TV Commercials Interest Me Almost As Much As TV Shows

And not always in a good way. Like, have you seen the new Buick commercials?

-A couple looks out the window and comments on their neighbor's new car. They like it, but hey, don't the neighbors always get a Buick?

-A woman is on the phone, trying to find her friend who is in the parked car in front of her. "I'm in the Buick." She looks around at all the nice new cars. "Where?"

-A man shows his mom/grandma his new Buick. She sneers, "That's not a Buick."

In all of these instances, the message is "We don't suck any more." Is that the message they want to convey? (Maybe it is. If Buick really doesn't suck now, they probably should do something to get the word out.)

Wendy's does a variation on that theme. A woman sits down at the wrong table and starts eating Wendy's salad. When Wendy calls her on it, the woman says, "This is not Wendy's! Look at these ingredients!" (The subtext is, Wendy's would never make a quality salad.) That bothers me. But you know what bothers me more? This: I don't know where these two ladies are eating--looks like a fast food restaurant--but if it's Wendy's, wouldn't you expect that to be Wendy's food on the table? And if it's some other restaurant, it's pretty low-class (and against Health Code) for Wendy to bring her own salad in.

I just don't get the whole ad campaign. It's kind of like those "Under New Management" signs that you see sometimes. They always make me laugh. Why advertise new management unless the previous management was the problem. "Hey, we got rid of those jackasses and got new management that doesn't suck. Come back!"

Domino's Pizza seems to be trying that, with their "Failure IS an option" Campaign. Thanks, Domino's. You empower your employees and managers to suck. Hooray! That's why I order Papa John's.