We all have 'em. Commercials where we just don’t understand exactly what the hell the company is trying to convey. Not always a BAD commercial. Just one where you kinda go “what?” afterwards.
My current one is by Nike (one of the undisputed KINGS of “huh?” commercials). It’s the one where they show current athletes doing other sports. For instance, Lance Armstrong as a pro boxer, Randy Johnson as a pro bowler, and so forth.
I just don’t GET what Nike’s trying to say.
“You can do anything you put your mind to.”
At least that’s what I think they’re saying. They couldn’t just show Joe Shmoe boxing or doing gymnastics or whatever because for all we know, strangers may be able to do that. But athletes known for pitching, cycling, tennis probably aren’t masters of bowling, boxing, beach volleyball but they tried it and they can do it (thanks to Nike of course.)
Any commercials that deal with envy or “keeping up with the Jones”. I couldn’t care less.
It doesn’t matter whether you “get” the commercial or not. It matters that you remember it. Thus, Nike’s ad works perfectly.
The purpose of many ads is not to make you run out and buy the product. They want to make sure you remember their name.
It seems to me that the point of a lot of Nike commercials is to get you feeling emotion about sports in general. You associate positive feelings with sport, and therefore with Nike. Nike = spots = cool.
For whatever reason, that commercial fills me with a kind of, almost, wonder. It seems that a lot of their flagship brand commercials have been up to for the last decade or so.
I remember the NIke ad from a few years ago that I kept missing the end of. Just showed this guy running like crazy through the city, and people scattering as he ran by them.
It was a good 10 times before I saw the ending - it made MUCH more sense after that.
<How cool would a citywide game of tag be??>
I don’t get that one Nike commerical with Lebron James and Bernie Mac. The one where Bernie Mac is a preacher or something and Lebron comes in and I don’t know what the hell is going on.
Aha. I was wondering about that commercial too. Andre Agassi is the only player on the commercial that I recognize (I hate sports) and I’ve been trying ever since I first saw the commercial to figure out when the hell he became a baseball player.
Thanks for clearing that up.
It’s a print ad…
It is for a perscription drug. It is an image of a woman wearing jeans and holding up her shirt so her stomach is visible. The image is cropped sothat only her torso can be seen. The name of the drug is superimposed over the woman’s stomach, and there is additional text : “Maybe your body is trying to tell you something.” I have no idea what the drug does or what the woman’s stomach has to do with it. I guessed it might be a diet drug, but the phrase doesn’t seem really appropriate. Furthermore, the woman’s torso looked pretty unexpressive.
The name of the drug had a Z. It was something like zolchaub, I think.
There’s a med out there for Irritable Bowel Syndrome - can’t remember the name at the moment, but I do think it starts with a Z, and while I haven’t seen a print ad, their tv ads involved words written on women’s stomachs.
Not long ago, a lot of people here were complaining about that new “gross and disgusting” commercial for Quizno’s. I’ve never seen that commercial, however, so I suppose it’s literally one that I just don’t get. 
Ah yes, I remember that stupid “IBS With Constipation” ad. I was always wondering what the hell “IBS” is and how S.O.L. you would be if you had IBS without constipation…
Jeans + Buffalo = tear
Zelnorm is the medicine. They use women in the ads because for some reason even though IBS is not a female-only problem Zelnorm is for women only. And the only reason I remember the ads is because…well, let’s just say I appreciate the view.
The ad I don’t get is the Burger King (?) ads where someone is distributing the lunch orders and the one guy who ordered the triple-bacon burger with extra meat (or whatever it was) starts acting like he’s some sort of god because of what he ordered. Or for that matter the other one where he gets all bent out of shape because someone else “copied” his order.
My father explained it to me because I was equally confused.
With the retiring of Michael Jordan, basketball is looking for another hero. Here comes Lebron, an 18-year-old phenom.
The commercial underscores the reality that basketball is worshipped as a religion. The fervor of basketball fans is very much like what you see in church. Basketball heros aren’t simply “heros”. They are treated damn near like Jesus Christ. Instead of walking on water, they fly.
My father doesn’t like the commercial. First off, it mocks black church…something done way to frequently. The idea that ignorant people could look at that commercial and believe black people worship basketball players sets him on edge. Also, Bernie Mack mumbles his lines. It’s probably intentional, but again…it mocks the art of a particular style of preaching. My father loves to laugh, but he don’t take no truck with that kind of stuff. And he’s a fan of Lebron James.
I remember someone saying that commercial was a clue for a contest the company was running. Although they kept rerunning it after the contest had already been won. They must have kept pretty low key about the contest because I never heard about it.
I’ll never get the “It’s just a little pot” commercials.
Are there actually teens out there, right now, puffing the magic dragon, that think if they get caught “It’s just a little pot” will be a good enough answer to their parents?
Or on the flipside, is this commercial telling parents “Be strong, don’t listen to your kids when they say it’s just a little pot. You’re in charge. You’re special and doggone it, people like you.” Are parents that pussified today?
OTOH, I love the one in this series where the nerdy guy says to the boss “We got the same thing” twice like that’s a big deal and the boss totally ignores him. The tagline is beautiful: A coworker looks into the BK bag and tells the nerdy guy (paraphrased) “There are a couple of buns in here. Do you want to kiss them?”
Beautiful!
I remember when I was young, I never got a bunch of commericals which seemed to be nothing but women staring in the distance from prime locations (cruise ship, hill, etc), sometimes waving something like a tissue, but always with a glazed over happy look on her face.
When I asked an adult what they meant, all the adults fudged me off with vague answers. Not exactly the answer a noisy 10 year old wanted to know.
Only years later did I realise those commericals I was watching and asking all the questions about where actually tampon commericals…
Admittedly I still don’t get the commercials (heck I really don’t get most of the tampon commericals anyway, but at least some answers were… well answered.)
The ad was based entirely on Joel Vietch’s very odd videos. In fact, that ad, minus the Quizno’s stuff, is located here. I don’t get why Quizno’s would choose that video, out of all the stuff Joel’s done. It’s among his most visually disturbing characters.
I prefer Joel’s “kitten” animations, found on the left of his front page, here. Note that lots of his stuff is possibly NSFW.
There are definitely people - and not just teens - that think the fact that it is “just a little pot” makes its effects (immediate, short term and long term) negligible. After “just a little”, surely it won’t affect their ability to drive. If it’s “just a little” it can’t possibly have an effect on their thinking/reasoning skills. If it’s “just a little”, surely it won’t ever haunt them 20 years down the road when they’re trying to get political office. It’s not that the excuse is given to others - but to themselves.