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Say What?: Commercials That Made Us Scratch Our Heads


Lola16
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Nationwide your kid has died!

 

When the tv crushes your child... we'll compensate you better than those OTHER guys!

 

Or, alternatively... here are all the ways your kid can die that we WON'T cover.

Edited by kassa
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"Buy our insurance or we'll kill your kids."

 

I have not seen this ad, but wow, seriously?!

 

They just want you "lovin' it."

 

 

Yeah, it's 2015, no need to put a ring on it first!

 

I guess you'd probably have to go to Jared if you did want to put a ring on it. So that total strangers can marvel at your good taste in jewelry.

  • Love 4
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This Nissan Super Bowl ad is getting praise for being one of the best.  I disagree. 

Harry Chapin's "The Cats in the Cradle" is a song about a father who never has time for his son.  Basically, the commercial follows the same line, with a father (race car driver) who never has time for his son.  And his son wants to follow in his footsteps because he's a role model?  WTF?

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I thought they were subverting the lyrics by showing a father who did take time for his son, despite his work, so that the whole "my boy was just like me" thing turns out to be a positive.

Edited by Bastet
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I know, he watched him while he raced, but I thought in between that were shots of them doing stuff together while he was home.  But I wasn't paying all that close attention, so I guess my mind just filled stuff in that wasn't there.  So what was the point of the ad -- don't Cat's in the Cradle your kid?  Good message, but since it's an ad for cars rather than a PSA, what's the takeaway -- if you buy a Nissan, you won't be an absentee father?  Dumb.

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Harry Chapin's "The Cats in the Cradle" is a song about a father who never has time for his son.  Basically, the commercial follows the same line, with a father (race car driver) who never has time for his son.  And his son wants to follow in his footsteps because he's a role model?  WTF?

At the end of the commercial, does the dad quit his NASCAR career? If so, is the message that you can't be a good parent and have a demanding career? And how is that an ad for Nissan? He won't drive a race car, but he'll drive his Nissan to his son's PTA meetings, so yay? (I go to my kids' PTA meetings, BTW).

 

--if that wasn't the message, then I'm completely lost.

 

 

--I thought too many of last night's commercials tried to tug at our heart strings.  Absentee fathers, disabled children and adults, lost dogs, etc. Is the Super Bowl the right time for those? When I watch Super Bowl commercials, I want to laugh. I'll laugh at a commercial that even makes an attempt at humor. Most of last night's commercials didn't even try.

Edited by topanga
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OMG, WTF??? WHY??? Who the hell is watching this show and why the hell am I being assaulted by graphic footage of women giving birth in the middle of the afternoon? No. Just NO. This makes me want to start "1,000,0000 child-free by choice non-moms" just so we can boycott this awful show and its stupid ads. AGGGGHHHHH.

 

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I know, he watched him while he raced, but I thought in between that were shots of them doing stuff together while he was home.  But I wasn't paying all that close attention, so I guess my mind just filled stuff in that wasn't there.  So what was the point of the ad -- don't Cat's in the Cradle your kid?  Good message, but since it's an ad for cars rather than a PSA, what's the takeaway -- if you buy a Nissan, you won't be an absentee father?  Dumb.

I believe I learned that Nascar destroys families.  Particularly disturbing was the family watching dad's car get T-boned.  Not only is dad not spending time with his family, you may get to watch him die on live TV.  Go Nascar!  

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The thing that bugs me about the Nissan ad is the fact that any athlete successful enough to regularly appear on television for over a decade is doing well enough that being away from the family that amount is a choice, not a financial necessity. (Pit roads are littered with kids, wives and girlfriends.)

 

It's not like that driver is a miner pulling doubles, or a member of the military stationed overseas.

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What's with the Jeff Bridges commercial? Bad CGI background and he's playing a flute?

 

I didn't like that one, either, although I saw a different version, not the one with the flute.  The whole thing is so obscure.  I thought it was supposed to be a throwback to The Big Lebowski.  

 

What's funny is that I love sleeping to ambient sounds, so his album would be perfect for me!  Hehe.  Just poorly advertised.

 

 

 

The Nissan ad was really WTF.  There's too much going on and the message (whatever it was ) gets lost.  The father always being away from home, yet the son wants to follow in his footsteps, then the dad gets into an accident...but he picks up his son from school.  Was he supposed to be retired?  None of this made me think that a Nissan would be a great car, rather that it's a bad idea to become a racecar driver.

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OMG, WTF??? WHY??? Who the hell is watching this show and why the hell am I being assaulted by graphic footage of women giving birth in the middle of the afternoon? No. Just NO. This makes me want to start "1,000,0000 child-free by choice non-moms" just so we can boycott this awful show and its stupid ads. AGGGGHHHHH.

That was HORRIFYING. It's even be worse than toilet babies, a.k.a., "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant".
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OMG, WTF??? WHY??? Who the hell is watching this show and why the hell am I being assaulted by graphic footage of women giving birth in the middle of the afternoon? No. Just NO.

 

I really should stop having my mind boggled why what gets made into television shows these days, but ...

 

I'm all in favor of home births, midwives, doulas and all that jazz (I'm also in favor of hospital deliveries, mind you), and for those who happen to live off the grid in the wild, what was shown in that commercial would be a pretty logical way to give birth.  But that commercial gives off the feel this is some suburban loon who decided to drive out to the woods for the specific purpose of constructing a hut far from civilization in which to give birth, and will stop at a Starbucks on her way home the next day (as soon as the cameras stop rolling).  It seems completely phony - not the experience itself, but the reason behind it - which would probably explain why it's the latest reality show to pollute the airwaves.

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Just who is that Queen that Flo from Progressive Insurance is bowing to?  The ruler of England, where and when the scene is supposed to have taken place would have been Henry VI.  Now, it's POSSIBLE that they're going to make it out that it was Henry's wife, Margaret of Anjou, just because Henry VI was insane for most of his rule and Margaret took over his duties, but I can't imagine a commercial is going to make that distinction.

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I assume that just out of the shot for born in the wild is an ambulance with paramedics and an OB just in case.  A baby dying because of a botched childbirth would not make for good reality tv.  I'm sure they checked the women carefully beforehand to make sure that the fetus is positioned well and seemingly healthy.  However, things can change fairly quickly.  A good midwife knows when to call someone in because there's a problem.   It helps if you can get someone there without them having to carry a pack, hike for miles, take a canoe and hitchhike on a passing moose.  

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Just who is that Queen that Flo from Progressive Insurance is bowing to?  The ruler of England, where and when the scene is supposed to have taken place would have been Henry VI.  Now, it's POSSIBLE that they're going to make it out that it was Henry's wife, Margaret of Anjou, just because Henry VI was insane for most of his rule and Margaret took over his duties, but I can't imagine a commercial is going to make that distinction.

Thank you. They missed Elizabeth I by a century.

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There's an ad for a toilet stepstool thing.  Not to climb up (though little kids can use it for that) but to rest your feet on, a bit elevated off the floor.  For better, um, performance.  

 

Cannot remember what station I saw this on, but I was dumbfounded.  Just a hard plastic footrest for the toilet.  And it's shaped to slide right up against the bowl.  Yay!

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There's an ad for a toilet stepstool thing.  Not to climb up (though little kids can use it for that) but to rest your feet on, a bit elevated off the floor.  For better, um, performance.  

 

Cannot remember what station I saw this on, but I was dumbfounded.  Just a hard plastic footrest for the toilet.  And it's shaped to slide right up against the bowl.  Yay!

 

I've actually read about these things and apparently, squatting is the healthiest way to take a dump (something about the way the colon doesn't kink up), and these toilet add-ons let you position yourself like you're squatting while still sitting on a toilet. So.... 

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That's exactly it; they're designed to replicate the squatting position, but while seated on a toilet (as opposed to those bathrooms in some countries where you position your feet on the marks, hold on to the bars on the sides of the stalls, and squat over the hole). 

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That's exactly it; they're designed to replicate the squatting position, but while seated on a toilet (as opposed to those bathrooms in some countries where you position your feet on the marks, hold on to the bars on the sides of the stalls, and squat over the hole). 

Or the ones without bars to hold onto.  Makes for a precarious position for those of use with knee problems.  The many times I heard people fall . . . . 

 

Or as opposed to footprints ON the seat at your job.

There is a restaurant near me that has a shiny gold sign that says "Please do not stand on toilet!"  

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What is wrong with the Queen Elizabeth ?

Nothing, but I got the impression the ad was implying QEI, with the thin features and red hair (and no king on his matching throne), but the year listed was off the mark by about 100 years.

Edited by riley702
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There's an ad for a toilet stepstool thing.  Not to climb up (though little kids can use it for that) but to rest your feet on, a bit elevated off the floor.  For better, um, performance.  

 

Cannot remember what station I saw this on, but I was dumbfounded.  Just a hard plastic footrest for the toilet.  And it's shaped to slide right up against the bowl.  Yay!

The Stool Stool?  There was one featured on Shark Tank.

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I've seen ads for one called the Potty Squatty (or is it Squatty Potty? LOL Not memorable, I guess). Also, if you're interested, don't spend the $50-60; just use one of those fold-up step stools you can get for less than $10 in lots of places.

Edited by riley702
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I still have the "stoolie" my father made in shop class in the 20's.  I remember standing on it to brush my teeth & get my hair washed.  Now I have one of those "comfort-sized" toilets - the taller, handicapped version - and the poop stool really is a help.  If I say anything more (other than I recently painted it), it'll be Too Much Information.

 

Although...the toilet's also one of those 'dual flush' models and it does save a lot of water.

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Re the GoGurt "Snacktime and lunch" ad: The kid appears to be around 5th-6th grade. I realize that things have changed a lot since I was in school([small voice]1984 graduate[/sv]), but do middle schools have "snacktime" nowadays?

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I keep seeing a computer ad which doesn't really try to sell the product and has an odd background song that sounds like "make a chay cholla gaw" repeated with some variation. Is it my audio system, or is it in a foreign language? They didn't bother with closed captioning. Anybody know what's up? I may not have gotten the phonetic spelling quite right, but it's pretty unique.

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