"Wake Up with the King"--AAAHHHHHHH!

[Skywatcher]

@tracer

You mean Ronald didn’t originally have red hair, and his nose was a paper cup?!

That’s not all. Do you recognize his voice?

[Tuckerfan]

@Lute Skywatcher

That’s not all. Do you recognize his voice?

That ain’t whatisname who became the Today Show weather man, is it?

[chula]

The Burger King ad is creepy and it’s great! It took balls for Burger King to make that ad.

@Zebra

But I swear to God, if those two boys in the McDonalds commercial don’t come in when their mother calls them…

You mean that one with the song that stops and the singer says “What would MacGyver do?” When I see it come on I have to scramble for the remote to mute it before it gets to that part, or else I start screaming. What the hell does MacGyver have to do with anything?

Speaking of creepy ads, have you seen that fish sticks ad with the weird giant animated fish and everyone backing away slowly?

[Skywatcher]

@Tuckerfan

That ain’t whatisname who became the Today Show weather man, is it?

That’s him, the one who became famous for wishing people a happy hundredth birthday.

[Mr.Blue_Sky]

@chula

You mean that one with the song that stops and the singer says “What would MacGyver do?” When I see it come on I have to scramble for the remote to mute it before it gets to that part, or else I start screaming. What the hell does MacGyver have to do with anything?

MacGuyver would have taken a stick of gum, a paper clip, a bicycle tire innertube, and a copy of Reader’s Digest and blown up all the playground equipment to get those snotty brats to listen to their mother.

[MacTech]

creepy, creepy advert, if that…thing had been in my bed offering me an Artificially Flavoured Congealed Meatlike Breakfast Sandwich, i’d be reaching for the nearest convenient shotgun…

[chula]

@Mr. Blue Sky

MacGuyver would have taken a stick of gum, a paper clip, a bicycle tire innertube, and a copy of Reader’s Digest and blown up all the playground equipment to get those snotty brats to listen to their mother.

Exactly. Now that would be a good ad.

[Zebra]

@chula

The Burger King ad is creepy and it’s great! It took balls for Burger King to make that ad.

You mean that one with the song that stops and the singer says “What would MacGyver do?” When I see it come on I have to scramble for the remote to mute it before it gets to that part, or else I start screaming. What the hell does MacGyver have to do with anything?

Speaking of creepy ads, have you seen that fish sticks ad with the weird giant animated fish and everyone backing away slowly?

That’s the one.
Actually the WWMcGD is the least offensive part to me as I think it’s a funny riff on WWJD but it took me about 10,000 viewings, or a single Saturday watching television to figure out the first line is ‘On the way her, they adore me’.

But those boys, runnig like Pavlov’s dogs at a McD’s bag is just sad. I imagine them rummaging for old fries in the back on the way home, not even bothering to wipe off the dust when they strike ‘gold’.

They just played that ad over and over and over and over so it seems like: The mother never learned that her boys would not behave, The boys never learned to respect their mother, and The boys never learned that there was nothing in the bag.

Still though I think the Levi’s manniquin ad is the creepiest thing.

[astro]

Link to the King ad

Yes it is creepy!

But there’s more to it than that. Using a ridiculous plastic head, and an absurd situation, gives this ad an edgier mood—more ironic and wink-wink—than that of your average fast food campaign. And that’s the goal. CPB thinks Burger King can differentiate itself with a hipper vibe. Its competitors (namely McDonald’s and Wendy’s) have more family-friendly images and thus couldn’t (or wouldn’t) go as far. More Burger King marketing in this edgier mode: the Subservient Chicken Web site. Meanwhile, when McDonald’s tries to get hip, they show us kids playing basketball on rollerblades. BK’s stuff is just far more subversive. CPB says the core market for fast food is 18- to 35-year-old males, and these are “the most cynical” consumers out there. In setting the mood for the campaign, CPB tries to keep in mind “the cool uncle—the uncle who tells you how things really are, and lets you get away with a little bit more than your mom and dad do.”

I think the ad works. “Wake Up With the King” is a clear, catchy announcement that Burger King’s back in breakfast. (And in the future, we will likely see the King reappear in “Up Late With the King” ads for BK’s late-night offerings—another “periphery daypart” where Burger King hopes to boost its sales.)

The one thing I could do without is the ad’s final shot, where the King rests his hand on the other guy’s knee and they suddenly get uncomfortable. I imagine this was put there to diffuse any homoerotic tension and throw a bone to the mainstream, meat-and-potatoes crowd. (See, we’re not so hip that we’re beyond a little homophobia.) But it’s unnecessary, and it dampens the goofball fun of the spot.

[Ogre]

The Levi’s commercial with the store dummy following the guy home is the creepiest mutherfucking commercial ever.

But it uses a fantastic Screamin’ Jay Hawkins version of “I Put A Spell On You.”

As for the BK ads, I kinda like them, in a strange, creeped-out kinda way. For some stupid reason, I love the goofy little “hand flair” the King does during the close-up product shot when the Mystery-Meatwich is passed.

[tracer]

@MacTech

if that…thing had been in my bed offering me an Artificially Flavoured Congealed Meatlike Breakfast Sandwich, i’d be reaching for the nearest convenient shotgun…

Mmmmm … artificially flavored congealed meatlike breakfast sandwich.

On a croissant!

[Ogre]

But it uses a fantastic Screamin’ Jay Hawkins version of “I Put A Spell On You.”

I should explain, before some music pedant excoriates me, that I know “I Put A Spell On You” is Jay Hawkins’s song, but he had many versions of it, and the one used in the commercial is especially good.