Can anyone explain this ad to me?
WARNING: Ad starts to play immediately, with sound
I don’t understand. Why is the guy in a gorilla suit? What does “It’s not that kind of tent” mean?
I thought at first it was some kind of circus tent thing, but there aren’t gorillas or monkeys at the circus.
Wha??? Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue!
I’ve been wondering that too.
I don’t get it, either.
So, my first resort when I fail to grasp something Pop Culture is to summon my very own captive teenager and ask her to interpret. She graciously paused Scrubs to come over and watch it.
Her input: “Ummm…”
So I feel better.
She did point out that maybe the tie-in is that gorillas live in the forest, and that’s a little camping-in-the-forest scene, but she added, “I dunno why they didn’t get a bear or something. Maybe the ad agency guys thought gorillas and monkeys are funnier than bears?”
I think it is making fun of those sales where a car dealership dresses a guy up in a gorilla suit to attract people onto the lot for the big sale. These big sales usually involved a tent.
Ringling Bros. had Gargantua the Great.
It’s before my time, but I understand that back in the day it was a big event when ‘the circus comes to town’. So having a big car sale with a circus tent is a Big Event. Also, a salesman might be considered sort of a circus barker. (Or a clown. 
)
So the hapless guy in the gorilla suit heard they’re having a ‘tent event’ and assumes it’s a circus-style tent event. Only Suburus are supposed to appeal to tree-huggin’ hippies, who would probably find the subjugation of animals appalling. So their idea of a tent event is one that you can put on your rucksack and sleep in it while you’re out communing with nature.
You learn something new every day- I’ve never heard of car dealerships dressing someone up as a gorilla. Huh.
Can anyone explain the Progressive ad (5th one down, called “checkout”) where the guy is buying their “products” in a store? I don’t understand why after he says “Wow” she says “Wow! I know. I say it louder.” WTF is the point of her response? Besides making her seem like an annoying twit, that is.
I saw this ad 2 weeks ago. (The one in the OP.)
I was unbelievably high at the time.
I came to the conclusion that the ad was designed to appeal to people who were high. I really do think that a lot of advertising agencies have caught on to the fact that a huge proportion of people watching TV at any given moment are high, and they deliberately make ads that are bizarre and surreal for the sake of capturing the attention of stoned viewers. I’m serious about this theory, by the way - it’s nothing new. In The Conquest Of Cool, the author mentions that corporate ad-men during the 70s were encouraged to take LSD in order to come up with new ideas for ads and figure out ways to associate inanimate products with strong emotions.
I thought this during the whole Burger King ad blitz with that bizarre King character that pops up everywhere, also.
Which prompts the question, “What kind of tent is it, then?” Why is a camping tent associated with a car sale?
Well, the commercial ends with a stylized view of a small dome tent and (if I recall) the words “Subaru’s Small Tent Sale”. So I guess they’re trying to express that their sale is low-key and unthreatening, without high-pressure fast-talking sales tactics being pushed on you in a big tent by men in gorilla suits. Or something.
I think you’re close, but I don’t think it has anything to do with animals. Notice how the actual footage of the car in the ad shows it out on rugged dirt roads, and one car even had camping gear lashed to the roof. I think they’re appealing to the outdoorsy type who is probably looking for a wagon to go camping with. So a Subaru tent event is an outdoorsy type tent event, not the usual car salesman tent shit.
This is the one and only time I’ve ever seen the ad, so it’s just my guess, anyway.
I hope you’ll excuse the side-step, but what is the point of the car ad (I think it’s Honda) that has the man standing there at signing holding a running chain saw??
I get the others in that series, actually enjoy the one where the man is using the remote to goof on the other couple interested in the car he just bought, but…chain saw??
To me she seems like an annoying twit from the very beginning of the commercial. What’s with the startled/amazed look on her face when the customer tells her that he saved $350, followed by the frantic grab for the microphone to announce to the whole store, “We have a savings of $350! A savings of $350!” as if this was a momentous occasion?
Inside the dealership there area couple of deer and an elk standing by the little tent. But yes, they’re appealing to outdoorsy people (with their Outback), and the guy in the gorilla suit made the wrong assumption.