?

I'm showing my prejudice here. I'll admit that my opinion of TC went down a few notches when I read about the Kardashian thing. And (full disclosure), I'm allergic to most perfumes and so am unlikely to enjoy any fragrance-related ad.

But, seriously (scratching my head, per the category), is this an effective commercial?

BTW, I saw this commercial several times today while the NFL games were on. Maybe the audience for the commercial is football fans?

Edited November 26, 2023 by Jordan Baker

[chessiegal]

13 minutes ago, Jordan Baker said:

Maybe the audience for the commercial is football fans?

Men.

[dleighg]

I find Timothee appealing, and I like the song a lot, so I like the ad, but it is odd. (I also liked him in Little Women and Dune). But to me, he sits near the "androgynous" end of the spectrum, so I find the football placement odd. 

Hearing about the Kardashian connection, I will have to rethink my opinion :)

[CrazyInAlabama]

The Mountain Dew commercial where the people turn into animals isn't making me want to go out and buy Mountain Dew.   

[chessiegal]

6 minutes ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

The Mountain Dew commercial where the people turn into animals isn't making me want to go out and buy Mountain Dew.   

There isn't a commercial in the world that could make me want to buy Mountain Dew. That stuff is an abomination. 🤮

[Ghost of TWOP Past]

6 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

The Mountain Dew commercial where the people turn into animals isn't making me want to go out and buy Mountain Dew.   

Yes, I've been scratching my head as to why they're aiming for that furry/plushy demographic. 

[peacheslatour]

What's up with the H&M holiday commercial? Are we supposed to know who these people are?

[Bastet]

39 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

What's up with the H&M holiday commercial? Are we supposed to know who these people are?

I just looked it up, and recognized one of the women -- looking at the ad description, it's Milla Jovovich, but I couldn't remember her name.  The rest, I've got nothing, but this article identifies some of them, almost all models (which explains why I have no idea who any of them are):
 

Quote

The list of stars in the H&M 2023 holiday commercial is so long that it’s easy to miss someone if you want to name them all. Among the people you see in the ad are:

Milla Jovovich: the American actress and model appears with her whole family; here you can see her husband and their three kids.

Bobby Gillespie: the leader of the rock band Primal Scream is with his two sons, you can see him here.

Sage, Paloma, and Ama Elsesser: in this shot you can see the American Skateboarder Sage Elsesser with his two sisters, the models Paloma and Ama.

Isabella Emmack and Victoria Massey: the two American models are together in one of the most fashionable moments of the commercial.

Malgosia Bela: the Polish model is present with her son Jozef, here they are.

Ariana Simone: the two models appear together here.

Mona Tougaard: the Danish model presents H&M womenswear alone, you can find her here.

Lauren and Chloe Nguyen: the two New-York based models are together.

The list is incomplete, but H&M didn’t officially disclose the names of all personalities involved in the 2023 Holiday commercial. If more names come up, you will surely find them in this article.

Back in the '90s heyday of supermodels, I knew some of them by name.  Now, though, forget it.  And even back around 2000, I was on a flight to Boston that was continuing on to Paris; across the aisle from me were two women I vaguely recognized as models, but had no idea who they were.  The (male) flight attendant sure did, though, and I damn near had to make my own drinks he was so busy chatting them up.  (Good luck with that, dude.)

Edited November 28, 2023 by Bastet

[KWalkerInc]

I can't find it online, but there is a new Lysol ad where a teen girl is sick and keeps making really weird noises (verbally) before sneezing into a fan, which prompts her mom to use Lysol spray to disinfect the area.  I do not understand what is going on.  Why is the girl making those noises?  I'm guessing it's a precursor to the sneezing, but it's so weird.  I also don't understand why there is a fan blowing in her face, unless they just want to intentionally spread her germs everywhere.  I'm sure there are better ways to show the product in use.

[peacheslatour]

10 hours ago, Bastet said:

I just looked it up, and recognized one of the women -- looking at the ad description, it's Milla Jovovich, but I couldn't remember her name.  The rest, I've got nothing, but this article identifies some of them, almost all models (which explains why I have no idea who any of them are):
 

Back in the '90s heyday of supermodels, I knew some of them by name.  Now, though, forget it.  And even back around 2000, I was on a flight to Boston that was continuing on to Paris; across the aisle from me were two women I vaguely recognized as models, but had no idea who they were.  The (male) flight attendant sure did, though, and I damn near had to make my own drinks he was so busy chatting them up.  (Good luck with that, dude.)

 

This is the one that has me baffled.

[Crashcourse]

Forget about the stupid clothes.  They look like they need baths! 😅

[proserpina65]

On 11/26/2023 at 3:17 PM, Bastet said:

She wasn't in the commercial, but she re-wrote her working woman's anthem "9 to 5" as a "5 to 9" jingle for some gig economy propaganda commercial a couple of years ago (it premiered during that year's Super Bowl).

Despite that and donning the uniform of that odious team, she will always be my queen.

I don't know much about Cracker Barrel - it doesn't look like my kind of restaurant and I don't even think we have any around here - but she's not just shilling for them, it's a partnership, promoting their new rewards program and her new rock album.  There's some contest involved, with "custom-designed Dolly Rockin' chairs" as the prize.

I've eaten at the local Cracker Barrel.  The food is good and the prices aren't bad.  It's pretty much what one would expect from a restaurant advertising itself as down home country cooking.  (Plus the hashbrown casserole is worth its weight in gold.)  The gift shop has interesting things, including types of candy I hadn't seen in years.

Given that Dolly probably used most, if not all, of any payment involved to support the many good causes with which she's involved, I'm not going to get angry about it.

On 11/26/2023 at 6:38 PM, Jordan Baker said:

But this fragrance ad is just odd.

All fragrance commercials are weird.

20 hours ago, chessiegal said:

There isn't a commercial in the world that could make me want to buy Mountain Dew. That stuff is an abomination. 🤮

It used to be my go-to choice for a caffeinated beverage at restaurants which only serve Pepsi products, but the last time I had one, it was just too sweet for me.  I switched to just drinking water at those places years ago.

2 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

 

This is the one that has me baffled.

All I could think when I first saw this was "Is that Hanson after their rehab stints?".

[peacheslatour]

1 hour ago, proserpina65 said:

I've eaten at the local Cracker Barrel.  The food is good and the prices aren't bad.  It's pretty much what one would expect from a restaurant advertising itself as down home country cooking.  (Plus the hashbrown casserole is worth its weight in gold.)  The gift shop has interesting things, including types of candy I hadn't seen in years.

Given that Dolly probably used most, if not all, of any payment involved to support the many good causes with which she's involved, I'm not going to get angry about it.

All fragrance commercials are weird.

It used to be my go-to choice for a caffeinated beverage at restaurants which only serve Pepsi products, but the last time I had one, it was just too sweet for me.  I switched to just drinking water at those places years ago.

All I could think when I first saw this was "Is that Hanson after their rehab stints?".

I thought maybe they had raised The Ramones from the grave.

[janie jones]

5 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

 

This is the one that has me baffled.

Are these real people? Who are they? Is this people's faces photoshopped on other people's bodies? There's something weird about this.