Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Every day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the seventeenth day of the month is "Method."
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My husband has been watching episodes of an animated television show called Rick and Morty. For various reasons, he's watching it on an app that plays commercials. It's been a long time since I paid attention to commercials, but because they are absolutely blaring on this app - why are commercials so LOUD compared to the show you're watching?! - occasionally I actually look up from what I'm doing (normally working on my blog or reading) to look at the television.
And mostly my husband just mutes the television as soon as I look up. But there's this Burger King commercial (don't click on that link unless you want to have the jingle in your head for the rest of the day!) that we both really love and have started singing along with. Especially the last bit when the television yells "You Rule!" at us. I mean, thanks for the validation, Burger King. I DO rule.
What makes this commercial appealing to us? Is it the catchy jingle? The nostalgia of the "have it your way" slogan? Is it the positive affirmation at the end? I'm basically an advertisement black hole and never watch/pay attention to ads. I'm trigger happy with the fast forward button when I'm listening to podcasts. But when I was doing my Spanish practice on Duolingo today, I unmuted the ads so that I could listen to the BK jingle. You win, Burger King. Your method has worked.*
*I mean, no it hasn't. I'm not going to eat at Burger King.
Do you have an ad that you kind of secretly love?
Well, you never know. In a month or so you might find yourself eating an Impossible Whopper and large fries, thinking, "Wait! What am I doing???" We mute most commercials, but unmute for the Progressive commercials "how not to be like your parents." I like the latest one where they're teaching them not to leave voicemails- "Nine times out of ten a text will suffice."
ReplyDeleteOh I love the progressive commercials too!! Those are SO FUNNY!! Especially the "how not to be like your parents" ones- those are the best. The one when they're in the airport kills me. (The person rushing to the plane and the lady sitting there watching and saying to herself, "Somone should have left home a little earlier..... 😂)
DeleteI am unfamiliar with these commercials, but you better believe that I'm going to look them up right now!
DeleteWe don't watch live tv very often, but although we stream The Voice the day after, we must still endure commercials. We mute them.
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't know if my husband mutes the commercials when I'm not around. I am super sensitive to sounds, so he tends to err on the side of quiet, but I wonder if he does it when he's alone. I'll have to ask.
DeleteI'm almost ashamed to admit that I can sing an old McDonald's jingle that went: "2 all beef-patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame bun" I don't eat those sandwiches, but I can sing about them.
ReplyDeleteOh, yes! I will mutter "I'm lovin' it" whenever I pass a McDonald's and I haven't been to one in years! Their advertising really has saturated our brains, hasn't it?
DeleteYou probably don't get these down there, but I love Tim Hortons' commercials. There are a few that I actually tear up watching. I haven't seen one for years but I might just YouTube one.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we have Tim Horton's in Wisconsin, but certainly everywhere else I've lived has had them. My best friend is obsessed with Tim Horton's coffee. I don't think I've EVER seen a commercial for them, though. I'll look them up, although maybe I don't want to if they'll make me cry!
DeleteI love the Liberty Mutual insurance commercials!! The Christmas one last year with the kid and the bike was hilarious, and now they have one out about "young people having a good time"... If you don't ever watch TV, you might never see these, but their main thing is that they basically make a play on the fact that they are obviously doing marketing. So they'll do these exaggerated/ ridiculous commercials- in the current one, they start by saying: "Research shows that people remember ads with young people having a good time. So, here are some young people having a good time!" And then they cut to this pool scene of young adults having a blast in a pool, singing "We're young people, having a good time....with insurance!!..." and like sliding down water slides holding signs that say "liberty mutual" with these big cheesy grins on their faces. It's absolutely absurd, yet hilarious and catchy in a crazy way!! haha. I think I like it because they are just so completely blunt about the fact that they are ADVERTISING. hahaha. I love it.
ReplyDeleteHow very meta! Can you imagine the ad execs trying to sell that campaign? I can't even!
DeleteI find the Liberty Mutual commercials highly annoying and keep wondering who came up with these (and gets paid for that bullsh*t) LOL
DeleteMy husband would strongly disagree with me on this, but I loved last year's commercials by Hyvee. I think you are probably familiar w/ Hyvee since you've spent time in IA. Last year they had a new commercial each month to the song "Our House." And they changed the words based on the month, so February was red/Valentine's themed, March was St Patricks Day and March Madness themed, April was Easter and so on. My husband loathed them but I thought they were so clever!
ReplyDeleteOh, I desperately wish we had HyVee. Their natural food/gluten-free selection is so good, which you probably know. I am not familiar with these commercials, though. What a clever use of a jingle/song.
DeleteWe only have streaming services (literally NO channels on our TV at all), and I kinda miss commercials. Growing up my parents always muted them, but the funny ones can be almost as good as whatever show is being watched.
ReplyDeleteOh...and the most memorable commercial for me EVER was on TV for years. It was from Mothers Against Drunk Driving. It showsed these tall tumblers collecting (representing someone consuming more and more drinks) on a freeway and the headlights getting blurrier and blurrier through the glass before there's a crashing sound and everything goes black. All these years later (decades) I still remember it vividly. I hope it was as memorable to people who drank as it was to a 5 year old (at the time I didn't even understand what it was about, but it is forever burned in my memory).
ReplyDeleteOh, man. In the States, there was a frying pan with an egg ("this is your brain on drugs") that haunts a generation of us. AND, there was one about wearing seatbelts where a kid reminded her dad to wear one and we quoted that stupid commercial for years and years. I bet your kids know some commercials, despite the streaming (the channel my husband is using is a streaming service that somehow still includes commercials) from YouTube or whatever. I'd be curious to know what this generation's version of the MADD crash or frying pan commercials are.
DeleteButting in on your conversation to say that I remember those egg "this is your brain on drugs" commercials SO clearly! Also, there was a campaign about electricity safety that I remember vividly. The star was a cartoon insect called Louie the Lightning Bug and he sang songs about staying away from electrical wires and being careful with outlets and the like. "You gotta play it safe around elec-tri-ci-ty!" It was very catchy. I am duly very careful around electrical wires.
DeleteIt is INSANE how much influence those ads had on our behavior! My body is my temple and I don't do drugs mostly because a commercial once told me it would scramble my brain. Marketing works!
DeleteOne of the propositions on our ballot in California recently was for dialysis clinics, and at the end was this old woman who said, "Please! Vote NO" in such a perfect voice, we watched/listened every time. I voted no, just for her.
ReplyDeleteOh, man. That's some effective marketing from the No lobby!
DeleteWell, I did research it, I was kidding about voting just for her. But it did make me happy that my vote was what she wanted. Also, I don't eat BK* either, but I <3 them because my daughter got a $1,000 scholarship to college from them. Yay! Between that and another one, she paid for her first year at our local community college.
Delete*I did eat at BK in France, though it was not a first, second, or third choice. It was due to not being able to find parking in the town we were driving through, my cousin REALLY having to pee, and the fact that we still had 3 hours of driving ahead of us before we would be home, and it was getting late. French BK tastes like BK. Blah.
Oh, I assumed you'd researched it. I feel like I read in another blog where someone was like "I don't want to have to make healthcare decisions for other people - why are we even voting on dialysis?" and I felt truly bad for all the things Californians need to deal with on their ballots!
DeleteI have fond memories of BK when I was a child, but the last time I ate there, bad things happened, so I think I'm not used to that level of grease anymore. *sigh* The things we miss as we get older.
My kids sing along to the Liberty Mutual tune. Which I find hilarious. I do have a soft spot for Geico commercials. The Marco Polo one makes me laugh every time. I feel like I see a smaller variety of commercials now that we don't have cable - most commercials I see are on Hulu, sometimes on YouTube, and it always seems like it's cars or insurance.
ReplyDeleteI have to think that people who write jingles are really brilliant - the tunes have to be catchy and succinct and they have to just crank them out.
The Geico Commercials with the lizard are so cute ;)
DeleteSo many insurance commercials! I have trouble keeping all the companies straight, to be honest.
DeleteI can't play along this time! I use AdBlock on my computers and anytime that an ad comes up on a podcast I skip ahead in 30 second increments until it's gone.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I don't pay for anything, so sometimes I get ads. Five seconds here and there on YouTube, full 30-60 second ads on Spotify, and this app my husband is using on our AppleTV to watch this show. I don't see a ton of ads, but they do creep in.
DeleteJon usually mutes all commercials - LOL - and a lot of commercials are really annoying, but whenever someone comes up with a good one (and the Burger King one is good - even though it wouldn't convince me to go eat at Burger King LOL), I am positively surprised and don't mind having the jingle in my head.
ReplyDeleteYes! It's so surprising when there's a good ad! I mean, it's HARD to write something catchy and not obnoxious.
DeleteLOL, love that you love the ad but it's not getting the desired effect with you.
ReplyDeleteBut, I guess I have an overall positive impression of BK and that's probably what they want, right?
DeleteI love the Progressive commercials. They hit very hard. We cut the cord and only stream, so it's very rare that we watch anything with commercials. Even on YouTube TV -- which we use mainly for watching football -- we watch "pre-recorded" (that's not the right term; I don't know what it's called now that it's all streaming) shows, so we can fast forward.
ReplyDeleteRight. Because I don't pay for anything, I still see ads on YT. Mostly they're only five seconds or whatever, but I get them! I mostly ignore them, but I'm sure they're taking up space in my brain just the same.
DeleteThe advertising has worked ;-) You are talking about it and dedicated a whole post to it. At least a couple of people have watched the ad you linked. This is adversing haven.... And my ultimate goal in my day job.
ReplyDeleteSo much said, even though marketing and advertising is my job I often unmute or skip it. But mainly because advertising is so boring...
Oh, I could talk about commercials all day long. The only time I really get to see them is when I watch football. So many ads. Like others have mentioned, the Progressive ads are my all-time favorites. Jamie is forever one of my most favorite characters to exist.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I didn't even have to click the link to know what BK jingle you were talking about, and now it's in my head. Dammit.
I'm in Beckett's camp here - rarely see them, so don't know them. But I do know every blinkin' ad on the ESPN Sportscenter All Night radio shows because they use the same ones for months and months at a time. I could probably recite them verbatim at this point...
ReplyDelete