OK, there seems to be a trend where the “protagonist”, if you will, in the commercial is a complete douche. The most blatant example of this is the ads for Sprint Mobile, the football trainer and the Christmas neighbor. Both of these commercials feature guys using and extolling the virtues of their cell phone plans to be complete passive-aggressive assholes. Sprint, the phone for your inner asshat.
Then there is the commercial with women waitresses being jerks to their customers, “stop being a mama’s boy”, “If you weren’t wearing sunglasses inside…” etc. Of course these commercials also feature the commercial staple of unbelievably stupid male…“Would you like one with less taste or more”, “Less”…really?
There was another one that I cannot remember that featured a total asshole as “protagonist”, but unfortunately I can’t remember it.
Anyway, just venting, probably should be in the Pit.
I thought the first one they showed was fairly amusing, but I can’t remember what happened in it in particular. I think we’re getting diminished returns with theses ads – moderately amusing premise with less and less funny payoffs available.
Yeah, I’m surprised they still run that Sprint ad with the football doctor. He is a grade A asshole. And what’s with that ATT ad with the guy watching a video on his phone while driving? Cell phone company ads have the worst protagonists.
And then there’s the asshole kid whose mother, thank GAWD, has the cool minivan, not the dreadful social suicide cars of some of his less fortunate classmates.
There’s the car commercial with the guy who smashes out the window of the donut shop and then drives like an asshole so he can get the donuts to the staff meeting on time.
“This tiny, boxy car is faster than it looks, so you too can be a dangerous menace on the roads!”*
*Professional driver on closed course. Do not attempt.
There’s the “need a moment” commercial from Twix where the protagonist lies to his girlfriend about his infidelity when she catches him with an incriminating text message.
You know, I never took that commercial as him lying. I took it as him going “Holy crap, there’s a girl named Terri texting me. Oh right, that’s my boss.” The girlfriends reaction sounds like she knows Terri too.
There’s a local commercial for a family restaurant in which the douchebag guy tells his slightly overweight friend that there’s a breakfast plate from the restaurant for him if he gets to the top of the hill first. The chubby guy motivates himself with visions of said breakfast, and gets to the top only to find himself alone. Meanwhile, douchebag has ditched him and is at the restaurant eating breakfast with another friend, saying “He falls for it every time.” :mad:
I don’t get it either. Continental Airlines has one where their service is so good, you’ll expect more from everything else - and there’s Mr. Douchebag, telling a kid at a lemonade stand that he’d like a nice Bordeaux.
I try to engage my kids in the message of marketing - so we watch ads and say “okay, sex sells” or “okay, this is a typical $19.95 kid’s product that can’t really do those things as advertised unless you are Picasso” - and then we come to this Douchebag category. Now what?
…so when we see the Sprint Mobile ads or this Continental ad, we say “you must really be a weenie if you use our product”
