That’s very clever and I’d do all I could to nurture the young man’s dry wit.
Personally, I figure all marketing is bunk; marketing involving children triply so. This ad is akin to a pet food commercial showing an eager and happy dog, in that it’s not a dog who’s going to watch this ad and start pestering his owner to buy the product, but rather the owner who will buy in the hope of making the dog happy, and the dog really doesn’t much care one way or the other.
Just returned from a short camping trip with the 13 yo boy (and his 10yo sister). We got it all - “I didn’t want to come camping”; “why don’t you have signal on your black berry”; “my sister is stupid to be having fun etc”;
We ignore up to the point that it is hurtful and rude (to anyone sibs or parents) and we expose them to the experience - they are gaining from the experience. In the end he boggy boarded white water rapids, he hiked along that river and climbed huge boulders (and Dad only said - the rocks will be slippery because its pouring down rain - to which I received the eye rolling - no duh expression) and he carved sticks large and small with his new knife. He made art, he made a torch using pine cones that he lashed with fine shavings from a sapling, he built fires, set up his own tent…and helped his sister get out to the best rapids and show her how to paddle the board upstream and then turn it into the current. Did he have fun…no…will he take away memories and do some of these things with his kids - probably.
Teenagers are mopey, grumpy…its normal…as a parent I know that he should be doing these things - all systems are a go for the next stage in life…that’s right when he borrows my razor, shaving cream and car keys…
I agree with some of the previous posters it captures the young teenager very well…
It looks to me like she is doing her best not to smile at first, but has gotten over it by the time she gets to the dolphins and the pineapples.
As a parent, I think it is my God given duty to embarrass my 13 year old son to the maximum possible degree (not in front of his friends, just to him). The other month I was cuddling with my wife on the couch watching TV. He was sitting on the other couch and he made a couple of semi-snide comments about it, to which I replied “Well, after you go to sleep, I’m going to put my penis in YOUR MOTHER’S vagina and have SEX with her”.
The snide comments stopped. 
And who doesn’t smile at dolphins and pineapples? 
Yeah, what she said. I also got the sense that it wasn’t that she didn’t want to be here/was being dragged from “social events,” but rather that she didn’t want to admit to her parents that they could be cool/do cool things, but in spite of all that, she can’t really help smiling at that one point.
So, spend five or six grand to get a reluctant smile. Yeah, that sounds logical.
People who were molested with pineapples by dolphins?
Of course they know what the song is about. They just expect (quite rightfully) that most people won’t, or at least won’t remember. If it’s got a propulsive beat and a catchy lyrice, that’s all they need…
I dunno, pineapple and dolphin? I mean, pineapple on ham, yes! But dolphin? Wasabi would be better…
A favorite of commercials that want to send of message that says “extreme”, along with Song 2 (Woo hoo!) by Blur.
Your first thought was correct…the voiceover is the mom’s attempt to pretend to be a documentary/travel show and be funny, teasing the daughter about the fact that she’s been a moody teen for so long now they can barely (ha, ha) remember ever having seen her smile (“we’ve heard that it still exists”). When spying on her flirting with a boy, they see the smile, but when she realizes they’ve seen her…sullen again (and rude to zoom off on the jetski in the middle of talking to the boy). So it’s not some serious neurological thing that can be cured by a cruise…just the typical teen girl.
heh. I’ve told my wife that I’ll use embarrassment, or at least the threat thereof, as a discipline tool if our girls get uppity when they’re teens. Along the lines of, “Shape up, or I’ll drive you to school tomorrow wearing tweed shorts, long black socks, a white tanktop, and the ugliest green hat with earflaps that I can find. And when I drop you off right in front of the school, I’m gonna get out of the car, wave goodbye, and say in a loud clear voice, ‘GOODBYE, SWEETHEART, I LOVE YOU!’.” That’ll fix their little red wagon.
Ouch. Good plan.
I’ve been known to hug my kid’s *friends *in public. Only when they’re being utter twits, of course. My kid thinks it’s hilarious, and has thusfar been spared himself. 
Spend five or six grand to get a family vacation - even with a surly teenager. Depends on how you value vacations.
Family vacations are not necessarily about making each member of the family estatic - and it MAY be more painful for Mom to leave a cranky teenager behind than to put up with one - particularly if cranky is more of an act than an actual personality defect (its a common act in kids with their parents, I think its a much less common defect). And sometimes, its about teaching your kids that they have a responsibility to put up with their family (provided Mom and Dad are just hauling them on a cruise and not actually abusive) - even if it means they may be missing out on a movie at the mall with Maddie and Kayla.
Learning how a wagon wheel is made is boring - but it does build character…at least, that’s the parental logic.
And really, who gives a shit what the song is about when the only part that’s heard in the commercial is…
“Here comes Johnny yeah! I’ve got a LUST… FOR… LIFE!”
That’s perfect for a cruise commerical.
Johnny Yen. Again.
As long as I don’t have to see Iggy Pop shaking his emaciated ass in the commercial, you can use whatever songs of his you like.
Maybe she isn’t smiling because cruises suck for anyone under 80?
It’s kind of like how the State of Virginia uses Dave Mathew’s “Stay or Leave” for their commercials because the chorus sounds sweet. It’s about a dude whose girlfriend just walked out and how he doesn’t know what the fuck to do with himself.
I just about crack up every time I see that commercial or the cell phone one with the cheerleader vapidly yakking on the phone about anything and everything, including whether the team should stop eating tuna because oh my god! I just heard that there’s dolphin in tuna and we should, like, totally boycott tuna.
I know not every 13-14 year old girl is like that, but enough of them are to make it funny to me.