This guy’s blind, isn’t he? He’s not a weird, pervy, squirrelly looking dude who should be freaking me out.
He’s. Just. Blind.
:smack:
Sorry, karma. It was an accident.
The brief inclusion of what is presumably a guide dog would seem to support that, yes.
Right, but I was only kind of half watching, and I didn’t see the dog at all.
I feel bad enough about this already, man. I really do.
If it helps, I, for one, don’t think you should feel bad about it or anything. So you didn’t realize he was blind. Understandable; it’s not the clearest thing in the world. Now you do. It’s not like you said something to him and hurt his feelings. All is fine with the world…
The had to include that, seeing as how they’re using a blind guy in their commercial just to say “hey, we hire disabled people!”, they have to be sure there’s no confusion on that point.
I remember when I was watching the Oscars and they showed a clip from a previous ceremony with a presenter speaking in an unusual voice. I was only half-watching, so the voice amused me so much I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
Then I realized the presenter was Marlee Matlin and felt really embarrassed.
If you Google the guy’s name, you get several hits that say yes, he is blind.
That’s a huge part of why blind people are encouraged to wear sunglasses - because my Dad lost his sight at the age of 63, he had almost no control over the motion of his eyes. Sighted people are used to pointing their eyes at what they’re looking at - when you can’t tell what you’re looking at, your eyes can roll around all over the place. My Dad would frequently sit around with his eyes rolled right up into his head, and he’d only notice if it became uncomfortable to the ocular muscles.
It would have really helped if he was selling pencils or something. Or holding, more realistically, holding a walking cane.
I just have to say that I think this commercial totally rocks because his blindness is a complete non-issue. It would be even better if they hadn’t included the shot of the dog.
It’s okay. I saw the commercial several times, barely paying attention to it, and vaguely wondered why they put someone so un-photogenic in front of the camera.
One day I was paying slightly more attention. Huh, that weird guy again. Oh, hey, he has a dog! How cute! But why did he bring his…
…
:smack:
For the benefit for those of us at work who have youtube blocked - what the heck are y’all talking about? 
I have to admit, the first time I saw that commercial I thought “I like the fact they arent using a perfect looking model for this ad, but I think they have taken average looking joe concept a bit too far”.
It’s a commercial where the guy talking is not remotely actor-handsome and speaks while kinda lookin’ off to the side. If you are in a sarcastic mood, you might say he appears, as **Ogre **states in the OP, as “a weird, pervy, squirrelly looking dude” but if you do watch the whole thing, you see the guide dog, realize he’s blind and adjust your perceptions accordingly.
We’re all human…
Same with him.
Anyone want to go to Hell with me? It makes the trip so much better.
Ogre, this should help…
I’ve been with my fiancee for many years, he’s blind, and we tease and needle each other all the time. The blindness is not off limits for that, except once - he had got his prosthesis (fake eye) in the wrong way. I could NOT keep myself from laughing when I saw it, and can usually control myself. He sulked for a while and I felt just slightly guilty, because it was just that uncontrollable.
I kinda got that from context, but what is the commercial for, that they use a blind spokesman?
Nationwide Insurance…
It’s a call rep for an Insurance company.
It’s a new ad campaign, in which they’re using several real employees as spokespeople. This one happens to be blind, and, I agree, if you don’t catch the entire context, he’s odd-looking.