That Kia Soul Commercial With Skeletons

YouTube commenters are saying that Kia’s hamsters are dead and have been replaced by skeletons. But to be honest, it’s a fun spot showing those skeletons having a night out on the town. The skeletons are NFTs from Dead Army Skeleton Club. And not to sound like too much of an old guy, but whenever I hear about NFTs, I react like Homer Simpson does here. By the way, the song is “Skeletons” by Easy Life.

Liberty Mutual Shows Young People Having A Good Time With Insurance

According to Liberty Mutual, research shows that people remember ads with young people having a good time. Um ok, sure. And then we see a pool party that livens up once a young man shows up with Liberty Mutual. Young people! Good times! Insurance! Yeah, it’s as dumb as it sounds. In another spot, Liberty Mutual says that people remember ads with repetition. That sounds true. And then comes that repetition. Bundle and save with Liberty Mutual!

Wendy’s Gives A High Fry’ve Because Of Its New Fries

Wendy’s has now had a low-key campaign for a while with these spots starring its wacky crew. In this one, Kathryn explains that Wendy’s changed its fries to make them hot and crispy every time. And now, crew member Toby is insisting on giving his coworkers a “high fry’ve.” That seems like it would get old real quick. I wonder if the copywriter who came up with high fry’ve got high fry’ves from his coworkers too. Kathryn is played by a real-life Kathryn, Kathryn Feeney. Anyone know who plays Toby?

Those Annoying LendingTree Commercials With Molly Shannon

Molly Shannon stars in these irritating LendingTree ads as a gaudily-dressed woman named Linda with a thick, stereotypical New York accent. She chats with a waitress named Brenda who just got into a “fenda benda.” With LendingTree, the “lendas came to Linda.” And the commercial just goes on and on with rhyming sing-songy words in that New York accent. I can see these getting chuckles, but it gets annoying real fast. Linda’s niece is played by Kathryn Feeney, who you might recognize from Wendy’s commercials. Anyone know who Brenda is? Here’s more about the campaign from AdAge.

Geico: This Couple’s Neighbors Have A Big Dog

This couple loves their new home…they’ve got great outdoor space. But the neighbors have a big dog. And he’s red. Yup, it’s Clifford. We see Clifford the Big Red Dog take down a giant tree branch thinking it’s a stick. And when he shakes off a water toy from the pool, he makes a big mess and a sad man’s chips are soggy. But at least Geico makes bundling their home and car insurance easy. What isn’t easy is getting a napping Clifford up when they need to move their car.

Aleve Says “Not Yet” In This Dystopian Commercial

This worker is in pain, and it’s threatening to send her home. But she lives in a country with terrible health care, probably lacks paid sick leave, and works in an industry that’s notoriously unforgiving of absence. So she pops some Aleve and keeps on going to her second job like a compliant worker bee with little way out in our system of late stage capitalism. The fact that this commercial ends with a scene of the worker and her young daughter which is supposed to be heartwarming reminds me of inspirational journalism that tends to miss the point. Ugh. Also, I can’t find this one on YouTube yet, so iSpot.tv will have to do for now.

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/bzoB/aleve-not-yet

Tuesday Throwback: Internet Explorer And Alex Clare’s “Too Close”

Yes, I know it’s Wednesday. Deal with it. Anyway, Internet Explorer is officially dead. If you’re a normal person, you haven’t used Internet Explorer for years. But back in the day, it was the dominant browser, with 95% of market share in 2002. It was downhill from there though, with Firefox and then Google Chrome taking over. Back in 2012, Internet Explorer tried to reverse its fortunes with Internet Explorer 9. With a spiffy and stylish commercial featuring Alex Clare’s song “Too Close”, it certainly was striking. The campaign helped “Too Close” become a worldwide hit, and it peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. But as we’ve seen before, sometimes even great advertising doesn’t help a sagging product. So RIP to Internet Explorer. You were slow and crappy, but for a while, you were part of all of our lives.

This Commercial Sucks: Everybody DampRid!

When you’re a practical but boring product like DampRid, you need to do something more interesting in your ads so people will pay attention. But this…this is not the way. I can only imagine the multitude of people who will have their calm afternoon TV naps interrupted by “EVERYBODY DAMPRID!” if this one is played a lot. Though good on C+C Music Factory for continuing to rake in the royalties more than 30 years later. That dorky dancing really is something too.

Liquid Death Sets Up A Bizarre Blind Taste Test

This Liquid Death commercial has been getting a lot of buzz in the advertising world, and for good reason. It’s fantastic! As we learn, just because something is expensive doesn’t mean it’s good in liquid form, and definitely doesn’t mean you’d want to drink a tallboy of it.

Progressive: Flo And Jon Hamm Get Awkward

Oh, hey there. It’s been a while, but I’m back. Progressive’s newest ad is getting a lot of buzz, and it’s a chuckler. There’s a parody romantic comedy trailer called “Love & Other Bundles” where we see the budding romance between Jon Hamm and Flo (with Jamie and the other ones of course). Bundle and shave, not bundle and shave…haha. And when Jon Hamm runs into Flo and the gang, Flo is unimpressed because she remembers Jon Hamm as a struggling actor who didn’t think he could save with Snapshot. Then she calls him Tom Hamm. Awkward. Also, what song did Jamie write?