39 replies to this topic

[SnideAsides]

Prediction: Other ads might be more heart-wrenching, but this will be the funniest.

[Actionmage]

Good for the Funny:
*The Go On ad with the gymnast? The fellow therapy member in a matching leotard was fun, though not a surprise.
*The Animal Practice ad with with the retriever (?) dreaming of swimming in the Games.
*The diver "diving" from the tallest building in the world courtesy of Visa.

There's bound to be more I'm forgetting. Other than the ones that seem overly invested in Mr. Phelps winning eight golds, no complaints. So far.

eta:
*Nike's ad that ends with the liiiittle bitty boy on that tall forever metre board; his jump just made me hold my breath for him and my tummy flop 'cause I hate heights.
*Wreck-It-Ralph's ads with the title character doing or helping with a sport. My least fave was the Jane Lynch/Jack McBrayer version; my favorite is the one with the girl vaulting over Ralph and him scoring her.
*TD AMeritrade (I know!) and their Jonathan Horton story. It tells of the time 4y.o. jon and the time he climbe to the ceiling of a department store! (I know!!) The Narrator tells us that most folks would've chastised the boy, but the Hortons found him gymnastics lessons. It's seeing footage of younger Jonathan that helps sell the ad, imo.

While I appreciate P&G's wanting to minimize potential injuries younger viewers may inflict on themselves, the point of their salute-type of ads are to parents/moms who deal with Olympians/potential Olympians practicing at home and making messes their moms clean up. (You win a medal, you are exempt from cleaning up after yourself? Sweet- I'm signing up.) Also, if you don't want to inspire young'ns to strive for Olympic glory? Don't show other young children doing what young children do on a daily basis, Olympic fever or not.

It's weak sauce to have tiny type saying not to do what's in the ad when the message of the ad is: strive for your dreams.

Edited by Actionmage, Jul 29, 2012 @ 8:10 PM.

[threebluestars]

Canadian hardware retailer Rona has a commercial featuring a unique relay lol

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=xvEQtdtDuQk

Dawn dish soap has sponges that swim! http://www.dawn-dish...awn/commercials

[legaleagle44]

Ah, Morgan Freeman. How I have missed you as the voice of Visa!

[selkie]

Local ad rates must be pretty cheap because our Alabama-based NBC station keeps showing the ones for the 'your car title for cash' place. At least I can laugh a little because it reminds me of Lolo Jones' tweet about how if she wins the 100 hurdles, first stop off the plane when she gets home is hitting her local Cash 4 Gold store.

[Milburn Stone]

The words of so many of the "big" commercials show a strained poeticism that is just clumsy and painful. If you can't write great poetic prose, just don't. Some of these spots actually would go from bad to pretty good--with their full corporate meanings intact--if 85% of the words were taken out.

Edited by Milburn Stone, Jul 29, 2012 @ 11:55 AM.

[sienna gold]

Visa is on the ball - they've already got winner adds up.

[redpencil]

Does anyone else think that the Fruit of the Loom ad with the girl spinning around in slo-mo is trying to capture the success of the Snowboarder in Space ad from Vancouver?

Intentional or not, it's not even close to as effective. I went out of my way to watch the snowboarder ad as often as possible. Not so much this Fruit of the Loom one.

[SophiaD]

The new Direct TV ads aren't anywhere near as funny as the crazy Russian guy with the micro giraffe.

[Haveahabit]

Hey Chevy! You want to know what really runs deep? My absolute hatred of your incessant online commercials.

[SophiaD]

Little John Orozco looks just like his grown-up self, only smaller. Adorable.

[Actionmage]

I've seen the start of an ad a million times, but it's never shown fully in my area (North Texas), so I'm wondering if anyone else actually has seen it all the way through, good/bad/indifferent:

A toddler in a Philly Flyers jersey is standing by/holding onto a coffee table and starts to fall/end up sitting on their butt. That's as far as the ad goes before other ads cut in. The footage looks like "found" footage or is actual footage of a sweet little tyke. Like I said, I'm just curious about what the deal is and what the spot is about.

Sophia D, I'm kinda sad that Mr. "Opulence, I Has It" and his adorable teensy giraffee haven't shown up to regale us about why various medal winners don't impress him, in hilarious ways and/or hilarious reasons. Dude was fun.

[Demian]

Local ad rates must be pretty cheap because our Alabama-based NBC station keeps showing the ones for the 'your car title for cash' place.

New York City's affiliate aired one for a discount furniture warehouse in New Jersey.

NBC's incessant in-house ads for their fall lineup are making me hate each and every one of their new shows long before any of them have aired. Was there really some great, clamoring demand for Matthew Perry to return to primetime? Or did he run through all of his Friends money already?

[selkie]

I have to admit that the Chicago Fire ones are so over the top for what looks like a thoroughly generic and predictable show with overly pretty people that we're having a fair amount of fun mocking them. Unlike the ads for the vet's office show, which just make me cringe.

[B2H]

Although possibly off-thread, there is a new Olympic themed commercial running here in Ohio. It includes Kristy Yamaguchi and several other Olympian participants and medal winners from the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Yep, Mitt Romney is running a campaign commercial, replete with images of the 2002 Olympics and how he came to their rescue when they were deeply in debt.

I found it marginally annoying, but not unexpected.

[Good Queen Jane]

Kristi Yamaguchi wasn't at the 2002 Olympics. Are you thinking of Michelle Kwan? Kristi is on a commercial for Kohl's.

[kems28]

Yep, Mitt Romney is running a campaign commercial, replete with images of the 2002 Olympics and how he came to their rescue when they were deeply in debt.

Wait, really? The DNC tried to run an anti-Romney ad with images from the 2002 Olympics and the IOC told them they had to take it down. Is he just running it without their permission, or does he get special privileges because he's a former Olympic organizer?

[drmka9]

Kristi Yamaguchi wasn't at the 2002 Olympics. Are you thinking of Michelle Kwan? Kristi is on a commercial for Kohl's.

The fact that Yamaguchi didn't compete in 2002 makes her presence in Romney's ad all the more baffling. I'm pretty sure Derek Parra, also in the ad, at least competed in Salt Lake.

The DNC tried to run an anti-Romney ad with images from the 2002 Olympics and the IOC told them they had to take it down. Is he just running it without their permission, or does he get special privileges because he's a former Olympic organizer?

I don't know the details of the DNC's ad, but Romney's doesn't seem to use actual Olympic images, footage, or anything the Olympics can claim copyright to. It's a few athletes talking about the Olympics in general, then a few clips from newspapers about how Romney came in and 'saved' the Olympics.

[kems28]

Oh nevermind, I thought he was using actual clips from the games. Athletes and newspapers make more sense.

[SnideAsides]

Which is odd, because with him at the helm they needed a billion-dollar-plus bailout.

It wouldn't surprise me if the IOC is *very* pissed with him right now, given how they've been cracking down on people trading in on the Olympics in London itself.

Edited by SnideAsides, Aug 1, 2012 @ 5:29 PM.

[selkie]

I wish they could have gotten rid of the political ads from any side or campaign altogether as part of NBC's advertising agreement. Whoever has the Super Bowl every year typically says 'no political ads' and it would be nice if the Olympics followed suit. But alas, NBC is losing so much money on the games, they can't turn down many sponsors.

[yruneh]

It's awkward when they make commercials with athletes who they anticipate doing well, but who end up flaming out. Decathlete Bryan Clay is in a couple commercials (like BP), but he ended up losing in the Olympic trials.

[kenyaj]

The Romney/Olympics ad was actually created by one of his SuperPACs. I've seen it here in Tampa at least 5 times in the past 24 hours of Olympic coverage, along with 23 million other political ads. (It sucks living in the I-4 corridor every 4 years.). It's ruining my enjoyment of the games, so I also wish they could be banned for these 2 weeks.

[legaleagle44]

Thankfully, the political ads are kept to a minimum where I am (Arizona). They're mainly more about the State races than the Presidential one at the moment, but since I hate our local politicians, too, they're still a minor irritant, although I can actually count the average number of these ads per night on the fingers of one hand.

[Matt K]

Did anyone else see that Ragu ad (it played during the Olympics so close enough)?

I wasn't really paying attention until they insinuated that the boy saw his parents having sex and so he really deserved himself some Ragu.

Hilarious.

The Ragu Olympic Commercial

I don't think I want Ragu anymore. Nothing like traumatizing your kid by linking Ragu (or pasta sauce) with seeing your parents having sex.

Edited by Matt K, Aug 5, 2012 @ 10:26 PM.

[Vermicious Knid]

There's a phone commercial, AT&T I think, with a runner who listens to audiobooks on his phone all the way through the Odyssey and starts on Moby Dick. Are we supposed to know who he is? I saw that multiple times before even noticing the Team USA shirt, so I guess he's an Olympian.

[areed]

I didn't recognize him, either (guy in the AT&T ad), but it's Ryan Hall, who is an Olympic marathon runner. Coverage in a local daily paper here: http://www.redbluffd...ews/ci_21199005

Gack, the article notes that he listed God as his coach on one of those routine drug test forms. Whether funny or serious, I'd rather not hear about it. Maybe he was between human coaches or something.

[B2H]

For the record, the Romney ad doesn't mention the bailout, but does mention his saving the Olympics and, I think it says, he ended with a surplus.

[Good Queen Jane]

I was impressed by how fast Visa got on the air its commercial congratulating Misty and Kerri on winning their third gold medal in beach volleyball. I recognize that they had several hours after the win before the NBC broadcast, but it still was quick. Since I assume they have pre-taped the commercials, I wonder what they do with the commercials for athletes who don't medal. Do they ship them off to Third World nations like the Super Bowl loser t-shirts?

[Mxytdvc]

Since I assume they have pre-taped the commercials, I wonder what they do with the commercials for athletes who don't medal.

I'm going to guess the person who didn't win won't get the endorsement money. For the events that Visa is pretty sure of the outcome (like Canada winning the first gold on Canadian soil like in 2010, or Misty and Kerri getting gold, or Phelps winning a bucket of medals), they probably make them in advance and just tell the stations when to run them, or pull it when an upset happens.

I haven't seen a Visa commercial for Gabby yet (or for the Women winning the gymnastics team final), so I'm guessing they had one taped for Jordyn, but she didn't make it (I recall reading some articles about her loss of millions in endorsements for not making the AA).

As for Romney....IIRC, the SLC games had a boatload of controversy surrounding them, and were not the raging success they claim (which makes me laugh at the Romney ad). You'd never know that from the local stations (I was recently in Utah on travel), because they pat themselves on the back for the games, claim they were the most successful ever!, boast about how London talked to them to prep for their games (I have a feeling London talked to most, if not all, of the cities that recently hosted a games), and talk about when they will host them next.