Commercials

6 posts

QOTD: What was your favorite Super Bowl commercial?

I was a little crazed for most of the first quarter of the game as I finished up the last of my party snacks, so I may have missed a couple good ones, but I thought the commercials were a little “meh” this year. However, I did really like the RadioShack one where the 80s called, asked for their store back and then numerous stars from that decade raided the store. Continue reading

Jean-Claude Van Damme’s New Commercial Will Haunt Your Dreams

It’s not every day you come across someone watching you sensuously, crazily, bongo-ily with the professional soul searing stare only a Belgian hanging from the ceiling can produce. That is unless you’ve unearthed Jean-Claude Van Damme from a yoga den full of random sports-splits, and questionably fashionable acid-wash WrestleMania pants and thrown into a 2013 commercial complete with a fire flute, because naturally. But, well, that’s what we’ve got here. Continue reading

Who is Fiat’s Target Customer?

I have been watching Fiat’s foray into the US market for the past few months, and every time I see a new commercial for their cars, I am left feeling a bit baffled. Who the heck are these ads speaking to? It is very interesting to see a large company struggling to articulate and define their target customers. Now, I do understand that the ads below are for two different “iterations” of the Fiat 500. However, Fiat didn’t have a brand presence in the US prior to these commercials airing, so it would have been wise for them to use these first few commercials to establish their brand identity. Also, both the Fiat 500 and the Fiat 500 Abarth look pretty much exactly the same, so to the casual observer all of the following commercials could be for the same car. Continue reading

Things Television Commercials Should Say

There are two types of commercials that annoy most viewers. 1) The ones you see ad nauseum 2) The ones that say or do something so silly that it is instantly mockable. You know the ones. The kind that you can just see all the ad execs sitting around patting themselves on the back for producing a revolutionary! artistic! stunningly awful! thing that you’d frankly never want to see again, because it tests your patience, insults your intelligence, or just outright steals from your youth like a Kardashian looking for a soul wrapped in money. Is Mr. T wearing a Mohawk toupee’?! Yep. This is what I’m saying. Continue reading

Eh?

Hey.
I’m not a lumberjack, or a fur trader, and I don’t live in an igloo or eat blubber, or own a dog sled, and I don’t know Jimmy, Sally or Suzy from Canada, although I’m certain they’re really, really nice.
I have a Prime Minister, not a President. I speak English and French, not American, and I pronounce it ‘about’, not ‘a boot’.
I can proudly sew my country’s flag on my backpack. I believe in peacekeeping, not policing; diversity, not assimilation; and that the beaver is a truly proud and noble animal.
A tuque is a hat, a chesterfield is a couch, and it is pronounced zed: not zee – zed!!
Canada is the second largest land mass! The first nation of hockey! And the best part of North America!
My name is Joe!! And I am Canadian!
… Thank you.

If this left you confused, or angry, you probably aren’t Canadian.

This was part of a series of Commercials released in the late 1990’s by Molson, the beer company. It prompted many spoofs and spin offs- it’s been a long running joke up here that Americans don’t know much about their neighbours to the north, a fact that both irritates and amuses. On one hand, as seen above, it can be fun to play up the stereotypes. There’s this understated sense of entitlement among Canadians that since we know more about you than you know about us, we’re just a little bit better. However, we would almost never admit it- that would be rude. As Canadians we seek our southern partner’s approval with almost an embarrassing eagerness (We’re just like you, honestly!), yet at the same time cast aside the idea that we are the same. We’re like the little sibling desperately wanting to be included with the older one, yet not wanting the fact to be pointed out.

I’ve been struggling with ideas for posts, trying to think of topics that I know quite a bit about. Then it struck me like a hockey puck to the side of my toque-covered head- I am among a select few Canucks here. Why not write about that?

So just like SiS asks for topics about science and then writes stories on that, I am asking this of you: What is something about Canada that you would like to know about? Politics, beer, our East vs. West mentality, marijuana, shopping, sports, culture, tv personalities, healthcare, differences between the American way and the Canadian way of doing thigns, how we survive 6 months of winter… you name it, I will do my best to talk about it. If I have no clue, I’ll try to figure it out. I can’t speak for the whole country, just my little neck of the woods.

(Disclaimer: I love you guys, I really do. I mean no offence to anyone and I am sincerely sorry if any has been taken.)