Wal-Mart Thanksgiving commercial

This may not even be worth pitting cause it just made me laugh with how poor an idea it was for a commercial rather than angry.

It opens with a typical American family getting ready to sit down for Thansgiving meal. Nice big middle class dining room. Looks like the kids are grown and are visiting. People start bringing the food to the table. Lot’s of good looking stuff, turkey, green beans, sweet potatoes, etc.
Then we get a shot of the Dad of the family who looks over the food and states (not in a humorous manner) “Who are we? The Rockefellers?” Nobody seems to pay attention. Then he makes another comment, “I’m gonna have to come out of retirement and get a job to pay for this.” Still nobody pays attention to him till his wife whispers over his shoulder “It’s okay dear, I got it at Wal-Mart.” His expression now changes from grumpy to happy and he digs right in. Next shot shows him asleep in the lay-z-boy with the football game on. Then we see the words “A meal not worth losing any sleep over.”

So what message do I get from this? If your a cheap-ass grumpy old man who likes to bitch and complain about the cost of feeding his family for Thanksgiving (on Thanksgiving), go to Wal-Mart. Save a few bucks and feed the family the cheap stuff. They’re worth it.

They do make a pretty good herb roasted chicken. Pretty tasty and tender: nearly on par with the better restaurants. OTOH, it’s still not homemade…

Most of their chicken dishes are good. The fried chicken is excellent (when it’s not overcooked) and the chicken strips/boneless wings are tasty. And the potato wedges are good.

Of course, they are cooked in concentrated evil. Wal-Mart can’t let their excess evil go to waste, after all.

Did they focus on the label on the turkey: Product of China. :slight_smile:

As luck would have it I saw this commercial about 15 minutes after watching a documentary called “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices”.

I don’t think I’ll be buying my holiday trappimgs and trimmings there

That aside, they were passing turkey and string beans, not caviar and lobster tails. It’s a silly premise.

I’d have liked to see the wife go over and kick shut the footrest of his recliner. “Get your lazy, sexist ass out of that chair and help me clean up this mess!”

Good god! I swear some people go around looking for some things to be offended and pissed about.

Why not look to the message of the ad - Walmart is a really cheap place to shop! The ad tries to express this with some humour and real to life worries, what needs to be so wrong with that? Certainly not pittable. Would you rather the ad shows someone sitting there running up a big credit card bill because it is important to make the family feel special? Why not just face it, if the father is retired, then putting on a spread like this probably is a strain on the budget, but Walmart makes it affordable!

Did anyone else picture Dad as a door greeter with a smilie face button working the door to pay for thanksgiving?

Trans evil, I’m sure.

Let me alter this if this was our family:

It opens with a typical Canadian family getting ready to sit down for Thansgiving meal. Nice big middle class dining room. Looks like the kids are grown and are visiting. People start bringing the food to the table. Lot’s of good looking stuff, turkey, green beans, mashed potatoes, etc. Then we get a shot of the Dad of the family who looks over the food and states (in a humorous manner) “Wow, we aren’t the Thomsons.” Nobody seems to pay attention. Then he makes another comment, “We’re worth it though, plus we supported a bunch of small businesses in preparing this meal.” Still nobody pays attention to him till his wife whispers sheepishly over his shoulder “I ummm got it at Wal-Mart.” His expression now changes from happy to incensed and then stands up and shouts, “you got this food WHERE!!!. Get out of my house.” Next shot shows him and his wife at a conference table with lawyers beside them both. Then we see the words “sometimes it’s just worth going to the butcher.”

In our household, we aren’t big Walmart fans.

Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving?

Yeah, in october. We dont’ make as big of a stink about it though.

Is the Canadian Thanksgiving in reference to a specific quasi-historical event too, or just something you nabbed from the USA 'cause it seemed like a good idea?

Exactly what I was thinking. I can see him chatting up people at the door…

“Who are you, the Rockefellers? Put away your damn shopping cart. Oh wait, wait, I almost forget, Jerry wants me to remember to do this… here’s a sticker for your kid.”

“What is this, a returned item? You think you can resell your crap to us? Go to Target, you cheapskate!”

“The pharmacy? What am I, a tour guide? Look at the signs, they’re right there! You’re lucky to have signs. When I was your age…”

Yeah we nabbed it because our histories aren’t intertwined and you guys are so cool we had to copy it. Sheesh.

Sarcasm aside: Both The United States and Canada’s English population both come from (duh) England which had a Harvest Festival called Thanksgiving. Though not celebrated the same way it was imported by the settlers and it changed throughout history into being what it is today in both Nations.

As for the Canadian History Here you go: (from Wiki)

Besides that little tidbit our’s comes first on the Calaneder so that means we invented it :wink:

Good god! Some people don’t take notice of the OP’s own words that this really is more laughable than pittable. He also didn’t say word one about being pissed or offended. He’s pointing out what a dumbass commercial Walmart has. I’m just amazed that a company with that kind of budget can’t afford better advertising.

Well, Target already hired all the creative advertising people.

Right on, twick.

Yeah, I’m not really pissed about it. And I’m sure the food is just fine. I’d think they’d be better off running a comercial that shows “Hey, need to make a Thanksgiving feast? Come to Wal-Mart. We have everything you need.”
rather than a commercial that screams “Hey, don’t be grumpy this year about how much it’s going to cost to feed your family and make snide comments at the dinner table. Make your wife go to Wal-Mart where she can save a few bucks and you don’t have to be an ass.”

Heh…They did. They’re just busy paying off the bill for the Knowles family for last year’s piece of shit Christmas commercial.

Beyonce shopping at WalMart. Indeed.