Of course slight variations exist like, "You're in advertising? You know what commercial I absolutely love!" or, "You know what commercial I soooo hate? I hate that Empire carpet commercial–I hate that! That guy's voice is soooo weird!" You get the idea.
One time–and I swear I'm not making this up–a few of them got into a conversation rating all the commercials of the past 10 years that have had talking or singing animals. I couldn't believe how many were recited and in what detail they were described. Predictably, a few adorable puppies were alluded to. Someone pointed out that the spot in which the dog tears through the house for, "Bacon, bacon, BACON!!! starts out funny but becomes annoying as the dog appears rabid. And, everyone gave a thumbs up to the Jeep commercial, the one where all the animals of the forest sing along to Andy Kim's 70's hit, "Rock Me Gently, Rock Me Slowly."
The best came from my aunt. She told me that she saw an Eclipse gum commercial which she dislikes so vehemently that, from now on, she will go back to chewing
only her Chowards, a violet scented gum that she's been digging out of her purse for as long as I can remember. I have a feeling she's
not being entirely objective. It probably has less to do with the quality of the commercial, than the fact that her favorite nephew no longer works at the agency that has Eclipse gum. I love my aunt.
My nephew loves the Apple commercials because the music is cool. He believes that it is the music that makes a commercial and doesn't understand why companies don't "get it" because it seems so simple to him.
And my own father said, "You know what commercial I love? I love that Viagra commercial–you know, the one with the country band?"
"Yes," I say, "I know it. You like the jingle?"
He is unashamed. "What, you don't like that commercial? I love the way that guy sings, "I can't wait, I can't WAIT to get home."
My dad does not understand why this commercial isn't my all-time favorite. So he would certainly not understand why I now suspect that I was adopted.
But recently my niece widened the specs of the conversation. She asked me if I had ever seen the You Tube video for Ray Ban–it's almost a year old now–in which this rather cool guy, from points of varying difficulty, flips a pair of Wayfarers into the air to land perfectly on his friend's nose (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-prfAENSh2k). For my niece, this little product demo sticks to the conversation. As she saw it, we weren't talking about 30-second commercials on TV so much as were just talking about commercials, and about film. Film is magical and film can really make people feel something–regardless of the screen you view it on–and that is something you chit chat about around a barbecue.
Anyway, sometimes I do wish that, after a long week, I didn't have to talk about work-related stuff, but I suppose it doesn't bother me enough to forgo a party or simply tune out. I guess way deep down, when they bring up the subject, it feels partly like a compliment–a backhanded compliment sometimes as in the case of the Viagra commercial, but nevertheless a compliment. Such is, I suppose, the glamour of film. Film is pretty cool.
No comments:
Post a Comment