Hmm, yes llama. Apparently I need to proofread and or edit better when I post late at night (or really any time). I will need to watch commercial 2 to see if the woman is, indeed, a random adult. I thought the implication was that she was the girl’s mother. However, even if she was a random adult she would have to be seriously dumb to not be able to tell the difference between a Llama and a camel.
Oh, and no I don’t want to die on this hill. This just seemed to be the best forum for my extreme irritation with commercials that make people look incredibly stupid, inept, clumsy, etc.
I hate the trope in commercials of the clueless husband fumbling around in the kitchen or with the washing machine, only to be rescued by his competent wife who saves the day. This is offensive to both men and women: it implies that men are too dumb to do household chores and at the same time that it’s the woman’s natural destination to handle these tasks. Vomit inducing.
Meh. Some of my favorite commercials make someone look like an idiot. Like one where someone picks up The Lord of the Rings in a book store and goes “They made a book out of this too, now?”
I remember first reading the poem by Ogden Nash in an anthology of English language poetry I had in high school. In the poem he wrote: And I will bet a silk pajama/There isn’t any three-l lllama.
This was followed by a footnote reading: The author’s attention has been brought to a particular type of conflagration known as a three-alarmer. Phoo.
I was in my early 20s when Pokemon and Harry Potter started taking off here in the United States. I had to ask one of my older coworkers who had children what a Pokemon was. I thought Harry Potter was the name of the author for the first 2-3 books. When I saw them at hte bookstore, Harry Potter’s name was huge and I just assumed he was the author. I’m sure I’m even more out of touch today with popular culture aimed at children.
I could not say it better. Thanks for posting that. I guess when someone has to look foolish, top of the list is the dad or husband - because everyone knows they’re stupid and worthless. That’s one reason I dont mind the llama girl commercial - one time the guys get a break.
Speaking as someone who works in advertising: it’s more that adult men (particularly adult white men) usually are the ones who wind up being poked fun at/made the butt of jokes in ads (if anyone is), because making fun of women, minorities, or other historically-marginalized groups is now seen as “punching down” (justifiably so), and an advertiser who airs ads like that will frequently find themselves the subject of criticism.
To me (who spent much of my childhood being picked on and made the object of jokes), I think the real solution is, “we don’t really need that kind of humor in our advertising, poking fun at anyone,” but YMMV.
I hate the dumb husband stuff too. I think it’s fading quite a bit though. I just hate any commercial that makes a functioning human being look like an idiot. A lot of those “as seen on tv” commercials are big offenders. Some of the faces they make are … well I hate them, but some times I have to laugh anyway.
Those are what my wife calls the “stupid people” ads, as they depict people who are incapable of doing the most simple and straightforward things, particularly while using kitchen tools. “Oh! I have no idea how to actually pour pancake batter onto a griddle! Oh, why won’t someone invent a device that will save me from this nightmare!?”
Slight hi-jack but it’s kinda cute. My bosses boss, when talking about projects, does not use the term bigger/smaller than a breadbox. He uses the term bigger or smaller than his car.
He drives a Fiat 500. So for us, the breadbox is a Fiat 500.
