Commercials I like (in that order)
May 4, 2009 at 10:13 pm 11 comments
The talented kids on Cricket Broadband commercial
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The pizza guy in DiGiorno Pizza
The guys @ the Heineken Beer commercial
The Kid on MasterCard’s “Priceless” Commercial
The staff at Snapple: Better Stuff
The ultimate cutie of FreeCreditReport.com
The absurdity in “Back It Up” (3rd video) of Progressive Insurance’s
the wonderfundle Cox “Bundlese” commercial I couldn’t find online & ofcourse..
The Colbert Cooalition’s Anti-Gay Marriage Ad
Entry filed under: Latest Posts. Tags: Advertisements, Commercials, Funny Commercials, Promotions, TV Commercials.
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sistu | May 5, 2009 at 4:45 am
Abesheet, a new post… priceless.
i love that maniacal woman from progressive so much. and who would have thought yemetregia commercial could be so entertaining. makes me want to clean.. not now, though. when i get a beautiful house like that one day.. and chewatan chewata yametawal, anybody wants to buy me a house? anybody. it being the 5th day of the month and all, bet kiray mereregn. pizzam amaregn. thanks, Abeet. ayne pizza iyaye, afe pasta sibela yasazinal
but sometimes i wonder if these ads actually make people buy stuff? maybe they do but i can never imagine buying something because of an ad. but their entertainment value just keeps getting better, so its all good
here are a few classic ones i like. pepsi (although pepsi sucks), that kid Jose and ref getting mad. forgive the football if need be
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abesheet | May 5, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Nice to see you again sistu.
“That maniacal woman” is Stephanie Courtney, an American actress who is noted for her recurring roles on several television shows. She is a Senior member of the Groundlings improvisational theater in Los Angeles, California. Her most famous commercial role may be that of Flo, the helpful cashier at the Progressive Auto Insurance store.
Flo! Who would have thought?
You are right, btw, there is definitely something off about her. Speaking of off, do you remember that advertisement with two guys walking in and one saying he sold his watch to his friend and the friend refusing to sell it back?! Apparently, the recession has created more “sira fetoch” than would have been supposed: i saw more than one website accusing Progressive Auto Insurance of making a gay commercial.
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Mazzi | May 5, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Interesting collection Abesheet.
I also find the DJ in the Swiffer commercial, and almost the whole ensemble in the FreeCreditReport.com commercial amusing. There is nothing free about that site however. In the Swiffer commercial, strange enough I too was paying attention to the fancy house more than the Swiffer itself! Just what does one have to do as a relatively young adult to live in a house like that (owned not rented thankyouverymuch)?!
While aimlessly driving around with a friend in a picturesque, secluded, and perfectly manicured rich neighborhood coveting every single beautiful and unique mini-mansion, I was heard lamenting and almost whining just what one has to do to afford to live in places like these. The houses and their gorgeous extensive grounds were just to die for. Pure luxury. So my friend asks, “So do you have the ambition, and what it takes to become that rich?” And I answer, “No … just the wish!” :-(. This is to say, Sistu, I can relate about wanting that nice house worthy of cleaning. Although if I owned a house like that, most likely I could afford a house cleaner as well, so maybe it won’t be me cleaning it ;-). Dream on, I say to myself dream on!
The woman in the Progressive auto insurance commercial sure looks “maniacal”! That was the best description for her. And mission accomplished by those who cast her for that role coz here we are talking about her coz she is memorable. But I am not sure why those commercials are considered gay. Maybe I am missing something here…
I have always believed high budget prime time TV commercials (not the low budget boring ones on local cable channels for the neighborhood store) are all about establishing brand loyalty from early stages. They are also about these high profile merchants playing mind games and finding insidious ways through humorous and clever commercials to force us to associate our self worth and self esteem with their products. For that reason, commercials work on subliminal levels and we may not always be aware why we prefer a particular brand product, and would even swear it had nothing to do with the commercial. Human beings, we are so so suggestible eko!
‘World’s Funniest Commercials’ is a show that comes around on cable almost every end of the year where they review funny commercials of the year or something. They usually include European commercials as well, and such commercials tend to push the envelope a bit further since they might be a little more liberal. Some years back while watching that program, two commercials made me laugh out loud, and wanted to see if I can find them in YouTube. Lo and behold, there they were. So I am sharing them here.
The kid in the commercial below is the personification of all my worst nightmares about being responsible for kids …
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fitxofd7kOA)
…while the kid in this commercial has some redeeming quality about childhood innocence.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fitxofd7kOA) Enjoy.
(Tried the hyperlink thing for the above YouTube sites but did not seem to work when I pasted my comment on your site Abesheet. So I posted the link addresses directly to see if it works. Feel technically challenged here :-(. Ignore the previous comment if it got to you).
And The Colbert Coalition’s Anti-Gay Marriage Ad … I laughed so hard when I watched it on TV :-). Absolutely priceless!!
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sistu | May 6, 2009 at 4:59 am
Abeet, been around all the while. But nice to be seen :—{) And, I better confess that I have joined the ranks of those sira fet byproducts of the recession coz I sure thought they were gay. No seconds thoughts then but now that I think about it, they could have just been brothers (who are headed down the abel and kyle route). Is Flo just a cashier then? Poor thing looked more like yebalebetu lij with all her passion
Mazzi asferarashign eko… the thought of progressive insurance preying on my unsuspecting unconscious is a bit disconcerting. But are all subliminal levels created equal?..specifically I mean yeferenj and yabesha? I hope my subliminal level is placed way down low that no self respecting yeferenj commercial would stoop so low as to ever reach it. Btw, you are so right about the local commercials. Nothing more depressing about tv here than local commercials. No life, no creativity, no nothing in them. Etv commercials besint ta’imachew
niiice one with the little bastard (literally, can we safely assume?) Ain’t nothing more annoying than kids who cry without wasting a drop of tear. But im sure the kid you will be responsible for will be nothing like him..
But Mazzi, I don’t think I will ever let anyone clean that beautiful house I will have one day. How else will I feel like its mine unless I clean it? My biggest worry about owning a nice house (yes, it worries me) is that I won’t feel like it is really my home. I don’t think I can form any attachment with a house that won’t have ye’ayit megbia kedada on its walls and roofs. So I may have to wipe that dust off the floor with my bare hands to feel the connection. 10 yrs from now, I sure hope you will see me doing just that if you happen to drive past one of those pure luxury spots. diha behilmua kibe…
Abesheet, do you frown on the idea of placing a ‘homebuyer [needed]’ personal ad on your site?
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abesheet | May 6, 2009 at 5:42 am
Not at all sistu. Is that all it’s going to read, ‘homebuyer [needed]’?!
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NIbo | May 6, 2009 at 12:55 pm
The Heinken commercial..lol. That was hilarious.
Let me add one for you:
you will die laughing.
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Mazzi | May 6, 2009 at 2:36 pm
@Sistu:
I like your suggestion that maybe not all subliminal levels are created equal :-). So you may be right in thinking that our ‘superior’ (we would like to think anyways) Abesha subliminal is not as easily susceptible to all the insidious ferenji commercials thrown at us from all corners at every opportunity!
I love going to the movies, and was already not particularly fond of the movie trivia questions and custom (to the movie theater itself) commercials they used to show on screen before the start of movie previews and feature movies. As of the last few years, however, it bugs the hell out of me how no one is safe from high profile commercials for all kinds of places and products they started showing EVEN at the movie theater before the movie starts.
I am a self declared TV addict, but I liked going to the movies and escaping TV commercials for a bit once in a while. But now a days, there is no escape. If I could afford TiVo, I so would buy it and skip or fast forward TV commercials while watching my favorite shows. I still appreciate clever commercials, but maybe the type they craft for major events like the Super Bowl or something. Outside of that, I hate knowing that we are all slaves for the capitalist machinery of incessantly buying things we really don’t need, more often than we care to admit. But I guess it is good to have that option. It could be worse I know, and we have seen so much worse, so I better shut up before I am mistaken for an ungrateful soul!
As for the dream house we both want, ah let me tell you I will have no qualms about hiring professionals to clean it from top to bottom (no ya’ayiT megbia Qedada nowhere to be seen for me, except tiny doors for the many puppies I plan to have), as I am sure I will find other ways to make it feel like home. That is absolutely important. I have gone inside some mini-mansions that sure did not feel like homes owned by some rich or successful friends/families over the years. In some cases, once you enter the houses, it feels soooooooooo cold and ‘museum like’ and far from any feeling of a home. I dislike ‘newly rich’ people who fill their expensive houses with expensive (and often uncomfortable!) furniture (probably still covered with the original plastic coverings) that they hardly use. God knows if they are saving the furniture to pass down to their kids or something. It is hard to get rid of the ‘poor mentality’ even when we are lucky enough to have some wind fall and become rich. But I want the opportunity to become rich, if nothing else to dispel this myth ;-). I so will use my new furniture with no plan of passing it down to the kids.
Why stop at the dream house only? How about ocean front summer houses/cabins/cottages in some exotic locale while the professionals are cleaning my house in my absence?
‘Kewedequ ayiqer yingallelu’ allu abew siteritu….
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sistu | May 7, 2009 at 7:36 pm
zimdina, even the cyber kind, lemeche new, abesheetiye? after providing the title, i was hoping to sit around iyeteshkorememku, iyetekleselesku and iyeteslemelemku (whichever you tell me i look best in) while you help me with the body of the ad. no?
Ah, Mazzi, i think we have a disagreement on our hands. my furniture is beyond sacred but no plastic covers since i am sure nobody will dare to sit on it. it breaks my heart to sit on my bed kanetefkut behuala so i don’t know how i will feel about ppl sitting on my sofa like they bought it or something. i might provide alternative furniture, like duka minamin or agdami wenber near the door, for those who insist on sitting but we will see. we certainly practiced segregation in our salon where the half of it was out of reach for the underclass (that would include me) and i am sure i will revive that practice in my own house. One western culture that i will never, never get used to is the whole throwing things away after a while thing. I feel like its a practice promoted on that subliminal level thingie for the sake of getting the same business from the same people over and over again. i would have thought us africans would laugh hysterically at the idea of throwing something away but i have been surprised to discover even (especially) Africans have embraced it wholly. so maybe we are not as immune after all? ok, lemme confess. it might not be plastic cover but where i live now, we sure sewed a sofa libs for our sofa…
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Scooby | May 7, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Lol. These video are `indeed priceless ~_~. Good job.
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Mazzi | May 7, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Sistu you crack me up with your future (for your dream house) sacred untouchable furniture, duka and agdami wenber for the ‘unworthy and underclass’ who may unwittingly might wish to sit in your house at salonish dejaf (the only place you might allow them), your sofa libs for your sofa now, and your little very understandable I might add neurosis about not wanting to sit on your bed after you just made it :-).
And as you said, the whole western culture of throwing things away after a while thing is definitely part of the capitalist machinery, and it is commercials’ job to convince us we want newer, cooler, and the latest version of merchandise at all times. If they made cars that lasted for 20 years with no problem, car industry empires min sertew yiblu! And that goes the same for every consumer product out there. And though this concept may have been so unAfrican judging by how we were raised, I think we Africans are losing the battle either on this side or even on African soils where capitalist way of doing business is sipping in.
My confession…. I am not entirely sad by the concept of having to let go of the old and embracing the new, to a limit at least. Still recovering from the ‘trauma’ (yes I exaggerate ;-)!) of having to wear the same damn school uniform for years and years till a long maxi skirt (felt like that anyways) ended up being a mini by virtue of me growing taller by the time my mother was ready to buy me another one. So yes I will be one of those Africans who won’t have any qualms about throwing the old :-).
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abesheet | May 30, 2009 at 3:32 pm
All of you who, like me, light up every time the FreeCreditReport dot com commercial guy appears on the screen (3rd commercial from last), I have a bad news for you. He isn’t what he appears to be. Take it Arianna: Exposed: The FreeCreditReport.com Commercial Guy.