far as i can tell, the Brawny man is used because a) since he cuts trees for a living, he has a part in manufacturing of PAPER towels and b) he is supposed to represent the cleaning power of Brawny. new ads have done away with showing him, but now are giving housewives huge, animated brawny muscles when they clean to represent the power of Brawny.
he makes a little more sense than some spokes figures. but as far as TP’s concerned, there isn’t just one brand that is exploiting these babies. there are lots of brands that use babies for packaging.
i’ve visited an online TP museum featuring all TP known to man in the US. i found 7 brands that featured babies, mostly little girls and ofter times holding a teddy. i also ran across other spokesthings:
Hortensia- butterfly
Penguin Patty - pengiun
Real Soft - bear
Wise Buy - owl (and as far as i’m concerned, an owl has no business selling TP even is there is a WISE in the title)
Babies? Well at least they’re human. Toilet paper in the UK is traditionally advertised using dogs (labrador puppies).
Maybe they just can’t get actors to do the ads - think how much you would have to pay to bribe an actor to be filmed sitting on the toilet waxing lyrical about the paper he/she will shortly be obliged to use…
Think of the poor actor at parties - “Oh, I know you, you’re the one who’s always on the lavatory.”
Come to think of it, I saw an ad for diarrhoea tablets recently - it features a youngish woman walking in the park and dashing behind a bush. Fancy being remembered as the “Diarrhoea lady”.
ah mrsface beat me to it about the little labrador puppies used in the UK. The charming little monster grabs the tolet paper and runs off with it (while the kid of the family is left sitting on the “throne” shouting sadly “Mum!!!”
We also have TV ads for tampons or sanitaary towels that seem to think blood is blue.
We have the blue blood thing going on over here, too, and also baby poop and pee is apparently blue. I don’t know about that – I did poo blue-green once and am at a loss as to why – but otherwise, not a hint of blue anywhere!
Knowing labradors, I am not surprised. Especially labrador pups. They are cute, but are they troublemakers. I can’t think of a TP ad in this country that features a human in any sort of proximity to a toilet, though. That sort of thing might make for an unattractive ad – an overweight, middle-aged guy sitting on a toilet straining away!
I will admit to being influenced by an ad for pads ONCE. And they’re pretty good ones, at that.
It has bothered me, ever since I first saw this commercial, that when we see the tree initially there is no discernible hole at the base of it, just a tree and some grass, where the bear sits down. So is he crapping all over his ass, or what? I don’t think he’d have much of that roll left after than incident.
The other thing that troubles me is that the next bear appears to be on his way to visit the same tree that the first one has just befouled.
Clearly, someone at the advertising agency does not think of these things.
The way I saw it was that there was at least a foot of clearance (possibly two) so that such an incident is avoided. (I’m reminded of an old joke all of a sudden…)
As for the “using the same tree” caper – don’t they use some trees for back-scratching and PLP’s and such? It might be the designated “business” tree in the same vein as “Humans use TP for myriad uses, but not the same, um, handful for every use”.
Oh, as to the hijack, how about those Prep H commercials in which the actor think up ways to scratch themselves inconspiciously at a wedding or a tea party or such?
No way! You seen how that damned bear sits down? He practically looks like he’s trying to wiggle a root up his arse or something. The fur all ruffles up around his neck.
I think the factual question has been answered about as well as it can be, so I’ll close this thread. Further discussion along these lines may be continued in MPSIMS.
