During the past 15 to 20 years, the trend in advertising has been toward the annoying and snarky. As long as they're going to try to be funny by ripping into others, it should be those who deserve it -- who are so assured of their greatness, despite being hollow receptacles for whatever their priestly caste feels is "it" at the moment.
Sadly the main targets are instead whoever The Other Guys are, like those Apple ads whose smugness is so chokingly disgusting that you find yourself rooting for a Dilbert dork for once.
One hilarious exception was the Geico caveman ads, which prompted viewers to ask, "Yeah, what kind of fucked up world do we live in where everyone is a self-important and thin-skinned faggot (especially the faggots)?"
Some of the Bud Light Real American Heroes ads are funny too, although the bulk of them are just part of the meta-ironic idiocy. (Like, huh-huh, wouldn't it be wacky to make an '80s rock anthem tribute to some poor brainless schlep like Mr. Movie Theater Ticket Ripper Upper?!??!!!?!) But a handful skewer some of the trends among the follow-the-lead-of-my-genius SWPL crowd, before the Stuff White People Like site was even up, and other non-partisan trends that still show how screwed up society is becoming.
Mr. Bumper Sticker Writer (probably the funniest one)
Mr. Tiny Dog Clothes Manufacturer
Mr. Stadium Scoreboard Marriage Proposal Guy
Mr. Cell Phone Holster Wearer
Mr. Really Loud Cell Phone Talker Guy
Mr. 80 SPF Sunblock Wearer
The thin skinned cavemen rather literally represent negroes.
ReplyDeleteAs Masatoshi Nei and Naoko Takezaki observed, and got into big trouble for observing “the rate of evolutionary change may vary from population to population”
And then proceeded to find that the usual suspects had evolved less.
Of course Geico can get away with it, since to acknowledge what is being said, would be to admit that it could be true.
My favorite Geico caveman commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwWfU18boOI
ReplyDeleteOne thing that angers me no end is the way that so many commercials portray men, especially in their context as husbands and fathers as schmucks and losers. Commercials of this sort are bigoted and offensive.
ReplyDeleteToday I saw two commercials that ever so slightly restored my faith in humanity. The first one involved Criss Angel showing a husband and wife a new container for Orville Redenbacher that turns into a bowl while in the microwave. To my extreme surprise it is the wife who turns into a babbling idiot in astonishment.
In the second ad, a young girl surprises her father with a Jif peanut butter sandwich as he builds her a tree house, just like the one his father once built for him. For once, a commercial portrays fatherhood in a positive light, with no Doofus Dad in sight.
Peter