Hannah and Her Horse

In April of 2013 posted about the beautiful Hannah Davis and how flashing across the screen at the end of a commercial for Direct TV, she is so stunning one would want to hit the pause button just to look at her for a few more seconds.  Well... somebody out there must have heard me because here we are in 2015 and we have "Hannah and Her Horse..."

At YouTube, you can find a whole series of these commercials - Hannah Davis, our absolutely breathtaking beauty, and her loyal pet/friend,  a startling white horse.  Who cares what either of them are saying?  They are so visually appealing they are like Oreos for the eyes.

This woman looks as if a master sculptor carved her, painted her then blew the breath of life into her.  Her pale eyes seem back lit and have a tinge of humor and wisdom beyond her years.  Her skin is luminously tanned gently reflecting the sunlight.  It is ridiculous how stop-in-your-tracks gorgeous she is.  Then, languidly relaxing with this marvelous white horse (particularly in the scenes when she is riding him) one could imagine she has ridden him right out of a fantasy novel.

This is weird because I am a heterosexual woman. I know I know... everybody is a bit bisexual and, sure, in my younger days I might have been more adventurous in thought, but to be totally honest, this is not a bit sexual... and I don't even want to BE her or to LOOK LIKE her (well... twist my arm).  She is seriously like a piece of art that I just like to look at and think, "Gee, the artist (God) did an amazing job with that one!"

And, think about it... God IS an artist.  He crafted each and every one of us but instead of just being visual pieces of art or audio pieces (like music), he made us sort of inside AND outside pieces of art... I guess you could say we are performance pieces :-) so sometimes we don't look so pretty and in performance art you SHOULDN'T always look so pretty. But, sometimes it's just nice to have a relaxing piece of candy and THAT'S what THIS piece of art from God is!

So, kudos to God for giving us pretty people to look at and kudos to DirectTV (my balcony faces the wrong direction- sorry, I have to keep Comcast) for entertaining our eyes with such a treat.  No, we can't fast forward during THOSE commercials!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M5du5EKiOg

Black Dads

Oh my gosh...  Television has decided to portray African American gentlemen as about the cutest, most lovable men ever!!!!  These two commercials epitomize the affable adorable character the black man has become in television comedy and commercials. This guy began with Bill Cosby then got a little dumber and rougher with Bernie Mac but I've gotta say, I LOVE THIS GUY!! These commercials show you what (I guess) white people want to believe is the black "every man."

The first commercial is entitled, "Move-In day," and is the mini story of a dad dropping his daughter at college. He is befuddled, grouchy, not so sure about all of this. The women flit around him like butterflies. My favorite moment is when he notices his daughter giving some guy the eye so he turns around to size him up suspiciously. Amidst all of his dad-angst he sees a sign saying, "Relax, we're in charge - BMO Harris," or something like that, and he visibly relaxes. 

You know this guy is doing okay, his daughter is carefree, loads of luggage, going to college, chatting on the cell phone, squealing and hugging her white roommate, so she is like any other middle class girl of any race. He is well groomed but not pompously well groomed, again just a regular guy like most of us.  His feet are on the ground and he's sensible. He has to think about down to earth things like finances while the women get wrapped up in dorm room decor and silly romances. Still they make him look adorably and foolishly protective. 

Watch here

The second commercial entitled, "Cabin," depicts a slightly older dad. This time the more-adult children appear to be joining their parents for a visit in their country cabin. The kids arrive and during the welcoming conversation with Mom, Dad hears that the kids stopped by the house. Although they assure him that they've left the home in perfect condition, he mistrusts them, pulls out his phone then proceeds to walk through his automated system (from the rocker on the cabin porch) as we watch him repair various issues left undone by the careless and carefree adult children. 

This dad is the next phase in the life of the last dad. He is enjoying the fruits of his hard long labor. He owns a cabin and a nice house.  He can afford a security system and he needs it to protect all of these things he has worked so hard to provide for himself and his family. His family can be careless because, thanks to his long work days, careful budgeting, responsible behavior and realistic planning, he has done well for them.. Given them a home and yard in a good neighborhood, lessons, college, nice lives. They will never know the things he sacrificed. Now,however, it is time for him to live out his golden years doing the things he's dreamed of and he's not about to let an errant fire or a scruffy thief take any of that away from him! Thus, total control over the home from anywhere. We chuckle at his gruff insecurity and protectiveness but he is an absolutely adorable old dog.

Watch here

Now, some people may find something to be offended at here...that perhaps these men are portrayed as dumb or stereotypical, overly cautious or even selfish, but they fare better than most white dads in household goods and food commercials.  The white dads don't seem to be particularly loving.  They come across as stupid while their stay-at-home wives are snarky know-it-alls who constantly show them up. They are unlovable losers with whom nobody could imagine sharing a life. Their African American counterparts, however, are portrayed as strong teddy bears who provide well and care deeply for their families.  Score one for the underdog.

How Zesty Do You Want It?

How much do I need to say about this commercial?  The "Zesty Guy," resembling a cross between Hugh Jackman and Mel Gibson does more than just chop red peppers and make chicken, he redefines everyone's thoughts about the word "zesty."

After seeing his appearance on a Kelly Live show, I actually went to YouTube to find these commercials I had never seen. Fun to watch, these mini-movies manage to also give new ideas of how to use salad dressing in new and unusual ways. (Double entendre sort of intended.)

Check the Zest out HERE!

I Guarantee It

Okay George Zimmer is not astoundingly good looking. He's no Sean Connery. But darned if he isn't sort of spicy sexy.

Who is George Zimmer? He is the founder of and (more importantly) spokesperson for Men's Warehouse.

I love these commercials. With the handsome young "studs" modeling the snappy suits and Mr. Zimmer's gravelly voice describing men's fashion. The climactic moment of each of these commercials is when he growls, "You're going to like the way you look... I guarantee it."

Maybe it's the voice. Maybe it's the extreme close up. Most of all, I think it's that confidence he exudes with his repeated assurances. You can almost hear him leaning in close to you and saying, "You're going to love the way this feels. I guarantee it," and somehow, you believe him!

Focus Groups

Yesterday I took part in a focus group regarding some ideas for an improved product. It amazes me that with all the money, all the time, and all the research that’s put into developing ideas and following up with advertising that the ads are so incredibly poor. And the ideas sound all the same as other ideas I’ve heard before.

There are popular catch words these days – green – everything’s green... “Helping to build a better world...” “Caring about the world...” “Keeping the world green,” etc. etc. etc. Everybody wants to be green these days. Everybody wants to be perceived as caring about the environment.

Or products are “Natural” – “Whole Wheat” – maybe even “Whole Grain.” Or it’s healthy... “Probiotic” or filled with “Antioxidents” or “lowers cholesterol.” And there’s always some sort of study to back it up. They’ll even make up names for the junk they are trying to highlight – Bifidus Regularis – What the heck is THAT – regularis? (And, no, the focus group wasn’t about yogurt – I’m sworn to secrecy on the subject.)

Can’t something healthy and (ugh) green also be fun and interesting???? Can’t we find something different in the ads. They’re either formulaic or filled with these catch words. And the new, improved ideas are not new or even improved – they’re all just new takes on the same old stuff.

“How do you feel about the product now that you know they care about the world? Are you much more interested in purchasing? Somewhat more interested in purchasing? Neither more nor less interested in purchasing? Somewhat less interested in purchasing? Or much less interested in purchasing? Press the corresponding number on your handset.” First off, I don’t believe they really care about the world – ad campaigns, greedy CEOs and a long life have made me very skeptical of advertising claims. Secondly, even if they DO care about the world, that doesn’t make for an exciting ad (or even an ad that would make me buy the product).

These days ads have to be snappy right off the bat in order to keep people from fast forwarding the commercial. They have to give the important information up front too or say something that makes you want to hang around to hear the info. Yes, the info is what sells the product - that’s what lets us know why we should buy it instead of go without or take another brand, but you gotta get people to HEAR it first. If we’re just hearing the same old stuff, we’ll tune it out.

There ARE products with interesting stuff to explain - things that MAY be a little different. In our short-attention-span-world, we need it explained quickly, excitingly and clearly. These expensive focus groups don’t seem to be helping the advertising world understand that.

Even the focus group was boring. We just answered questions and pressed our little keypads in a small stuffy classroom filled with over sixty people. I earned my focus group $$!!!

Snickers (yum) Commercials as good as the bar

The Mars company has made a brilliant choice in the ad agency it has used through the years to promote Snickers. If you take a gander through YouTube at past Snickers commercials, you’ll see an array of fun that will keep you entertained for quite some time. Their most recent campaign is no different.

First we had the terrific sports ads with Betty White and Abe Vigoda being tumbled around in the mud. Those were unique and well chuckled about at water coolers all over the U.S.A. Now we have the most recent diva commercials with Aretha Franklin and Liza Minnelli. I love how these guys can STILL surprise you even though they’ve delivered the same punchline so many times before!

I just don’t get sick of these commercials. One reason is because they don’t overplay them. That is a very big key to their success. I almost look forward to seeing them because they’re not on every night or on every show I watch.

Another reason they stay fresh is because they have several different commercials in rotation so you don’t keep seeing the same ones over and over again. And they are absolutely not formulaic – no stupid guy/superwoman to tell us how healthy the food is, no little kids looking cute with a wise mom in the background, no sexy models making love to the candy bar, the camera, or you. These commercials are amusing and creative!

And it doesn’t hurt that Snickers is actually a pretty darn good candy bar. If you’re going to use up a bunch of discretionary calories, that’s not a bad choice to use them on.

Old Spice vs. Mr. Mac

There is a sudden popularity to this ad campaign that I just don't understand! Sure it was funny the first few times I saw it, but even with the variations it got boring after a short time. I admit it was clever but it was repetitive. Or maybe it's just that I didn't find him all that "hot."

Now, being a 57 year old woman, I don't have the same hormones as my 20-30 year old counterparts, it takes a little more to get past my lack of surface hormones, but Isaiah just didn't do it for me. I got a few chuckles out of the first couple of commercials, but I never considered him the epitome of men, so the joke got old pretty quickly.

On the other hand, now... I found Mr. Mac to be incredibly cute and never seemed to tire of the Mac vs. PC commercials. Justin Long was absolutely adorable as the Mac (yes, young enough to practically be my grandson, but whatever). I guess I like the more cerebral types. No matter the case... I just enjoyed this whole series of commercials much more and seemed to tolerate them for a longer time than most ad campaigns. I have a feeling a lot of that was due to the appeal of Justin Long (who I enjoyed a little less in some of his film roles but still enjoyed nevertheless). This series of commercials was fun and, unfortunately, way too true! Still, I type away on my PC (sorry Mac). One tends to stick with what they know.

Insurance

Oh my!!! Heaven knows I NEED insurance, but from whom shall I purchase???? I love little lizards but I just can't stand those stupid Geiko commercials anymore. At first (for about two or three weeks) I thought they were cute. Now I've really had it. It's not so much the gecko that annoys me, it's the humans... and the scripts for the stupid commercials. If it was just the lizard I think I could take seeing these things over and over again, but as they stand, I can't hit fast forward fast enough. Actually, I have a button that jumps past them all together and I use that one anytime the gecko appears.

Worse even than the gecko is the "watching you" ad campaign more recently
engaged by this company that wastes far too much money on advertising. Long ago I thought that was a pretty good song, now I feel my irritation level rise whenever I hear it -- Sold out silver (not even gold)... and sold out for this absurd, chalk on a blackboard, worthy of ridicule (yes, ridiculous) -- or, actually -- ignorant (worthy of being ignored) advertisement. Do you get the feeling I don't like it?

All is not lost, however. I am almost embarrassed to admit my soft spot for the caveman. Except when enormously over-played, I can't help but slow down the DVR and watch the caveman commercials. I can see these a half-dozen times before I finally get sick of them and maybe will even watch them again if I haven't seen them for awhile. There's something about that one particular guy (the one pictured left) that just gets me.

Yeah, I know he had his own show. I don't think I ever even saw it. And I know his show was supposed to be really bad. But the commercials are great. It's silly because you know what's coming, but somehow it never ceases to give me a chuckle. I especially like the one where he takes the gorgeous blond out to the beach and they're having a great time then the plane flies over with the, "so easy a caveman can do it," banner and he says, "I'll be waiting in the car." I love that one!

Okay Geico... one out of three is not a good score!!
_______________________________________________________________

Then we have Allstate... No fair... you're using the President to sell your insurance!! Who wouldn't believe President Palmer (from 24, for those of you who think I'm out of my mind) when he suggests that we're in good hands! This is the man that paved the way for Barack Obama, people!!! The only problem with these commercials is that they're pretty dull. After the first few, when we kept joking with each other that it was President Palmer, there was no hesitation about hitting the fast forward button. When watching "live" however, I did pause for a moment when he discussed getting back part of your premium if you didn't have an accident, until I realized that probably just meant they charged more up front. President Palmer is a pretty convincing guy. I wonder, though, if they're going to hire Cherry Jones as their next spokesperson... probably not... President Taylor did not turn out to be a strong role model like President Palmer (24 again). She's not setting up Hilary too well, but maybe a little bit.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now here's a spokesperson that would annoy any sane person, right? The enthusiastic and perky Flo from Progressive. Somehow, though, I just love this girl... and it's not only me... I went to Florida to visit my mom and when we were watching TV, my mom tells me she loves Flo too!! Pretty soon I see Flo in a movie with Ben Stiller... The Heartbreak Kid... So I IMDB'd her. Turns out the woman is 40 years old!!! I would have never believed she was a day over 32! Anyway, there is something very engaging about her... not so engaging that I'll slow down the DVR, but so engaging that I don't resent having to watch her live. What is it about dear Flo?? Well... she seems so sincere. She loves her job. She loves Progressive. She seems like a real person who goes home and feeds her cat at night and invites her girlfriends over to watch TV and eat popcorn and who would be really fun to go to an amusement park with. She doesn't seem particularly smart, but she seems very warm-hearted. It's crazy... you watch these commercials and you get this whole sense of her being a REAL person and that makes Progressive seem "real." Like there is really a Progressive store where you could go and find Flo and actually pick your insurance off the shelves if you only lived in the right city. And I guess that's what they were after AND IT WORKS... I almost considered calling - until I realized that it was the advertisers working their magic again. I am soooo susceptible!!
-------------------------------------------
And, finally, it's not insurance but, by golly, you gotta have it because what if, God forbid, you should suddenly have a seizure and your four year old boy is sitting in the back seat. Or what if you're lost in some very bad neighborhood or your car gives out on you on the same highway that houses the Texas chainsaw guy... What if your car rolls and you can't reach your cellphone... crap, I can think of a million reasons you NEED this service!!!! It's ONSTAR and the people at the OnStar command center (pictured - and that's REALLY it -- I know, because I got the picture from the Internet!) are waiting 24-7 to come to your aid just when you need it the most! I don't know which are scarier, their TV commercials or their radio ads. I think maybe their radio ads are the scariest because you can't even see them! You just hear the poor schmuck who's in trouble and who would be SOL if he/she didn't have OnStar to turn to and because YOU don't have OnStar you know what's going to happen to you when you are in the same dire circumstances. Or, worse, what's going to happen to your poor child as he struggles to deal with the situation while you are unconscious. Oh, and by the way, OnStar comes free for one-year when you buy a General Motors car. Guess what kind of car I'm thinking about buying in the near future?

Movie Trailers

I'll often stop fast-forwarding the DVR to watch an interesting movie trailer (which includes almost every trailer since I love movies even more than I love TV). The problem with movie trailers comes when they play the same ones over and over and over again. No matter how wonderful, exciting and creative the trailer is, once you've seen it a dozen times, you're sick of it.

Inception looked like a really interesting movie the first time I saw the trailer. "Wow! What was that?" I made my husband rewind to watch the buildings falling down and the spectacular special effects. "And, look, Ellen Page is in it too!" (She's been one of our favorites ever since Hard Candy - waaaay before Juno.) "We've gotta see THIS movie!" And we made a date.

Weeks later, however, after we had seen this same trailer about twenty times -- even in fast forward, we had had ENOUGH of Inception -- so much that we weren't quite so eager to see the movie after all. It had become old news now. We had seen the buildings collapse a bunch of times. Yeah, Leonardo - cool. Yeah, Ellen Page - cool. Big deal.

"Wanna go see Inception tonight? It's playing on IMAX?"

"Sure, that sounds pretty good."

"Okay."

"I'm gonna take a nap first."

"Okay."

Needless to say... we never got to Inception. After you've seen a trailer THAT many times, it's just not compelling any more.

Arrg... that annoying "ACK" Donalds Ad Campaign

Ugh... is anybody besides me completely annoyed by the - drop the M - ad campaign that McDonalds has running right now?! I'm so sure. It makes me want to get out a gun and shoot the TV and not too many commercials really annoy me THAT badly. Every time one of those come on, I renew my vow to NEVER eat at McDonalds. Already, thanks to Morgan Spurlock, I steer pretty clear of Mickey D's. But, now and then I might slip in for an ice cream. Plus they seem to be struggling to put some healthy stuff on the menu lately.

But then they come up with the most irritating ad campaign in the last decade making me think I'd rather do without my vanilla soft serve than encourage this brand of commercial!!!

Ronald - you need to FIRE your ad agency... take whoever thought that one up and hang 'em out by their fingernails. Each new commercial - be it on TV or radio - seems to be more annoying than the next (except for the weather girl one which outdoes all of them for annoyance).

Those have GOT to go!

----------------------------------------------------------------

Found a great link that oddly discusses this whole thing -- a group of people just as annoyed as I am with this whole thing: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=12731986

AT&T iPhone Commercial

There are some new commercials out for the iPhone4 - several new ones I've seen so far. One of them shows a young African American man introducing his new baby daughter to the baby's grandfather. It highlights the beauty of the iPhone4's phone to phone camera capability called "Face to Face." You can see the light in the grandpa's eyes as well as see the small picture of the baby. The commercial is so touching it almost makes you forget that both people need the iPhone4 in order to make this situation work and just how many grandpas really have an iPhone4 or even want one.

There's also a commercial where a dad is trying to get his adorable teenage daughter to smile. Turns out she's just gotten braces. It's another winner. (Must be a family from an affluent neighborhood - they both have iPhone4s AND she has a full mouth of metal.)

There's one about a haircut, but I think I've only seen that once and it didn't stick with me.

The one that REALLY gets me though is the one where a young wife is calling her husband to tell him, "that thing we've been working on..." has worked. (She's pregnant.) The young actress in this part is so beautiful, so convincing, so radiant... she steals the show. Again, you forget that AT&T is the all-time champion of dropped calls, dead air, and terrible connections... all you think about is the terrific benefits of the face to face connection.

So, the commercials are pretty heart-warming but the AT&T and the iPhone4 are not exactly the top of the line service. Rumor has it that the iPhone4 has been built with the antenna improperly installed into the casing so that, as the customer holds it, the connection drops. (A special case has been built to resolve that problem apparently.) And if you go into twitter or into the bulletin boards at almost any time, you can find numerous AT&T complaints.

Nevertheless... guess who just ordered an iPhone4 3 days ago...

oh well... commercials work :-)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you'd like to read more about the iPhone issue with the antenna: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20010305-71.html

If you'd like to see these little works of art called commercials: http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/11/apple-facetime-iphone-4-commercials/ That link also has some great commentary!