Gatorade Showcases Peyton Manning’s Letters

Peyton Manning retired this March after 18 seasons in the NFL. His last season was a tough one featuring injuries, multiple controversies, and the worst statistics of his career. But the Broncos won the Super Bowl, and Peyton left on top. In this new Gatorade spot, we learn that Peyton Manning sent out hundreds of handwritten letters to people in all walks of life…teammates, rivals, coaches, family and friends, other athletes, and dedicated fans. Some of the letters are read aloud by those who received them, resulting in a stirring and touching tribute of an ad. Great stuff.

Spotify Wants You To Listen To Flo Rida’s “My House” If You Move To Canada This November

In recent years, “I’m moving to Canada” has become an annoyingly common thing to say in America in response to the impending election of a president you don’t want. It’s back due to this guy (and to a lesser extent, this Canadian-born guy).  Of course, it’s an empty threat since very few people actually go through with it. Becoming an ex-pat typically is a bit more complicated than the uninformed masses suggest. So while the concept of leaving America because democracy worked (for better or worse) irritates me, this Spotify commercial gives me the chuckles. It shows a couple hauling their house on the flatbed of a truck, while jamming to Flo Rida’s very fun track “My House.”

This Ad Council Video Follows The Life And Death Of A Strawberry

Food waste. It’s something we all encounter. If your household is like mine, there’s a lot of it. Most often, it’s something that gets pushed back in the fridge and forgotten about until it’s past the point of saving. In this really cool spot from the Ad Council, we see a strawberry growing and getting picked in the field (the music from the movie Up plays too). It’s packed into a box with other strawberries and trucked away. From there, it’s in a warehouse and then shipped off with other fruits, like limes. It gets on a plane and lands at a grocery store. There, a mom buys a lime and the box of strawberries, with insistence from her daughter. The strawberries come home where they’re washed and the mom eats one. She puts them back in the fridge…where they sit forgotten until they rot and are thrown away. What a shame. According to the spot, 40% of food in America is wasted. All that water, labor, fuel, money, and love is just gone. So be more aware, and waste less food. Here’s some more information about this campaign from Adweek.

 

NaturVet’s Outta My Box Makes Cat Poop Smell Less Bad And Reduces A Dog’s Craving To Eat It

In my life, I’ve had cats but never a dog. I like dogs..just never had one. And it’s true that cat litter can smell, but what do you expect from crap in a box? I didn’t know that dogs had a craving for cat feces, but now I know thanks to this commercial from NaturVet’s Outta My Box. The video seems to acknowledge its own ridiculousness with a talking cat and dog, and a scolding “it’s time to curb the urge, buddy” from the owner.

Shea Moisture Says To Break The Walls Between The “Beauty” Aisle And The “Ethnic” Section

As a white male, there are a lot of things I’ve never had to deal with. It can be awkward at times to talk about racial and gender issues, because the fact of the matter is that I don’t know what it’s like. So of course I’ve gone into a store and seen the “ethnic” section. I knew what “ethnic” meant, and I didn’t really question it. But Shea Moisture’s first TV commercial, created by Droga5, says that beauty is beauty and the ethnic section shouldn’t even exist. It’s excellent, thought-provoking work that addresses issues I’ve never thought about. Here’s more about the campaign from Adweek.

This Commercial Sucks: Chili’s $6, $7, And $8 Lunch Combos

Sure the “yum yum dum dum dum, we gon’ have some fun” opening (“Get Up” by Slightly Stirred, in case you were wondering) is annoying as hell. But what really makes this Chili’s lunch combos commercial insufferable is the sheer quantity of times it’s played as YouTube pre-roll. Here is a sampling of the comments on the spot’s YouTube page:

“I hope you realize that repetitive, unskipable ads make people not want your food.”

“yum diddly dum dum dum im gonna grab my gun now (boom)”

“I swear this fucking ad gave me PTSD.”

And so on. Guess I’m not the only one.

 

Tuesday Throwback: Fred McGriff Fully Endorses Tom Emanski And His Videos

In honor of baseball being back, today’s Tuesday Throwback is one that was shown for a long, long time. If you’ve watched ESPN in the last 25 years (especially late night), you probably have seen “Major League superstar” Fred McGriff’s commercials for Tom Emanski’s Defensive Drills video. They debuted in 1991, when McGriff played on the San Diego Padres, and aired basically unchanged (except sometimes updating what team McGriff was playing on) for years. The ads became fodder for many a SportsCenter anchor snarking about shoddy fundamental play. And let’s not even get into Crime Dog’s goofy cap. But I guess they worked. You don’t win back-to-back-to-back AAU championships without having good fundamentals.

Geico: If You Have Alligator Arms, You Avoid Picking Up The Check

Yeah, I see how that could be a problem. Poor guy. Though I guess he’s a little less poor than he could be, since he’s not picking up that check. I’m glad Mr. Alligator enjoyed that duck, even if his dining mates seem less enchanted by his manners.