You may have seen this hilariously strange new ad for Tums Smoothies during the political convention season (2016) on TV. If so, you’ve “Felt the (Heart)Bern” in a way that probably made you do a double-take the first time you saw it: A pack of naked hot dog people, attacking a lone male camper in […]
Tag: commodity fetish
The #Whoppersign, the King and the Uncanny
Kudos to the fast food chain Burger King (and their marketing team, led by VP Fer Merchado), for making a bold step in addressing the special needs of people with hearing disabilities. To celebrate the most recent American Sign Language Day (on April 15th, 2016), they ran an advertising campaign that directly targeted the deaf, […]
The Clone Chores — aka. Return of the Maytag Men
Last June, I shared some observations about how das Unheimliche is employed in Maytag advertising that features the newest model of their Maytag Man spokesman. A year later, this great advertising icon is back in a new tv ad that has doubled-down on his inherent uncanniness…by framing the character as but one clone in a […]
Paranormal Vodka and Other Bestial Booze
Booze advertising keeps dancing on the dark side. Check out the recent commercial campaign for ThreeOlives Vodka — an ad so full of urban fantasy tropes that at first I thought it was going to be a trailer for a remake of Angel or something. Video: https://youtu.be/XLlpu341PdA The vid is high on gloss and romantic […]
Maytag’s New Maytag Man – Renewing an Icon with Uncanny Magic
If you watch commercial television, you may have been surprised to see this year that the Maytag Man has gotten an extreme makeover. The Maytag Man — aka “Ol’ Lonely” – is one of those classic icons of advertising — as commonly known as Ronald McDonald, the Michelin Man and the Energizer Bunny — due […]
You Don’t Eat Your Own Kind
My favorite Bizarro comic of recent days involves Mr. Peanut — that dapper mascot of Planter’s nuts — in a scenario that makes plain the inherent contradiction of advertisements that employ cartoon mascots to represent the very same products they sell. What IS the appeal of these imaginary spokespeanuts and mascots and similar characters in […]
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