The other day I posted the DirecTV ad featuring footage of Chris Farley and new footage of David Spade, and I opined that it was a "worst commercial of the year" nominee. I also mentioned that it might be "too soon."
To clarify, when I said "too soon" I didn't mean that it was too soon after Farley's death (he died 12 years ago). I meant that it's odd seeing a young, contemporary celebrity in an ad (which DirecTV also did with Heather O'Rourke - that was worse), especially one where he is interacting with a costar who is doing the scene in the present day. My other point was "how the hell is this going to sell DirecTV to anyone?" (and "boy is this ad unfunny").
In this British ad, a guy walks around his apartment and slowly takes his clothes off. It's all to remind people to set their clocks back one hour. Even though people in the UK did it last week, this can be your reminder do to set your clocks back here in the U.S. this Sunday morning.
They use dead celebs in ads all the time and it doesn't bother me, so why does the new DirecTV commercial with David Spade and Chris Farley irritate and disgust me so much?
For one, it's badly made. Unfunny and not very clever. Plus, it might be too soon, and the way that Farley died... it's just a very strange ad. I wonder why Spade even agreed to do it. (DirecTV has done this before.)
Tell me, on what planet is this an appealing commercial? I hate ads where random bottom parts suddenly appear on food. And it's especially disturbing if the food starts talking or singing to me. This one is like Willy Wonka's Oompa-Loompas speaking from another dimension.
I was going to have pizza for dinner tonight too. Now...not so much. Or maybe I'll just skip the pepperoni.
I didn't know what the hell that commercial was all about last night on NBC during The Office (or was it during ABC's FlashForward?). It was longer than most commercials, and it seemed like an infomercial for a laundry detergent and not an ad for Subaru (actually, it's both!). I was so mesmerized by what was going on that I completely missed early references to the Outback.
It gets really odd when the women starts smelling her co-host's bike shorts. Pay attention to the text on the screen too.
That sounds like the opening of a joke, but it's actually the premise of this British commercial for fabric softener.
The funniest part of this ad is when the other guy starts taking his clothes off so he can run out of the house, the opposite of the classic "putting on your clothes quickly and getting out because the husband comes home" scenario. (Note: contains male buttocks.)
Yesterday I posted a commercial from Germany, and now we have another foreign ad. It's for Downy and features two guys at the laundromat washing and drying their clothes.
I think the moral of this story is this: don't smell someone else's underwear.
I hardly ever get to see foreign TV commercials, so that's one of the good things about the web. This one is a Microsoft ad from Germany. There seems to be some question as to whether or not it's real or fake, but I'm strongly leaning towards fake.
This new ad from Fruit by the Foot is kinda clever, very creepy: two kids battle over what they can turn into Fruit by the Foot, from the trivial (guitar strings) to the important (DNA). The last image looks like something from one of those Japanese horror flicks where something crazy happens to someone's body and they die horribly.
If people keep making commercials like this, we're not going to be able to tell the difference between Saturday Night Live parodies and the real ads. This one is for the new body deodorant Aspray and...well, you just have to watch it.
Like most actors, Tom Selleck did commercials before hitting it big. This spot for Close-Up toothpaste ("there's mouthwash in it") is from 1977, three years before Magnum, P.I. debuted. Actually, Selleck was doing movies and TV guest spots way before this commercial aired.
There's a certain fake ad for Sprite that is making the rounds on the web this week. I'm sure you've heard about it, so I'm not going to link to it here (it's remarkably NSFW, so do a search for it). But I came across this real ad at Adfreak for Perrier. It was made in 1976, and while it's still pretty risque' it's really well done (had to find a video on YouTube that looks like it's from another TV show, that's why there's laughing).
I thought that, as I got older, I'd mellow out when it came to illogical commercials, but that hasn't happened. I see something in an ad and it irritates the hell out of me every time I see it (and when you watch TV for a living you see the same commercials 20 times a day). So guess why the new KFC "Unthink" commercial irritates me so much. It has nothing to do with the quality of the meal or the price or the arrogance of the two guys eating the chicken.
Hint: think about what you have for lunch every day. Answer later today!
Back in 1984, Michael Jackson was filming a TV commercial for Pepsi and got severely injured when his hair caught fire from a special effects explosion. I'm assuming that the finished commercial has a body double during that scene (or they used footage from another take), though Michael can be seen in other parts of the commercial with his brothers. Some people close to Jackson say that he started taking painkillers after this incident. (Here's footage of Jackson after it happened.)
I saw this on Jimmy Kimmel Live and went online to see if it was real. It looks like an SNL parody (though so did that toilet paper stick, and that was real), but it does indeed exist. Here's the web site.
The other day I posted the DirecTV ad featuring footage of Chris Farley and new footage of David Spade, and I opined that it was a "worst commercial of the year" nominee. I also mentioned that it might be "too soon."
TV Squad Ten: Cartoon women who should have Playboy centerfolds
Six Mad Men characters who are in limbo after the finale
Fact or Fiction: Big Bang, Brothers & Sisters and CSI
