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Earlier this year, two of my French ESL students (adults in the IT business) were laughing about the "Smiling Bob" male enhancement commercials. The woman commented that they didn't have that kind of commercial in France. The guy grinned and said, "Well, zat eez because zee French men, zay don't need zat!"
We laughed until our eyes were watering -- hands down, my most fun ESL teaching experience to date! Thank god for inappropriate "Smiling Bob"!!!
One of my least favorites is an IKEA commercial which has recently made a comeback wherein a woman rushes away from the store shrieking "Start the car! Start the car!", the message begin that the value is so great you'll be thinking you're a thief, but even so YOU WON'T LET YOUR MORALS GET THE BETTER OF YOU by attempting to correct the error you believe the store made.
So I take it that IKEA considers us all thieves at heart.
Offensive to me in another way are ads from places like Lowes celebrating conspicuous consumption either because you can or because you're involved in a one-upsmanship pissing contest with your neighbor(s). Buying something because you need it or want it is cool with me, I'm not rabidly antimaterialistic. Buying things just to buy them leaves me thinking of the collective good that could be done for others if a few people with money burning holes through their pocket decided to bundle their resources and do something for someone else (a youth park, for example) rather than ripping out last weeks landscaping or home attachment and replacing it with this weeks model. It is that implication of swift do-over based on nothing more than a momentary whim that irks me.
I was just watching Spongebob (i love it) yesterday on Nick, and I saw an ad for ED medicine! As in Erectile Disfunction! I thought to myself, holy crap, thousands of kids are watching this and they show a commercial about sex?!
Technically, it is. It started out as a show on MTV about two gay guys (Spongebob and Patrick), but no one watched it so they turned it into a kid's show!Originally Posted by famita;3085655;
I cannot stand the Bob the Enzyte guy. These commercials are so inappropriate with their innuendo. They are still showing the Christmas one too. First of all the big Chester the molestor smile he wears totally creeps me out. Then they top it off with calling him a chubby Santa and follow it up with his sleigh full of confidence and his sack full of pride. Oh and of course the one thing that the ladies like is that its the gift that keeps on giving.
I remember a few years ago the makers of Viagra sent a reproachful letter to Ben Affleck after he was on a talk show and told a story about someone giving him a viagra and he took it then his gf had to cancel their date. The makers of Viagra told Ben that it was irresponsible for him to be taking these pills he wasn't prescribed. But when ads like Bob the Enyte guy come on do they really think they're only targeting men who have ED?? I would think just about any man who watches these commercials would be thinking Whoo hoo! Lets have some fun!
Every time these commericals come on my husband yells at the TV:
"HOW CAN THEY STILL BE RUNNING THESE ADS!? THE COMPANY HAS BEEN SUED BY THE GOVT BECAUSE IT'S PROVEN THESE PILLS DON'T WORK!!!"I always just calmly say "because suckers keep buying them hunny"
I have run across some infomercial/home shopping network stuff lately selling adult products. I don't even know if I can phrase it more specifically without exceeding the PG-13 rating of the site!! They weren't even that late because I was flipping thru channels to see what was on with my 4 YEAR OLD daughter next to me and ran across one. WTH!? This was on regular basic cable channels. I really don't want my teenagers getting educated in that manner. I just cannot imagine they would stumble across that and then come say "Hey mom, I saw this thing on TV. What's that all about?" If consenting adults want to purchase that stuff fine, but can't they go to the Internet for it? Why does it have to be splashed all over my television!?
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