Say What?: Commercials That Made Us Scratch Our Heads

[erikdepressant]

HGTV keeps insisting tiny houses are the next big thing.  Maybe they were moving before the city inspector showed up and cited them for code violations.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

On 5/10/2016 at 3:35 PM, Watcher0363 said:

It's bear to do a remodel of any kind. Perhaps it would have been better if they had a female dog walking around the bathroom, when discussing the remodel. 

There's another one that's just as Salvador Dali.

[meep.meep]

These have *me* scratching my head.

I have wandered into a set of channels where they seem to play only commercials extolling the wonders of Michigan.  I don't know who they are trying to attract, but this Californian is not really swayed by the wonders that are seemingly available in Grand Rapids.  I got the ones a few years back for Detroit.  I don't get these.

[CoderLady]

3 hours ago, meep.meep said:

These have *me* scratching my head.

I have wandered into a set of channels where they seem to play only commercials extolling the wonders of Michigan.  I don't know who they are trying to attract, but this Californian is not really swayed by the wonders that are seemingly available in Grand Rapids.  I got the ones a few years back for Detroit.  I don't get these.

Fun fact: the voiceover is done by Tim Allen, who is from Michigan himself.

I've seen this type of product placement before: during the first season of Grimm which is set in Portland, they would run beautiful travel ads for Oregon at the commercial breaks. I'd bet at least one of the programs where you're seeing the ads is set in Michigan.

I think it's great that they seem to be featuring Michigan cities now. Good for them. The state has been hit hard economically for years and it would be nice if tourism helps pull them out of the hole.

Another fun (fake) fact: Michigan is colder than the ninth circle of hell in the winter, if you like that sort of thing. And some people do.

[Actionmage]

I don't have anything against tourism ads, they usually are really pretty and do look very inviting.

What makes me wonder is: I live in North Texas. I keep seeing ads to come visit Houston and the ads enumerate all the wonderful places to visit. But? I live in Texas and am aware of the huge city of Houston. 

I understand why we get Adventure Road (Oklahoma), casinos in Oklahoma/Louisiana and ads for other parts of the country. I understand we are a big state;  we even had a tourism campaign of "Texas. It's like a whole other country." Surely, if you live in the state, you know there is a cool Big City named Houston. (If you're a Yank, you say it funny, but still... *g*) Why is it felt that the DFW area, in particular, needs to be reminded? ( I love the city, hate the humidity.)

Edited May 15, 2016 by Actionmage
To stop block-of-text. Also subj./verb agreement.

[proserpina65]

I get the Michigan and Texas ones, as well as California and Virginia Beach (not all of Virginia, just Virginia Beach).  I have to say, the Texas ones look intriguing because I have a friend who moved to San Antonio last year.

[marleyfan]

In the last few days, I've seen two commercials for The Church of Scientology. From what I remember, there's pictures of smiling people, a building or two, and then the words Church of Scientology.  I don't know why they are advertising. Low attendance? Has anyone else seen this commercial?

Edited May 13, 2016 by marleyfan

[Rick Kitchen]

I've seen an ad where they were talking about the life history of L. Ron Hubbard, filled with the usual lies about him. They also have ads trying to sell their books.

[Brattinella]

1 hour ago, marleyfan said:

In the last few days, I've seen two commercials for The Church of Scientology. From what I remember, there's pictures of smiling people, a building or two, and then the words Church of Scientology.  I don't know why they are advertising. Low attendance? Has anyone else seen this commercial?

*Censoring myself from what I was about to say*

[Rick Kitchen]

This is the one where they lied over and over about Hubbard's life:

 

[InDueTime]

I'm guessing whoever had the idea for this Honda ad is really into the video game Minecraft.

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/ATaL/2016-honda-civic-coupe-square

[bilgistic]

Whew! I finally got caught up with this board!

First, I hate the comnercial with who you all are telling me is Jason Statham. It was saying the new LG phone with extra battery cradle (or something) was coming out April 1, but was playing long after that date, and was playing numerous times during each break in something I was watching online...for weeks. What made me scratch my head was the dude was snapping in the battery and the video (presumably) he was watching and smiling at like a doof started playing instantly. That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works.

Second--the commercial with Blake Shelton picking up his "favorite pair" of Gildan underwear from the dry cleaner. Are we presuming that Gwen Stefani does not have him wearing undies woven with 24-karat gold thread at this point? How often is he taking his gross underwear to the dry cleaner?

And finally, the commercial for some kind of Mountain Dew purple horse piss--a guy drinks it and "dances", then a mosquito bites him, and gets full of the drink and dances, then lands on the pond, where a frog eats it, then dances, after which a fish eats it. What? Do fish eat frogs? Why not make the frog get caught and made into froglegs so the guy eats them, and the cycle continues, instead of the fish being eaten by a cat, that dances in the stupidest, fakest, cheap-CGIest way ever. And I love cats.

I realize that in this post, there were terrible sentences with no semblance of structure.

[emma675]

Quote

What makes me wonder is: I live in North Texas. I keep seeing ads to come visit Houston and the ads enumerate all the wonderful places to visit. But? I live in Texas and am aware of the huge city of Houston.

I live in North Texas, too (hi, neighbor!), and I'm not getting the Houston ads, but I am getting a ton of ads for San Antonio. Is our state really that big that we feel the need to advertise our own cities to each other? I wonder if people in South Texas get ads to visit Dallas and Fort Worth?

[Actionmage]

::waves to emma675::

I have also seen a few San Antonio ads. Again, unless your history class never got to The Alamo or you have never looked at a map of Texas, how can you not know about that city if you live in the same state?

Do folks in New York get Albany tourism ads? Or Niagra Falls ads? Do folks in South Dakota get urged to visit Devil's Tower and Mt. Rushmore? I'm pretty sure every state gets Orlando/movie studio-adjacent park ads, but do folks in Panama City get ads to visit Miami or Key West? It seems like preaching to the choir, unless something so new and unique has just been opened/built/about to happen ( like a new festival or somesuch).

 

Blizzard, the company behind the various Warcraft and Star*Craft games, has ads for a new(er?) game called Overwatch. The ad is obviously animated and has a parceled out phrase about how the potential player's "watch" is just about to start. Other than seeing a lady with a long ponytale do flips to elude someone shooting at her with lasers, an ape-ish character in space armor like Long Ponytail and then a second lady with really short hair tells us something in a British/British-adjacent accent then runs off dodging laser fire. The ad's audience is then told the release date and platforms the game can be played on. Yet? I still have no idea what the premise for the game is.

I thought the point of TV ads, at this point in time, is to try to rope in folks who may not be hardcore and would not have heard about this game. The ad is to reel in/ create excitement for the game in folks who might be swayed into trying this game. How can you be persuaded to try something when there is no info to go on. If you like laser guns, then you might like this? If you don't care about anything but shooting stuff, you might like this game? There is also the possibility, due to no information or context in the ad, that folks going in with that mindset might be disappointed that the game isn't like that. Despite stores that have trade-ins or where you can sell games you don't like/are tired of/whatever, I wouldn't want to hand over $40+ on a game that ads can't explain to me. I really hope it isn't a teaser trailer for the game, which is due on May 24, iirc. (It's a game; release dates get reset sometimes.)

[meep.meep]

3 hours ago, emma675 said:

I live in North Texas, too (hi, neighbor!), and I'm not getting the Houston ads, but I am getting a ton of ads for San Antonio. Is our state really that big that we feel the need to advertise our own cities to each other? I wonder if people in South Texas get ads to visit Dallas and Fort Worth?

Maybe you should check out Grand Rapids instead.

I'm in California and we all get the California ones.  We're just average Joe's.

[halopub]

3 hours ago, Actionmage said:

Do folks in New York get Albany tourism ads? Or Niagra Falls ads? Do folks in South Dakota get urged to visit Devil's Tower and Mt. Rushmore? I'm pretty sure every state gets Orlando/movie studio-adjacent park ads, but do folks in Panama City get ads to visit Miami or Key West? It seems like preaching to the choir, unless something so new and unique has just been opened/built/about to happen ( like a new festival or somesuch).

People in the New York Tri-State area, which covers New York City and the surrounding counties in NJ, NY and CT, get two different kinds of state promotion ads. One is the I Love NY series, which recruits famous residents to talk about places they love across the state. Those ads are designed to attract both people in the Tri-State and across the nation to travel to places outside Manhattan. Or just as importantly, make them feel good about those places. Then there are the Start Up NY commercials, which aim to make entrepreneurs perceive cities across the state as more business-friendly, as well make locals feel positive about the local economy.

[Prevailing Wind]

In Atlanta, we've always gotten ads for Asheville, NC & Chattanooga, TN.  On rare occasions, there's a Savannah thrown in the mix, but lately, we're getting ads for Charlotte, NC.

[MizArk]

We get the occasional San Antonio spot in Little Rock, a few for the casinos in Mississippi and Oklahoma, but mostly ours tout Branson, Missouri. "Come home to Branson" is the slogan.

On topic, that Infiniti ad with the entitled father and son is making me stabby. Wanna really shake up ol' Dad? Buy a POS beater and give some money to charity!

[bilgistic]

Speaking of cities, there's a commercial for one of the cell phone providers. Ricky Gervais, who really wears on my nerves, says some study found that the competing provider was the fastest in Kansas City. He then mocks, "Oh, you're fastest over Kansas?!" Hey, grinning jackass, Kansas City is in Missouri.

Edited May 17, 2016 by bilgistic

[Bastet]

There's one in Kansas, too.

But the commercial sounds obnoxious, regardless.

Okay, I just looked it up and it's both worse and not as bad as it sounded.  I'm torn.  I think I'll just declare it ill-advised and hope not to come across it on TV.

Edited May 17, 2016 by Bastet

[bilgistic]

Note to self: look up cities on Google maps before posting about them on PTV.

[friendperidot]

Being from Kansas City Missouri, which is home to the KC Royals, 2015 World Series Champs, the KC Chiefs and what most people think of when they think Kansas City, I hate the Ricky Gervais ads. KCMO is about 6 or 8 times the size of KCKS. I don't know exactly how much bigger, but I have lived in both, and I really don't care about the statistics. I moved to Washington DC in the early 1970s, would be asked where I was from, would answer Kansas City, people would say oh, Kansas. So then I started saying I'm from Missoura (the way it's pronounced by a great many people that are from there, mostly on the western side of the state), got teased about that, so I changed it to Missouri (the way it's pronounced by the rest of the US), then was told I couldn't be from there because I said Missouri, not Missoura. Point is, sometimes you can't win for losing. Now, if I say, I'm from Missoura, I mean "Show Me", Missouri is the Show Me state. I believe the saying was popularized by Harry S Truman, but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

And having lived in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, we got a lot of tourism for a lot of states. I remember the "I Love NY" and the Florida tourism had some really good ones in the 1970s - "I want it, bad". At least, I think it was Florida tourism, the 1970s were apparently a long time ago as I am constantly reminded by my great-nephew, who was born in 1998, practically ancient history.

But, back to subject, I'm perplexed by the ads that run on low budget over the air channels. The blonde with the Barbie doll long neck, (I collect fashion dolls, but not Barbie, I do know what I mean), she does all the ads for medical and pharmaceutical malpractice/ambulance chasing type ads, does she get death threats? She can spew off the information about all the things that might have gone wrong that the medical and pharmaceutical companies could be sued for, it's amazing. And I know, my whole post is horribly convoluted. It's late and I've had a very bad day.

[fishcakes]

I worked with a woman who said she was from Kansas City, and when I asked her Missouri or Kansas, she looked at me as if I were an idiot and said, "it's the same city. It's one city that's on both sides of the state line." So now when people say "Kansas City," I just walk away.

[friendperidot]

sorry, she was wrong, they are separate cities, separate governments, separate states, etc., etc., etc.

[Joe Blow]

It's weird, but the real Kansas City is in Missouri.  Tell your friends..

And *maybe* 1/100 say Missour-a.  The same number that say Illi-noise, Dakotas, stuff like that..

Edited May 18, 2016 by Joe Blow

[Rinaldo]

It's that lady who's an idiot, fishcakes, and her answer makes no sense. The two entities named Kansas City are separate, as already noted, and even if they weren't, she lives on one side of the state line or the other, and she ought to know which, and be able to give a simple answer to a simple (and valid) question.

[janie jones]

Can we be certain that the Kansas City to which Ricky Gervais is referring isn't Kansas City, Kansas?  He's talking about an actual (supposed) statistic, so maybe it is Kansas City, KS. 

I know just about nothing about either city other than they both exist, but if one is to argue that Kansas City, KS is the "less significant" Kansas, then talking about the lesser Kansas City only amplifies his point that some companies only offer superior coverage in insignificant areas.  Of course mistaking the city that the actual information comes from doesn't help.

Edited May 19, 2016 by janie jones

[bilgistic]

I really opened a can of worms, didn't I? I had no idea U.S. geography could be such a heated topic!

[janie jones]

What's more, if he was supposed to have been talking about Kansas City, MO, wouldn't it have been in Verizon's best interest to correct the mistake?  Verizon doesn't want their spokesperson going on TV saying that their competitor has the #1 coverage (or whatever the claim was) in a city where they don't, even if it is just to say that that company has limited coverage.  If that was indeed a mistake, you'd think someone would have caught it.

Edited May 19, 2016 by janie jones

[Bastet]

Sprint, the Verizon rival to which he's presumably referring when he says other providers can lay claim to being number one in a few cities, including Kansas City, but only those few cities, is headquarted in Kansas -- but in a city (Overland Park) that is considered a suburb of Kansas City, MO.  So he's probably talking about Kansas City, MO, not Kansas City, KS. 

And when he goes on to spout his comparison of this "we're the #1 cell phone provider in Kansas City, so yay us" to saying a brand of parachute is great because it works better than the rest over Kansas - versus one that works better than the rest in far more locations than the Kansas victor - there is a half-degree (at best) separation from a direct reference to either city that makes the commercial not quite as obnoxious to me as it sounded from the initial description here.

But the point could have easily been made without naming - and leaving open the possibility that one was "eh, who cares it's Kansas City" denigrating - a specific city.  And, indeed, when I did a Google search to find the commercial, as I'd never seen it, I found a bunch of regional articles taking offense.

Edited May 19, 2016 by Bastet

[Sandman87]

Last night I saw an ad for an online auto parts store called RockAuto. It opens with a shot from behind two 3D guys who have blond and brown hair respectively, and I swear the animation was so bad that I thought at first that it had something to do with Bevis and Butthead.

[NinjaPenguins]

I just want Ricky Gervais to stop throwing so much attitude about cell coverage claims. A company exaggerates or misleads us as to the quality of their services in a commercial? Stop the presses! I really don't need him getting so worked up and offended on my behalf. 

[proserpina65]

7 hours ago, Sandman87 said:

Last night I saw an ad for an online auto parts store called RockAuto. It opens with a shot from behind two 3D guys who have blond and brown hair respectively, and I swear the animation was so bad that I thought at first that it had something to do with Bevis and Butthead.

Maybe that's what they were trying to evoke?  I try to tune out RockAuto ads, although not for that particular reason.

[Sandman87]

No, the only B&B-ish things about it were the poor visual quality and the backs of their heads. No vocal similarities, and they weren't depicted as complete idiots.

[proserpina65]

13 hours ago, Sandman87 said:

No, the only B&B-ish things about it were the poor visual quality and the backs of their heads. No vocal similarities, and they weren't depicted as complete idiots.

So just a really crappy commercial then.  I will continue to tune them out.

[zentropa]

The poorly dubbed Febreeze ad with the mom and redheaded teenage boy is back. But bizarrely, they re-cast the commercial with lookalikes, and remade the ad shot for shot. And it's just as bad.

It is unsettling because I can't understand what they are trying to do to us. But I know it's wrong.

[TattleTeeny]

That Tide Pods commercial with the waitress annoys me, particularly her voice and her "talk laugh," which bigs me (a great example of it is in the Care.com commercial that show the site's founder talking; she starts off her first words as if she had been laughing before the camera cut to her). The waitress lady also reminds me so much of that Irene chick that was on The Real World Seattle about a hundred years ago,

[bilgistic]

Is that the one in which she works in a seafood restaurant/"fishcamp"? There's a captain's wheel on the wall, is why I think that.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

I don't get it.

[riley702]

Wow, that makes Keegan-Michael Key look short! I'm pretty sure he's taller than Peele. That commercial needed some KEANU!!

[mmecorday]

There's a commercial I've been seeing for a while now for some CoQ10  product with a bunch of kids naming reasons why to stay healthy. One kid sounds like she's saying "Aunt Baby!" and every time I think, "Really? George Costanza's aunt who died when she was 7?"

[Ubiquitous]

I was watching an ad for some new Dairy Queeb blizzard drink with a blob of hot fudge (or another flavour) in the center which featured scientists trying to figure out how it was made. I noticed as they tried teleportation, nuclear materials, and other methods, they displayed a brief "don't try this at home!" disclaimer at the bottom of the screen. Did I miss the invention of teleporting devices?

[theatremouse]

Lawyers be lawyers, yo. (and idiots be idiots)

[AntiBeeSpray]

On 5/26/2016 at 9:07 PM, Cobalt Stargazer said:

 

I don't get it.

My best guess is that the guest in this commercial didn't know that there was an overly happy couple on a honey moon would be staying there too. So she's not thrilled.

[EighteenTwelve]

I get the idea of the Corona beer can commercial, but I want to see the ending that always plays in my head, in which somebody opens that beer and it promptly explodes all over the place because the can has been rolling around town all day.  Good thing they're at the beach...

[xaxat]

On 5/26/2016 at 9:07 PM, Cobalt Stargazer said:

 

I don't get it.

It's part of a series of ads for booking.com. It makes more sense if you know who Key and Peele are and you have seen the previous ads.

Otherwise, no.

[bilgistic]

2 hours ago, EighteenTwelve said:

I get the idea of the Corona beer can commercial, but I want to see the ending that always plays in my head, in which somebody opens that beer and it promptly explodes all over the place because the can has been rolling around town all day.  Good thing they're at the beach...

The woman who picks up her bag with the can of beer in it--does she not think, "Gee, this is heavier than it was just a short time ago when I picked it up"??

The commercial comes on during something I watch streaming, because I've seen it a kerbliliion times, and I don't watch commercials on purpose unless y'all tell me here I must watch one to analyze how stupid it is. Then, naturally, I do, to foster a sense of community,

[erikdepressant]

There's a commercial for a Memorial Day fashion sale; I believe it's for Belk Stores.  The narrator is listing the exciting brands on sale, and one of them is New Directions.  I first heard "Nude Erections."

[Maverick]

 Those are the best kind.

[Ubiquitous]

17 hours ago, EighteenTwelve said:

I get the idea of the Corona beer can commercial, but I want to see the ending that always plays in my head, in which somebody opens that beer and it promptly explodes all over the place because the can has been rolling around town all day.  Good thing they're at the beach...

Wouldn't a can of beer that's been rolling around in the hot sun all day be skunky?