Thursday, September 6, 2012
You saw the punchline coming from a mile away, didn't you?
It's the year 2012, and this is a commercial featuring a male and a female who also happen to be a couple. In other words, it didn't matter HOW carefully the male concealed the phone from the female in the car. It didn't matter HOW quietly he spoke to the mechanic. It didn't matter HOW quickly he got the hose re-attached to the carburetor. There was simply no WAY that
A) The male was going to get away with (gasp, horrors) getting mechanical advice from a (bigger gasp) mechanic, or
B) get credit for having the intelligence to call said mechanic and USE said advice.
Nope, no way. Everyone watching this commercial who also happened to be over the age of six knew all along that Big Stupid Male would pretend that he fixed the car His Own Self Without Any Help From Any Other Males, because that's what Impresses Females. And everyone watching this commercial who had watched more than a total of thirty minutes worth of commercials over the past five years was equally certain that Wise, All-Knowing, Never Ever Passing Up An Opportunity to Needlessly Bring Down said male would call that guy on his own harmless BS.
Which leaves us to wonder two things- first, why did they even bother to make this ad? Oh, right- because while men on tv never miss an opportunity to act like boastful overgrown children terrified of having to admit that they need help doing anything, watching them get cut down by their women never fails to delight and entertain the viewing audience. After all, would it really have been SO DAMNED DIFFICULT for the male in this commercial to say "hey honey, I called my mechanic and he told me what was wrong, and I fixed it" and for the female to respond "awesome, honey- that's a great service you have on your phone, great thinking in getting it?" Only in the land of commercials, I guess.
Second, while we weren't looking, mechanics apparently decided that they no longer wanted anyone to call for tow trucks, bring cars in for repairs, or avail themselves any of the very lucrative services provided by said auto mechanics, and instead would be providing free mechanical advice via video from now on. Remind me to sell my stock in Meineke and Pep Boys.
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Assuming that the mechanic was just a close friend who happened to be a mechanic, Matt must be some kind of car clairvoyant. There is not way you can tell what's wrong with a car just from a phone picture and a really crappy attempt to vocalize the sound. It'd be like a doctor correctly diagnosing a patient from "My stomach hurts".
ReplyDeleteIt's a ripoff of the AAMCO ads, where customers make loud jackasses of themselves trying to describe the noise their cars are making, and the All-Knowing, All-Wise mechanic replies "fan belt. No problem."
DeleteWhich would make me question the "Diagnosis" charge on the bill later, not to mention the 1.5 hour labor charge, not to mention how seriously the mechanic is taking my problem, but that's just me...
Considering that AAMCO is the McDonalds of car repair, I wouldn't even go there in the first place.
DeleteI can't help but think that this is a cynical attempt to drum up business by having inept clods like Phone Guy botch the repair and make a really expensive thing of something that would have cost less if he'd taken it at the first sign of trouble.
DeleteI think the real question here is who still drives a car with a carburator? The boyfriend doesn't look like a gearhead restoring a classic, or he'd know how to fix this already. So he's really just a guy with an old ass car. Way to pick 'em, girlfriend.
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