I kinda like it. 
You don’t know who Jason Statham is? Current action movie star.
I have no idea who Jason Statham is - I don’t watch action movies and this is the first place I’ve seen his name - but I thought the commercial was hilarious!
Oh god, those ‘focus group’ people. Yeah these are real people. cough
In one, a kid is asked what kind of pet the truck guy has. He says “a German Shepard dog”. Real people don’t talk like this, and yes, marketing people, we all know that a German Shepard is a damn dog. You don’t have to tell us.
And yes, I’m saying marketing people are not real people. 
Might be a person.
First Female to win German Herding Trials-German Shepherd Legends - Nancy Denecke
I think that’s the actual name of the breed - German Shepherd Dog. Sounds stupid to me too, but that’s what the people who breed them call them. Kind of like a Portuguese Water Dog.
I’ve heard of him, but I didn’t recognize the guy in the commercial as him.
“The category and the brand (Snyder’s of Hanover) had through the years kind of a slightly boring reputation and we found there was absolutely no reason for that,” said Barton F. Graf Chief Creative Officer Gerry Graf. He said the agency wanted to give the brand “swagger,” perhaps channeling the attitude of someone like Telly Savalas or Charles Bronson, but decided it would be more interesting to have a woman with swagger in the spots than a man, he said."
There’s a difference between “swagger” and “creepily unpleasant to the point of making you switch channels”. But I’m sure they’ll hit that sweet spot in their next ad. :dubious:
That Snyder’s pretzel ad would be perfectly home on Welcome to Night Vale…not so much on Animal Planet. It’s straight-up creepy, without a trace of swagger. (Having a male actor wouldn’t add any swagger either. Why do they need swagger, anyway?)
I’m annoyed by the cereal ad that has supposed employees talking about how wonderful the product is…specifically, the lady who brags that people tell her she smells like cookies when she goes grocery shopping after work. She’s wearing a hard hat, but it’s precariously perched on top of her hairnet – it’s not actually on her head. There’s absolutely no way her supervisor would allow that.
Snyder’s makes good pretzels. Why would they need “swagger”? Even if they made bad pretzels, how would swagger help?
The pretzel harpy’s message is “We are the pretzel people. We are unavoidable. You cannot stop us. We will get you. Meanwhile, buy our product. No, we are not asking you to enjoy it. Just buy it. In fact, we don’t care if you even eat our pretzels. We are watching you.”
“Watch” is not the correct verb.
The worst part is I think they think they are fooling us that those are actually authentic drive-through conversations.
It’s Kars for Kids if you want one of their spiffy tshirts. Question: did the producer really think the guys voice was good or is he meant to be as annoying as the kid?
University of Phoenix’s parody of “If I Only Had a Brain.”
Especially the line “A degree is a degree.” Really? You mean employers regard one from a mail order diploma mill as the exact equivalent as one from Caltech???
Among the horrible things about that commercial (which include the annoyingly grating singing voice and the lyrics that go out of their way to insult potential employers), is that there really is a good idea for a commercial in there. I can imagine a commercial that altered “If I Only Had a Brain” to good effect using different lyrics and an entirely different singer. But they chose this piece of crap.
I saw a commercial over the weekend (I can’t recall the product), that had a series of statements like this. If there’s a claim, stake it. If there’s a rule, break it. etc. It didn’t truly impinge on my consciousness, however, until they said “if there’s a trail, blaze it.” Well, excuuuuse me, but if there is already a trail, someone has already blazed it.
It’s a stupid little thing, but it bugs me. These ads go through layers upon layers of approvals and no one catches this? Ugh.
The casino with the surreal pretty people commercials. I guess I don’t hate them because I like looking at pretty people as much as the next guy but they always strike me as trying way too hard. Besides, it’s not as though the casino will provide me with a woman in a catsuit and nun’s habit, walking a long-haired goat on a leash so if I need to provide my own then it doesn’t matter which casino/hotel I’m at.
Also, despite my best attempts, I can’t remember the name of the casino in question. So it’s not even working for brand awareness.
As covered upthread, more and more prestigious Universities are offering online degrees.
And, let’s not call names, Phoenix is not a diploma mill.
Finally most companies dont really care.
Another thing that bugs me about the U of Phoenix ad (besides the atrocious “singing”) is the woman is being told the library is closing, and she holds up her finger, like, “Don’t bother me, little person who doesn’t have a degree.”
Okay–response to a few posts back (sorry!) …
I do know who Jason Statham is, but I’ve seen this commercial a half dozen times and, so help me d-g, I thought it was Bobcat Goldthwait, which had me wondering why on earth he was starring in such a commercial, unless he’d directed it as well!
Do he and Jason S. somewhat resemble one another?
There’s a new UK ad for Chicago Town pizza that apparently has fallen through a wormhole from about 1992. It involves a rap, performed by a grinning idiot of a Hollywood stereotype of a rapper complete with baseball cap askew, sunglasses, gold chains and boxer shorts. He and a group of similarly generic 1990’s music video backing dancer rejects prance around in front of a compact car in the concrete confines of the LA River, extolling the virtues of frozen pizza.
I’d think the whole thing was a send-up but there’s nothing humorous about it at all. Deeply cringeworthy.