quote:Guy's Girlfriend's Dad: Well, it's a nice day...why don't you take a hike? Guy: ....why don't YOU take a hike?!
The lines don't go like that in the commercial I've seen. The guy just looks kind of hurt and returns to his sparkly white Jetta while the girlfriend grabs his arm ineffectually.
What I dislike about that ad is this: It's supposed to be the literal meaning of the "take a hike", not the "go away", but it sounds like the guy is insulted because he interpreted the girlfriend's dad's comment as "go away".
However, this isn't the case, he actually interpreted it correctly and is insulted not because he thought that the girlfriend's dad was telling him to "go away" but literally to "take a hike" something Jetta owners are supposedly stereotypically prone to do.
Now, I think this is supposed to be happening. We're supposed to think that he is leaving because of the "take a hike" comment interpreted wrongly as "go away". But it's not.
However, this is then explained by a guy inexplicably wearing lederhosen (something to do with hiking? Some other stereotype? Someone's lederhosen is hilariously funny no matter if it's random?). Now, when I first watched this commercial I spent all the time during the explanation staring at the guy in his lederhosen going "what?". I didn't get this whole mis-interpreted double meaning thing.
Now, I don't know if that's just me, but this to me just typifies a bad commercial:
1. It's confusing 2. It contains weird non-sequiturs (the double meaning and the lederhosen) that are seemingly unconnected to the general 3. The message is... what? Jettas aren't just for hikers? Is this... groundbreaking? Was there an overly successful campaign that marketed Jettas specifically to hikers.
And I think the Geico Gekko has a cockney accent, not Australian, but I can't be sure without hearing it again.
Most commercials (including the Jetta one) fail for me because I cannot remember on a day-to-day basis exactly what is being advertised. A car, sure, but what kind?
My brother asked me the other day if I knew what the zoom-zoom commercials advertised. No idea. It turned out to be Mazda- and I quite liked those commercials.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I don't like those zoom-zoom commercials, just because that little freckle-faced kid strikes me as creepy. If I were a kid I would kick his ass.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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I still think the Passat commercial is the only good car commercial I ever saw. Though now that I think about it a little more it's not as good as when I first saw it on TV.
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I am particularly fond of the ads for prescription drugs. Sometimes they don't even tell you what the drug is for, you are just supposed to go ask your doctor if <insert drug name> is right for you because you want to go horseback riding along the beach, too.
And the people in those commercials have more fun than anyone (except maybe those guys in the old Mountain Dew commercials), even though they are sick enough to need to go to a doctor and get medicine.
I love the Singulair commercial where the woman with allergies goes out on hayrides, juggles kittens in a barn and shoves her head deep into a mound of ragweed, with a radiant smile the whole time, because she has Singulair. I don't even have allergies, and I want some of that stuff. Who wouldn't want to be able to juggle kittens?
The Valtrex commercial (for herpes) features a woman on a galloping horse. So we are to conclude, I suppose, that before she had the medicine, her crotch hurt too much for her to have much fun, but now that she has Valtrex, anything goes!
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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It isn't really difficult for me to remember the brand of a particular car in a given commercial. Every company seems to have its own style.
Geico seems to lack a single message -- they've had the gecko, the cavemen, the "good news," and the "people do dumb things" spots in the past few years. I will say they advertise more than any other insurence company I can think of.
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My favorite World Cup commercial is the Travelers one: (the one with the guy with the wings? watch the video)
quote:I am particularly fond of the ads for prescription drugs. Sometimes they don't even tell you what the drug is for, you are just supposed to go ask your doctor if <insert drug name> is right for you because you want to go horseback riding along the beach, too.
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That snake commercial made me feel kind of like barfing. It's one of those commercials that make me temporarily boycott a place (even though I almost never eat at Burger King anyway), simply because the commercial is so dumb and disturbing.
I wrote K-Mart a nasty letter a few years back when they had a commercial with Martha Stewart in the bath tub. I had to scratch my corneas with a key to make sure I didn't see that ad again.
Posts: 3950 | Registered: Mar 2006
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The new Gap commercial with an Audrey Hepburn and AC/DC mix, is the most annoying commercial in recent memory. Can't hey just let her rest in peace. Every time I see I think of the greedy little grandkids, or who ever is controlling Hepburns estate right now, and there not giving a darn about how that great lady should be remembered.
Posts: 407 | Registered: Mar 2006
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I personally did not find it all that bad Mig. There are lots of clothes that women for some reason today just won't wear. Audrey pulls pretty much everything off and people think she is beautiful, its a tried and true way to get people to think about why they don't wear certain styles anymore.
As for commercials, gotta love Geico for not sticking with one sales pitch, they've got a multi pronged approach that I think works pretty well.
I laughed at some of their "a real customer" and "a real celebrity to tell their story" commercials.
My 2 favorites are Don LaFontaine and Charo, but if they could have had Phil Hartman channeling Peter Graves (Instead of Graves himself) I would have liked that the most I am sure Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I abhor the Gap Audrey Hepburn commercial. Thank goodness for DVR. Every Burger King commercial in the past 5 years has creeped me out. Andrew summarized the Hardee's commercials thusly, "You're a scumbag. Eat at Hardee's."
I love the Nextel one with the dots. "Who's agitating my dots? You agitating my dots?"
Posts: 3037 | Registered: Jan 2002
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I like those Mac commercials with the young guy and they pudgy middle aged guy. They only show a couple of them on TV, but they have a lot more that they show online. They are not going to make me change over to a Mac, but I do watch them when I see them.
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