So my girlfriend and I were kicking back watching From Russia With Love and at every single commercial break was a tampon commercial. The same tampon commercial. Over and over again. Now, this may not be unusual, until I add that this was on Spike TV. If you haven’t seen the obnoxious commercials, they feature a guy dancing around, shouting about the counter-revolution, since Oxygen, Lifetime, etc. have been oppressing us. (I haven’t noticed). Because SpikeTV is The Network For Men…The First One!
And they like to shove it in your face.
There’s a thread about this in the pit, but basically:
-Yes, they were planning on re-naming TNN to ‘Spike TV’, but Spike Lee got a court injunction to stop them, claiming he should be the only one to use the name ‘Spike’.
The case is still before the courts.
-No, they were not easily intimidated. They are legally prohibited form launching under the new name.
The man in the promos isn’t dancing…he’s pacing excitedly. All he said was how it’s about time we have a network for men. (“All these shows where you paint each others rooms! Oh, it’s red; its still boring!”)
The female superhero is ‘Striperella’… 'nuff said.
Every friggin break. It struck me as odd, not only beacsuse the network’s now aiming at men, but because some men (not me, I’m a man who is comfortable around menstration) are really squeamish around such things, and would thus zap the commercials.
Also, banner ads on TV should not take up a full third of the screen, and should definitely not have sound (see FX).
What are you, nuts? Of course you need to see these ads! Granted, you don’t personally need the actual tampons yourself, but on the off-chance (hah) that you find yourself having to buy some some day, you’re going to want to march confidently down that aisle, look at the selection, and say to yourself, “Okay, that’s the kind I saw the ad for when I was watching From Russia With Love, and my girlfriend didn’t laugh and throw things at the TV, so they must be okay,” so you can grab them and walk confidently away before the sweat starts to roll down your back and you are filled with the paralyzing fear that you will be stuck in the Wrong Part of the Store until somebody old enough to be your grandmother has to help you out, or, worse, a 22-year-old built like a supermodel.
Besides, what will you do when your buddy gets shot and you need to treat a sucking chest wound? THEN you’ll wish you had paid attention to those tampon commercials.