I’m totally in favor of hamsters in commercials. But, I don’t get the AT&T friends and family hamster commercial. At all.
Why do they call the hamster “Dad”? Is the guy supposed to be the real dad? He looks too young to be the father of those kids. And why does the girl have birds flitting around her shoulders?
Is this just nonsense surrealism, or is there some point that I’m missing?
I have no idea, but nonsense surrealism doesn’t seem all that bad of a guess truth be told
The commercial in question: - YouTube
Here’s another one they’re playing on youtube:- YouTube
The tag line is “Is the F for family or friends?”
My take is they are showing a group of people who are clearly meant to be seen as a family; they call each other dad and son and are sitting around a breakfast table as families do. But at the same time, they are clearly not related. They have different accents (even speak different languages), are different races, and apparently also different species.
So… are they family or friends? With the new Sprint plan, it doesn’t matter!
(no explanation for the animated birds, though, I’m afraid 
)
I feel like this ad should piss me off, but actually it works for me. (Works in the sense of I respect it, and maybe even like it, but not in the sense that it drives me to purchase Sprint service.) The blond girl playing piano and singing a … I want to say Motley Crue? … song in French sells it for me.
Thank you! I couldn’t find the damn thing at all, probably because it’s a Sprint “Framily” ad and not AT&T. All I came up with was those Kia commercials.
Anyway. I think your explanation is right. “So… are they family or friends? With the new Sprint plan, it doesn’t matter!”
Yeah, it doesn’t work for me. It doesn’t make any sense, just like their cutesy faux-word “framily,” which just grates. And yeah, I get that they apparently came up with this partly as a riposte to the fake word complaint, but this just digs the hole deeper.
I do agree the girl playing the piano was a great touch. The song appears to be “Home Sweet Home”, by the way. I’m just wondering if the publishing company handled the licensing, or if the band actually got involved when Sprint asked for it. I can sort of picture Vince Neil saying “I’m sorry, what?”
“Yeah, we’re going to have a little blond girl with animated birds flying around her head playing the tune on a piano and singing in French.”
“Um. OK. I guess”
I was similarly confused by the commercial and found that it’s actually based on commercials from Japan. From the link:
Yes, “eclectic” is certainly one word to describe a family headed by a talking hamster. I’m not sure, however, that it’s strong enough.
The hamster is voiced by Andrew “Dice” Clay
That sentence would be a GREAT icebreaker. Or maybe the start of a short story.
Anyway, it seems like sometimes companies just go batshit insane with their marketing just so they have something memorable out there. Remember the Quiznos Spongmonkeys?
The commercial with the girl playing piano and singing “Home Sweet Home” in French kind of seems like an OTT Wes Anderson parody to me.
Well anyway, it’s nice to know I can use Sprint and get low rates when I phone my hamster.
So we’re just gonna let slide the fact that Tommy Lee Jones is apparently a maid in a Japenese commercial?
Yeah. I think we all read it and then, as we were told as children, just said, “No.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0R–oskfaI
He’s a maid with flashing yellow eyes, which possibly may be laser beams. At least, the family becomes very agitated by them, right before they all grow mono-brows. So, yeah. 