I despise any movies that are tied in with current blockbuster movies being released. Particularly when beloved characters shill for car companies or fast food chains.
There were some particularly jarring tie-in commercials for “Solo”, including one where they fade from a scene in the movie to another scene where some kind of Imperial or Rebel somebodies are doing something on big screens (which turns out to, I dunno, protecting your privacy using VPNs or something)? So even if I’d bothered to see the movie, I don’t know how I’d avoid being yanked out of the immersion once the scene with Solo came on.
More offensive are the tie-ins for the upcoming “Incredibles II” movie. The Incredibles might not only have been the best animated superhero movie ever, it might actually have been the best superhero movie. It’s a beloved franchise and it’s taken them something like a decade to come up with a sequel because they wanted to do it right and not spoil the magic. Which doesn’t explain why Edna Mode is shilling a mini-vanto the Incredibles family on my TV.
**OK, I have to chime in here. And I’m going to use my angry red text because that’s how pissed off I am about this.
I’m an avid watcher of Jeopardy, and I usually watch it while eating dinner. I don’t understand why they have commercials for medications that you have to “ask your doctor about.” If they’re going to advertise something, it should be something that you yourself can actually buy. I’m not going to fucking “ask my doctor” about a medication, I’m going to ask HIM what medication HE thinks I should use.
But there’s more. These commercials often list horrific litanies of disgusting side effects that I do not want to fucking hear about while I’m eating/smoking weed/trying to relax at the end of my day. I don’t want to hear about cancer, tumors, colons, diarrhea, dementia, and death. It’s particularly galling because, as I said before, these are essentially commercials that don’t NEED to exist. The doctor has discretion over what medications to prescribe to patients, so these commercials don’t need to be shown to the general public. And I’m fucking sick of hearing about these dire physical and mental ailments over and over and over again to remind me of all the things that could potentially go wrong with my body and mind and lead to horrific consequences and suffering. I DON’T WANT TO THINK ABOUT THAT SHIT SO STOP MAKING ME LISTEN TO IT.
I usually record Jeopardy an hour prior to watching so that I can fast-forward through the commercials. But I still inevitably have to SEE the words “DEMENTIA” and “PARKINSON’S” and “CANCER” scrawled across my screen in giant letters.
They really need to take a different approach to those ads: “You’ll probably contract terminal cancer, or, best case scenario, a case of epic trots from this medication… But your skin will look *great *!”
I don’t have much sympathy for the guy in the Nicorette commercial who says that he missed seeing his son’s game-winning shot because he had to duck out to have a smoke. It wouldn’t have taken that much effort to, you know, schedule his breaks so he wouldn’t be outside at the end of the game. But, you know, this scenario would work for a commercial about a fictional drug that enhances time management.
That Lowe’s commercial where the guy realized he needs to update his backyard for bbqs because that asshole guy is sitting on the cooler and acts annoyed when someone wants a beer out of it (I assume it’s a beer. That’s what I always want out of the cooler). He actually angers me. Get the fuck up, King of the Universe!
Another thing-- I must have the viewing habits of a Republican senior citizen because I see a lot of advertisements I’m sure are aimed at them. Take Tac Glasses. This commercial was made for easily impressed eagle lovers who dream of defending their country. How else can you explain the sunglasses selling point that “regular sunglasses just make things dark, which can be dangerous in tactical situations.” WTF tactical situations does that pitchman thinks people watching the Science Channel at 2 am will find themselves in? One that involves an eagle on a piece of paper, apparently. I wonder what all those people amazed by the bird revealed by putting on the glasses think of the colorblind tests they see on the internet?
Then there’s the stuff that’ll increase old men’s manliness. “Clinically tested to improve stamina!” and “As a doctor, these pills really work!” What do these two sentences even mean?
It takes talent to pack so much wrongness into one short post. MSG is a recognized cause of migraines: Here’s what the Mayo Clinic says. You have assumed that because it is okay for most people to eat MSG, it doesn’t cause problems for anyone. That’s pretty bad logic, dude. There are other foods that are migraine triggers, so it’s not a really odd or unusual thing. If you test normal people for MSG sensitivity, you’re probably not going to find it. If you tested me and other people who think they might have a problem with MSG, I’m betting you’d get very different results. I could prove that it’s MSG by eating a big spoonful of Accent, but migraines suck, so I won’t do that. Strangely enough, when I don’t eat food that has MSG, I don’t get migraines, so go figure. So in spite of your half-assed Google search, I’ll continue to believe that my migraines are caused by MSG.
Interesting meta-study but:
*Of five papers including six studies with food, none showed a significant difference in the incidence of headache except for the female group in one study.
*
Of five papers including seven studies without food, four studies showed a significant difference. Many of the studies involved administration of MSG in solution at high concentrations (>2 %). Since the distinctive MSG is readily identified at such concentrations, these studies were thought not to be properly blinded. Because of the absence of proper blinding, and the inconsistency of the findings, we conclude that further studies are required to evaluate whet**her or not a causal relationship exists between MSG ingestion and headache.*
So, yes, if you think MSG will give you a headache and you can taste the MSG, it will.
Do you understand the difference between migraines and headaches? Do you understand what a migraine trigger is? A migraine trigger won’t cause problems with most people, but it will cause migraines in sensitive people. Other migraine triggers are chocolate, wine, cheese. Are you going to tell people who get migraines from those that it’s all in their heads?
The Plexaderm eyebag reducing commercial, where ordinary folk get some stuff rubbed on the black circles under their eyes. A few minutes later, the huge saggy eyebags turn into just biggish saggy eyebags. They show the before and the after pictures, and (though I myself could probably use this stuff) I really don’t think the ‘improvement’ is worth it. It’s not like somebody is going to think, ‘say, those eyebags on Guido look a lot smaller! Roooowrrrr!’
I’m fairly certain my $175 Ray-Ban Aviators are a tad better than Tac Eagle-Lovers (LOVE this term, thanks!)
I saw them for sale at Home Depot yesterday for $9.99 and snuck a little twist of a pair As Shown on TV. Their commercial is a genius mashup of every wanna-be-military-Special-Forces-dweeb’s wet dream and I find it strangely intriguing.
And not for the first time: We may be the same person. I recorded the Lowe’s cooler ad so I could figure out what was going on. What a heartbreaking situation!
I’ve an unerringly accurate “Migraine on the Way” warning system. If I eat MSG-rich food, cheese, bacon, or drink wine when I get this internal alert, the incoming headache will be much worse (and if I eat stuff like this during a headache I hurl and the migraine is of longer duration).
If I’ve no migraine on the horizon eating these foods is no problem.
Dr. Deth: of curiosity, do you have migraines? Many of us sufferers have a preternatural and almost spooky knowledge of when a migraine is on the way, how bad it will be, and what food/activities will make it worse.
However, for example, many people think Chinese food is heavy on the MSG, and eating it triggers a migraine. No doubt it does, but chinese food does not commonly have MSG in it.
Here’s a study:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1745-7599.2006.00160.x
*Conclusions: MSG has a widespread reputation for eliciting a variety of symptoms, ranging from headache to dry mouth to flushing. Since the first report of the so‐called Chinese restaurant syndrome 40 years ago, clinical trials have failed to identify a consistent relationship between the consumption of MSG and the constellation of symptoms that comprise the syndrome. Furthermore, MSG has been described as a trigger for asthma and migraine headache exacerbations, but there are no consistent data to support this relationship. Although there have been reports of an MSG‐sensitive subset of the population, this has not been demonstrated in placebo‐controlled trials.
Implications for practice: Despite a widespread belief that MSG can elicit a headache, among other symptoms, there are no consistent clinical data to support this claim. Findings from the literature indicate that there is no consistent evidence to suggest that individuals may be uniquely sensitive to MSG. Nurse practitioners should therefore concentrate their efforts on advising patients of the nutritional pitfalls of some Chinese restaurant meals and to seek more consistently documented etiologies for symptoms such as headache, xerostomia, or flushing.*
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1526-4610.1994.hed3404214.x
*The predominance of certain triggers for migraine was assessed in 494 migraine patients. Stress (62%) was the most frequently cited precipitant. Weather changes (43%), missing a meal (40%), and bright sunlight (38%) were also prominent factors. Sexual activity (5%) was the precipitant cited by the least number of patients. Significant differences were found between men and women in their responses to weather changes, perfumes, cigarette smoke, missing a meal, and sexual activity.
Spring was cited by 14% of patients as a time for increased migraine attacks, followed by fall (13%), summer (11%), and winter (7%).*
I have no doubt you can tell is a migraine is coming on. However, the double blind studies suggest that it may be Chinese food (or other things) that is the trigger, not MSG in the food. In fact migraine sufferers have reported getting the headache after consuming food with no MSG.
Besides the excellent, versatile tint, my RB sunglasses comfortably fit my wide snout bridge and last a long time. I got my current pair in 2011, and they were replacements for a pair I had for 10 years and lost at DisneyWorld. My prescription Ray-Bans are also very hardy and comfortable.
I’ve never had cheapie sunglasses last much more than a year: they fall apart, get bent and scratched, flake, etc. There are two goods I always outlay for at the top of my budget: dress shoes and glasses. IMHO, the cost and durability are in synch (I have a pair of Italian loafers I bought in 1994 – with a little polish they look and feel new).