Have we heard the last of the most annoying jingle in the history of radio advertising?
I assume I will get no dispute that the all-time most annoying - yet infectious - radio song has been the redneck warbling along with the endearingly off-key kids, backed by the plucking of an acoustic guitar.
Sing it with me:
1-877-KARS4KIDS
Every a.m. I listen to about 15 minutes of radio as I putter around the kitchen, mainy to catch the weather forecast. At least once a week they play that ad - with the result that that inbred microcephalic kiddy-twiddler’s voice is with me all day.
This a.m. my morning stumblings were interrupted by a assault of distorted electric guitar, noodling frenetically with no apparent aim - when an upbeat version of the same old lyrics kicked in - but without Lester the Molester! Seriously - is this someon’e attempt at being “hip”?!:eek:
But when it was done, I realized I almost miss old short-eyes…
The version I hear in NY is not hillbilly at all, and the backing is clearly the “demo” function on a 1970s Wurlitzer organ, so perhaps there are regional versions. I hope they put out a CD compilation so I can destroy it. If you listen to WFAN in New York you will hear this two or three times an hour. When in the car my daughter and I will sing along as loudly and off-key as possible.
For what it’s worth, to me their accent sounds like that of Brooklyn Orthodox Jews. This made a lot of sense to me when I found out that K4K is a fundraising program for Oorah, a Brooklyn-based Jewish outreach organization. (Such an organization would never have a commercial with a woman singing, which is why you have a man singing along with the kids even though it creeps some people out.) I don’t have a problem with Oorah per se, but I do think that it’s underhanded and wrong that they’re fundraising among the general public for program that reaches out to irreligious Jews to try to get them to be more observant.
Perhaps there are different commercials in different regions? The New York one doesn’t have an acoustic guitar. Trust me, the New York commercial guy sounds like actual Brooklyn Orthodox Jews, not TV Jews. I don’t mean to pull rank, but I have almost certainly spent more time with the demographic than you have.
GilaB, Orthodox New York Jew, who doesn’t sound like that (I have a more classically New Yorkish sound, without the thickened ‘t’ at the end of words or more dramatic ‘w’ sound at the beginning of ‘one’ that that guy shares with BOJs and others of the American ultra-Orthodox community.)
It never crossed my mind that they would have different versions. For as long as I can remember, tho, around Chicago the only version I have ever heard had a guy with an incredibly exaggerated hillbilly drawl - the type you almost HAVE to imitate, thereby driving satan’s breath deeper into your soul…
The ads are for a charity called “Kars 4 Kids”, which uses the proceeds from donated used autos to fund programs for disadvantaged kids. Though, it’s only today, between the comments above, and perusing their site, that I see that they specifically focus on disadvantaged Jewish kids, which is something I never knew before, and I’ve heard their ads for years.
They run ads on local radio stations in a number of cities. Here in Chicago, we usually get the “hillbilly” ad, but there’s another version which gets rotated in occasionally, too.
