Ok, there’s a bunch of “hip” young folks and they ostensibly “enjoy” Jolly Ranchers. But as one of them is spinning on the floor, another pours a bag of Jolly Ranchers candies on the spinning breakdancer.
I cannot imagine what would possess a bunch of rocking hipsters to do such a thing, much less how someone could come up with such a bizarre concept. Were the ad writers trying to be cool and failing miserably, or trying to be so radically uncool as to be humorous?
I just wanna know why we only see Thrilla’s flavor. What of the other kids?
Who is “Thrilla”?
HA !
I should have known that someone @ Straight Dope would wonder about this commercial— I wondered what was so special about that particular " dancer " too.
Do they make " Mentos " too ?
Geno
This is terrible, but I’ve been hoping that the next commercial in the series will feature one of the kids break-dancing with the candy in his or her mouth…
Seriously though…there is probably a marketing term for what’s going on here, but it seems like they’re trying to make their product seem “cool” by associating it with an apparently “cool” act–in this case, breakdancing. Similar trends can also be seen in kids’ cereal commercials; most of the mascots have recently appeared engaged in some form of “X-treme” sport, most likely for the trendy or “cool” factor.
When this commercial came on TV in homeroom last week, every kid in my class turned and looked at each other with this, “what the hell did that mean?” expression. I honestly don’t get it. “Look, our candies are so good that you can dump them onto a spinning Cool Kid, and they can’t even get angry with you, they’re THAT GOOD,” or, possibly, “eating our flavorful and VERY enjoyable candy will enable you to break dance like these limber urban hipsters. EAT UP, KIDS! They’re juicy!”
Yikes.
You might be able to get away with calling this the “bandwagon” approach in that all the cool kids are doing it, go with the flow, etc., or, possibly, faulty cause and effect: “Tony Hawke eats Doritos in the shower…consuming them will make me a pro skateboarder.” I’m sure there’s something more accurate, but that’ all I’ve got.