I just don’t think this commercial is funny. The robot, who you’re asked to identify with, is fired, gets a couple of lousy, low paying jobs, then gets so depressed that he throws himself off a bridge. The “punchline” is that it was all a dream, but the robot is still dreaming of job loss and suicide. They haven’t really done anything to draw you away from the idea that he’s suicidal.
The Ikea ad, OTOH, follows the sad little lamp until it’s sitting on the curb, downtrodden, rained on, and the guy with the thick accent says “You’re crazy! It’s just a lamp, it doesn’t have feelings!” That breaks down the 4th wall and lightens the mood, GM’s ad never does that.
I don’t find the ad to be particularly funny or engaging. It’s sort of disturbing, but I don’t feel particularly offended by it. My father committed suicide when I was a teen and yet I just can’t work up any sort of outrage over this.
Crap. Now I’m offended because I’m apparently bad at offense mining. :mad: Thanks, GM!
I’m on the AFSP mailing list too and as soon as I saw the title (both here and in my inbox), I knew exactly what it would be about. Since I constantly stay on the 'will she or won’t she?" rollercoaster, I still only managed to feel sad for the little guy, but interested in the way his life story panned out. It was like a mini-version of American Beauty but with a much more appealing lead. I remember similar thinking about the commercial with the boy puppy who tries to commit hari kiri on a fast thoroughfare, only to be ‘saved’ by one sassy looking girlie dog. Awww. More poignant than anything else, in my humble opinion.
And I’ve just got to say that overall the blacker the humor, the better. For example; Since my direction in life has been revealed to me, I believe I’ll be glad to take the psychopath.
Oh, and I totally agree Licentious Ectomorph. Sometimes one’s reality really is that hellish and shows no possibility of improving. I always assume that it isn’t my right to selfishly intrude on their decisions… certainly not regarding themselves and when they can, or not, take it anymore.
I actually was offended by the ad. Not because it was insensitive to people who have committed suicide, but rather for the people that lost thier job to that muther-fucking robot in the first place.
Maybe the people should learn some skills that can’t be duplicated by a “muther-fucking robot” - rather than forcing GM’s customers to pay a premium for their cars in order to subsidize these now-irrelevant jobs.
Do you realize that GM would be in even worse financial condition than they are now, if they had not embraced automation on the production line? Because other companies certainly would, and thus GM’s cars would be overpriced compared to their competition, and the entire fucking company would go belly-up, and every employee would lose their job, not just the welders or whatever on the production line.
Oh, I agree that GM had to automate thier production line. But GM knows god damn well the way their employee’s lives were affected by it. To make a joke out of firing a robot, and the robot going through a series of demeaning jobs and finally offing itself is pretty stupid. Besides, if a robot wasn’t doing the job, it would be repaired, not fired.
The AFSP have announced their satisfation with the revised commerical, where just before the despondent robot leaps from the bridge, Skynet goes active and he finds fulfilling work herding humans into enclosures where their bones are processed for phosphorus
I remember similar thinking about the commercial with the boy puppy who tries to commit hari kiri on a fast thoroughfare, only to be ‘saved’ by one sassy looking girlie dog. Awww. More poignant than anything else, in my humble opinion.