Commercial rant time...

[D'Snowth]

So Papa John's is bringing back the cheeseburger pizza that I never got to try last year this year, that's all well and good, but one of their commercials for it basically shoehorns a bunch of Big Bang references into it for absolutely no reason.

 

[Drtooth]

On the completely annoying, make it stop, stop showing these during every commercial break variety, there are two commercials I'm freaking sick of having to sit through.

This one's enforced by the cable provider. An obnoxious commercial for Grape Juice where talking grapes (only via a voice over, they're not animated or anything) keep saying how they have heart benefits like wine. Especially the obnoxious female voice over who sounds more like she's saying "Waahhhiiiieee" instead of whine. There's like NO N in her pronunciation of whine.

I really hate Chuck E. Cheese's "Do the Chuckie" promotion. Dance like an idiot (looks like that Carameldansen meme from like 4 years ago) and you'll get free tickets. It's easily the most annoying commercial they've made since the change over to the CGI, Bowling for Soup version of the character. Which is still not half as obnoxious as the 90's-00's Chuck E commercials...

(to quote Pam in Archer)

"Yeah.... head. hea-e-e-e-ed."

 

[Twisted Tails]

Before I watch my videos on YouTube.... this commercial comes up first is soooo annoying and it is an earworm. Gah!

Even though thiis a link below, the video is called: Sperry Odysseys Await.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=instream&v=1Ht5em9WajY

 

[Drtooth]

There's 3 I have a problem with lately.

First off... I dunno. Anyone else feel the "Autism Speaks" commercials where some celebrity starts rattling off his own personal accomplishments with statistics for 20 seconds of the ad to essentially say "also Autism" kinda cheapens the whole thing? It sounds like a congratulatory (and because this is a family site, I can't saying anything over this) pat on the back that ends with "poor me! One of my obscure relatives has Autism or something." It seems like we're meant to care more about how these poor people with a crapload of money have to deal with the burden one of their relatives instead of actually... I dunno...talking about Autism?! WORST...PSA...ever. Worse than the lazy ones for child seat safety with Wizard of Oz movie clips in it.

Secondly, watching the new Boomerang, you know what gets the most play out of everything else? Nope! Not The Garfield Show or Tom and Jerry. That *&&^% Gerber Grow Up Plan crap they're selling to paranoid grandparents. EVERY commercial break and in between shows. It's so annoying to see that same ad over and over. More so than the one where the kid with the scratchy voice likes to talk about how "with Gamefloooooooooy I can get... thousandsofdifferentgames!" I can't remember where I read that insurance policies for kids is a scam they use to screw the elderly out of their money, but... yeah...

Third, a minor one also pertaining to Boomerang's commercial policy./.. I swear that last week I saw a truncated version of the Adventure Time Game Wizard App... if you saw the commercials for it it has a kid playing with it with some guy as a wizard providing commentary on how goofy it sounds. Well, the truncated version completely cuts any dialogue between the two out, and only shows the kid playing the game with narration. All the sudden it cuts to the guy in the Wizard suit, speeds up the footage for time constraints, and he seems to come completely out of nowhere only to say a sped up "Thatissomecrazywizbiz!" I don't know what about that did it, but it set me off into a fit of crazed laughter for about five minutes. Stupid things have been known to really set me off. Anyway... I haven't seen that darn commercial again since, having them air the regular, full sized version of the ad. Kinda bummed I haven't seen it again.

 

[D'Snowth]

First off... I dunno. Anyone else feel the "Autism Speaks" commercials where some celebrity starts rattling off his own personal accomplishments with statistics for 20 seconds of the ad to essentially say "also Autism" kinda cheapens the whole thing?

Well, isn't that kind of like when the whole anti-bullying campaign first started coming into vogue several years ago, there were all kinds of PSAs on TV and the internet from celebrities who would talk about how they were bullied in their youths?

But what really gets cheapened by celebrities, as mentioned before, is how celebrities began using Kickstarter to fund projects they're working on when they're at a point in their lives and careers that they should be giving money back, not asking for more. Especially considering that Kickstarter is really supposed to be for the little people who really don't have money to fund or finance whatever it is they're working.

 

[Drtooth]

Well, isn't that kind of like when the whole anti-bullying campaign first started coming into vogue several years ago, there were all kinds of PSAs on TV and the internet from celebrities who would talk about how they were bullied in their youths?

Yeah. But at least they were bullied. They have a real handle on that angle and their stories of success gives hope (even if some cases it's false hope) that they'll succeed in spite of being picked on. The Autism one just sounds like shallow congratulations that are completely disjointed by the message. Even if they went for a relatable "I'm a celebrity and some relative has Autism," the message gets completely buried in self-serving, egotistical praise. Their accomplishments mean nothing to the message, they don't have it, just a member of the family. In fact, I doubt these commercials have a message. Awareness? Not even that much.

 

[fuzzygobo]

On the subject of those anti-bullying spots...
yes, I'm all in favor of stopping bullying by any means possible.

But the ad of the girls ignoring another girl in the cafeteria, and not letting her sit with them, I wouldn't consider THAT bullying in the strictest sense.
Back when I was that age, that was just the snobbish clique being themselves. And you know what, kid? The heck with them. Sit by yourself, you're better off without them.

And if the clique turns on one of their own and ignores her, serves her right, wouldn't you say? If you're big enough to dish it out, be big enough to take it.

 

[D'Snowth]

Cafeterias are always an interesting case, and while I agree not letting someone sit with them isn't exactly bullying, just finding somewhere to sit sometimes can be a pain. I too usually just tried to find an emptier table to sit at, but when I was in Grade 8, they started assigning seats to help make it easier to get a table... that was never fun, especially if you ended up behind or in front of a jerk in the lunch line and that meant you had to sit next to them.

 

[Drtooth]

As someone that actively hates the Arthur episode "So funny, I forgot to Laugh," there's a huge difference between passive aggressiveness and bullying. Bullying can take on different forms, be they physical or mental. Passive aggressiveness isn't one of them. I agree that commercial doesn't cover bullying, but cliques as you said. That's passive aggressive social order. Not a good thing, but certainly not the same as repetitive and premeditated harassment.

That said, there's one anti-bullying commercial (before anti-bullying was really a thing) that always haunted me. One with a Hispanic/Latino new kid in school that immediately starts getting harassed. First making fun of his accent, then physically assaulting him with "Hey, Pedro, want some fries?"

That wasn't just bullying. That was flat out racism. The message was essentially "just be a friend" when the message should have been... I dunno report bigotry?

 

[D'Snowth]

Really? Really? Do people really just hate winter that much that there now has to be commercials advertising spring? We have to have commercials advertising spring?!