I’m sure only a few dopers will even understand the question, but let me try.
Once again I will be overseas during the Superbowl and will get to see the game, but will miss the best part of the Superbowl, the commercials. The commercials are edited out by the Armed Forces Network and instead replaced by military public service announcements. There are a few that stand out and are overplayed. The favorites I have heard from my in person polls are:
Naked biker guy–with the Austin Powers theme playing. This one teaches the importance of wearing the proper gear when riding your motorcycle.
Poker game-- The one where the guy is talking to his roommate over the phone and, because of a general power of attourney and a run of bad luck at the poker table, the phone is used as collateral for a bid.
“Pretty Woman” fades into “Who’s Sorry Now” all over a Skoal ring in the back pocket of a pair of jeans.
So, military dopers, what is your favorite? Any that I missed?
I miss AFN…used to listen to AFN Radio and watch AFN television when I was living (as a civilian) in West Berlin. Haven’t seen it in almost 15 years, so can’t join in on best PSAs, but some of those you describe sound a lot better than the ones I remember back in the old days!
Have fun watching the game, and with any luck, you might catch a bare nipple shot during the half time show! Of course, it will be Mick Jagger’s, but hey…
Ah, AFN commercials. Was last stationed overseas in '98, so it’s been a long time since I saw them live, but sometimes I catch them when watching movies I taped off TV back then.
The one my family always makes fun of is where this young soldier loses her ID card when she’s out shopping somewhere off base. The picture on her ID starts getting upset and tries to catch her attention, but she can’t hear it. “Deborah, Deborah!” cries the ID; “When you find out I’m missing contact your local…” Hehe.
In another one a guy’s checking out at the commissary, and he asks the cashier why there is a small tax added at the bottom of his bill. The cashier rips off her uniform to reveal that she is, in fact, a Rockette. She then does a pretty elaborate song and dance number explaining that the money pays for the shopping bags and the upkeep on the shopping carts.
The acting and production values on these commercials were usually in the so-bad-it’s-good vein, but I can’t say I didn’t learn anything from them. There was one where a klutzy wife got up in the middle of the night and tried to get a glass of water without turning on a light; she slipped on a roller skate or something and almost broke her neck. Her husband wakes up and chides her for her foolishness: “It’s always safer to turn on a light at night; you can reduce the risk of accidents.” I think of that all the time when I’m up late (like now). Another one opened in a very Olde English Shoppe, where a couple of old duffers were arguing some historical point. An American soldier walks in, smiles and says “Actually gents, it was William the Conqueror who won the Battle of Hastings,” and exits. The point being that you should show respect for your host country by learning a bit about their history. I think about that too every time I travel overseas. Also the one that taught that if you want to listen to music when you’re in a room full of other people who don’t want to listen, the civil thing to do is to put on some headphones. I really wish some of my college roommates had seen that one…
There were also some spots on American history hosted by Estelle Getty, but I don’t know if they were originally made for AFN.
Not a PSA, but my favorites are the name the country/state commericals they do. I am not half bad a figuring them out.
The naked biker one is hillarious. Haven’t seen the skoal one in a while. I don’t watch TV much so haven’t seen many of them. Usually the only time I watch is at the dfac while eating.
My all time favorite is the Anthrax Ninja series that used to air in Korea. There was this whole series where a short pudgy guy dressed up as a Ninja would use various subterfuges to stab people with their anthrax shot. He’d do things like pop around corners, pretend to be the pizza guy etc. I’m still not sure what the point was, maybe that if you didn’t get your shot then the Anthrax Ninja would show up to give it to you? Or maybe its that if you didn’t get your shot then the Anthrax Ninja would show up and actually give you anthrax. I never was completely sure and I think that was part of their appeal.
My other… well I don’t know if I could call it a favorite but I know I’ll never ever forget it as long as I live is the whole “It isn’t automatic” jingle.
You know the one. “It isn’t automatic! If they’re not a US citizen”
The point was that there was a lot of paperwork to file if you were going to marry a foreign national. The evil thing was it was played constantly and I’ll never ever ever be able to get that jingle out of my head.
Oh almost forgot. It’s not a single PSA but I have a soft spot for the whole American Military Heritage series. They’re not great so much for their content but just because it’s fun to randomly follow innapropriate sentences withthe , “And that’s another part of our American Military Heritage” tagline.
That’s hilarious! I’ll have to try that out on my sister sometime; she’s about the only one in my family who would probably get it. Thanks for the idea.
I’ve thought before that if some brave soul went through the pain of wading through all the hours of cheesy AFN commercials ever made, edited it together nicely, and provided a fittingly sarcastic MST3K, jump-the-shark commentary, they might be able to make a little profit marketing it to nostalgic ex-soldiers and Army brats. I can see it nestled comfortably among the other random leftovers in the Sight and Sound, or whatever they call it these days. (It would actually probably serve as a cool historical document as well - charting what the military thought was important from the earliest days of the Cold War through the end of the 20th century.)
On a bit of a tandem, whenever I’m listening to the radio and they announce the time, I hear the voice of an AFRTS guy in my head saying, “At the sound of the tone, it will be 12 o’clock in Central Europe… BEEEP.” Memories.
