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Sam and Friends BookThere are two commercials they run way too much that really send me to fetching the remote or shouting at the screen.
One of them is that terrible advertisement for University of Phoenix or something where this tone deaf woman moans out a horrid parody/cover of "If I only Had a Brain." I understand what they're going for, trying to make it inspirational, though very emotionally manipulative and about getting a second chance and everything. Visually it's not terrible, but just... it's bad enough that there's some idiotic perception that moaning emotionally is somehow more powerful than actually singing, and when the woman singing this actually hits a note she does have a decent voice. Like she could actually belt out something in she wanted to. But she sounds like Raven from Teen Titans Go (where Tara is intentionally trying to make her sound monotone) with constipation (which now that I think of it, I'm surprised isn't an episode). And if that wasn't bad enough she speaks any line with the words "have a brain" (as in "I also have a brain" or "still don't think I got a brain") in a tone I could only describe as a very condescendingly passive aggressive robot sloth muttering under its breath. Almost like it's saying "ttchhh... you're such a moron and you don't respect me for calling you a moron."
Seriously. STOP moaning songs and pretending it's supposed to be powerful.
Secondly, I really hate Toyota's new Prius campaign. I can respect they're trying to make it like a continuing saga of short serialized films. It's not something you see too much in adult's advertising since that sort of thing is used mostly for Goldfish or breakfast foods. I guess you could say the KFC's "imposter Colonel" ads have some sort of narrative to them. I should like that a car commercial is playing out like a continuing story about these characters...but...
First off, one of the commercials starts with a news report about how these bank robbers stole a Prius and somehow evaded cops I can only say come from the Chief Wiggum and Inspector Zenigata school for Incompetent Cops. Which sounds like a good enough premise. But the news reporter gives the first headbanger moment, he says "Folks, you can't make this stuff up." But you DID! It's a commercial! it's fiction! You can make up fiction we know it's fiction...is there something the complete opposite of breaking the fourth wall? Like Building a secondary fourth wall or insulating the fourth wall? Something that's so incredibly defensive of the fact it's their world's fictious reality that it actually takes you out of disbelief? Seems like a very idiotic writing move.
But what makes the commercial absolutely terrible is that first of all, these are freaking criminals that robbed a freaking bank and stole a freaking car! No. I can totally get behind a "route for the villainous protagonist" thing. Heck, I love Lupin II. That's about a master thief that's charming and flawed a character on the run from a bumbling goofus of a cop that has it in for him. But this... the guys aren't even likable. They have no personalities beyond scraggly crooks with slight hints of dudebro, so you can't sympathize with them as an audience. They didn't pull a Robin Hood and rob some corrupt jerk that deserved it so you could say "at least they're anti-heros." No. The part that the audience and in universe characters are supposed to resonate with is they stole a Prius. And it was established they stole it out of convenience (or contrivance), not that they particularly like the darn thing. Heck, they're reluctant to in the one scene where they actually do something.
So what happens in future installments is that these crooks, only because they stole a sort of eco-friendly car, are trending and become these beloved celebrities culminating to the idiotic climax where over a dozen fans with the exact same make and model Prius decide to aide and abed the freaking crooks by causing a distraction, shuffling them up until the crooks escape.
[Headdesk]
Okay. Explain to me why a bunch of unlikable crooks that probably waved a gun in someone's face that stole other people's money and hotwired a freakin' Yuppie car (can't remember if they stole it from a dealership or it was someone's) become beloved celebrities just for the fact they reluctantly stole a freakin' Yuppie car because Yuppie Car. You can't. It's a freaking stupid commercial that, yeah, had this been the plot of a movie and the characters were fleshed out and were at least sympathetic...sure, I could see that. I could get behind it. But as a story, it's contrivance that doesn't make sense after contrivance that doesn't make sense.
One of them is that terrible advertisement for University of Phoenix or something where this tone deaf woman moans out a horrid parody/cover of "If I only Had a Brain." I understand what they're going for, trying to make it inspirational, though very emotionally manipulative and about getting a second chance and everything. Visually it's not terrible, but just... it's bad enough that there's some idiotic perception that moaning emotionally is somehow more powerful than actually singing, and when the woman singing this actually hits a note she does have a decent voice. Like she could actually belt out something in she wanted to. But she sounds like Raven from Teen Titans Go (where Tara is intentionally trying to make her sound monotone) with constipation (which now that I think of it, I'm surprised isn't an episode). And if that wasn't bad enough she speaks any line with the words "have a brain" (as in "I also have a brain" or "still don't think I got a brain") in a tone I could only describe as a very condescendingly passive aggressive robot sloth muttering under its breath. Almost like it's saying "ttchhh... you're such a moron and you don't respect me for calling you a moron."
Seriously. STOP moaning songs and pretending it's supposed to be powerful.
Secondly, I really hate Toyota's new Prius campaign. I can respect they're trying to make it like a continuing saga of short serialized films. It's not something you see too much in adult's advertising since that sort of thing is used mostly for Goldfish or breakfast foods. I guess you could say the KFC's "imposter Colonel" ads have some sort of narrative to them. I should like that a car commercial is playing out like a continuing story about these characters...but...
First off, one of the commercials starts with a news report about how these bank robbers stole a Prius and somehow evaded cops I can only say come from the Chief Wiggum and Inspector Zenigata school for Incompetent Cops. Which sounds like a good enough premise. But the news reporter gives the first headbanger moment, he says "Folks, you can't make this stuff up." But you DID! It's a commercial! it's fiction! You can make up fiction we know it's fiction...is there something the complete opposite of breaking the fourth wall? Like Building a secondary fourth wall or insulating the fourth wall? Something that's so incredibly defensive of the fact it's their world's fictious reality that it actually takes you out of disbelief? Seems like a very idiotic writing move.
But what makes the commercial absolutely terrible is that first of all, these are freaking criminals that robbed a freaking bank and stole a freaking car! No. I can totally get behind a "route for the villainous protagonist" thing. Heck, I love Lupin II. That's about a master thief that's charming and flawed a character on the run from a bumbling goofus of a cop that has it in for him. But this... the guys aren't even likable. They have no personalities beyond scraggly crooks with slight hints of dudebro, so you can't sympathize with them as an audience. They didn't pull a Robin Hood and rob some corrupt jerk that deserved it so you could say "at least they're anti-heros." No. The part that the audience and in universe characters are supposed to resonate with is they stole a Prius. And it was established they stole it out of convenience (or contrivance), not that they particularly like the darn thing. Heck, they're reluctant to in the one scene where they actually do something.
So what happens in future installments is that these crooks, only because they stole a sort of eco-friendly car, are trending and become these beloved celebrities culminating to the idiotic climax where over a dozen fans with the exact same make and model Prius decide to aide and abed the freaking crooks by causing a distraction, shuffling them up until the crooks escape.
[Headdesk]
Okay. Explain to me why a bunch of unlikable crooks that probably waved a gun in someone's face that stole other people's money and hotwired a freakin' Yuppie car (can't remember if they stole it from a dealership or it was someone's) become beloved celebrities just for the fact they reluctantly stole a freakin' Yuppie car because Yuppie Car. You can't. It's a freaking stupid commercial that, yeah, had this been the plot of a movie and the characters were fleshed out and were at least sympathetic...sure, I could see that. I could get behind it. But as a story, it's contrivance that doesn't make sense after contrivance that doesn't make sense.
