It's rare to see a Fail this total

(Full Disclosure: I am typing this on a Toshiba Satellite. Last year, with my third Dell laptop falling apart, I decided to give Toshiba a try. No complaints, except that I wish the company would stop trying to sell me it's backup service, and that it's touchpad wasn't so damned sensitive. I also decided to ditch Dell because my fingers burn the letters right off the keyboard after about 18 months- something about the oddly acidic qualities of my fingertips. Very strange. But I digress...)

Ok, at first glance it appears that the entire point of this stupid, offensive assault on our senses is to convince us to pay a little (a lot) more for our Toshiba Laptops by purchasing an optional piece of equipment called an "Impact-Smart Hard Drive?"

So the potential customer is uncertain of the utility of this Not Standard Option- until he imagines a truly bizarre, Not Really Possible In Real Life series of events involving power outages, spoiled milk turning people into zombies, and an unnecessarily graphic, ugly moment of violence. His vivid imagination- not a sales pitch, not a practical example of what could happen if one's laptop gets damaged (loss of data- gee, I came up with that all by myself)-- is what convinces him.

So the actual message of this commercial is- Toshiba offers something called an Impact-Smart Hard Drive. It costs extra, and if you want it, it will delay shipping of your new laptop. And Toshiba can't think of a plausible reason why you'd need it anyway. So unless you are an idiot who thinks that drinking sour milk turns people into zombies, you are perfectly safe in skipping the option and getting your laptop at a lower cost, faster.

On the other hand, if you don't have a lot of money and don't Gotta Get a Dell, this company makes a pretty nice laptop to go along with their stupid, self-defeating commercials.

I bet they even gave him a FULL can of Coke, because after all, we LOVE our Vets!!

(Please skip to 0:53 to watch the commercial being panned.)

Here's another example of a company willing to latch itself to veterans like fricking sucker fish in order to sell the country on the idea of using it's product for reasons which have absolutely, positively NOTHING to do with the quality of the product.

Is Southwest Airlines a good company to work for? Who cares- check out the "patriotic" bunting. Is it easy to buy a ticket on Southwest Airlines? Doesn't matter- check out the red, white and blue balloons. Does Southwest Airlines fly to the place I need to go? Why are you even asking- can't you see the cheering crowds and the mini American flags? Whats' with all the questions- do you Hate America or something?

And this poor spokeschoad, forced to read (in stilted, obviously rehearsed fashion) the lame lines someone scribbled out on a card- if she wasn't such a tool, I might actually feel sorry for her. She actually thanks this ancient vet/pawn/willing backdrop for "honoring our country." What the hell does that even mean? She's thanking him for wearing his uniform and visiting the WWII Memorial in Washington, DC? Isn't thanking him for his service enough?

But if the lickspittle spokesperson isn't to be pitied for her job- imposing herself into every camera shot of the Quite Correctly Honored Veteran- the old veteran certainly is. For some reason, there's a big crowd of people with balloons and flags waiting for him at the airport when he arrives- assembled spontaneously, of course. Because we all know that the moment word gets around an airport that a Veteran Of An Actual Declared War is in the vicinity, we civilians get busy painting signs, arming ourselves with flags, and forming groups determined to Honor that particular vet- or at the very least, give him a smarmy, showy salute as we acknowledge his right to cram himself into a tiny Southwest Airlines puddle-jumping prop plane with zero overhead compartment space before us Lesser Non-Serving Peoples. (As if there's some advantage to be allowed to board one of their cramped coffins with wings first. Notice that no one has ever adopted the idea that maybe vets should have priority EXITING as well as priority BOARDING. Hey, patriotism can be carried only so far!)

Hey Southwest, thanks for not charging a baggage fee (for now. We all know that you'll cave at some point.) Thanks for providing a service which would be considered rather high-level if we still had PeopleExpress to compare it too. But please, leave the old men in uniform alone. Give them discounted tickets because you ought too, not because it's good publicity. Let them board planes first because- well, unless they are elderly, I really don't know how to finish that sentence. But stop acting like you deserve the freaking Medal of Freedom for doing it, ok?

Oh, and get out of the shot. This is not supposed to be about you (haha, who do I think I'm kidding?)

Yep, Old Navy went there. Shall we follow?

My faith in human nature is restored just a little bit (not too much, don't worry) by the reaction the YouTubers are giving to this insulting, nasty little overdose of poetic license from Old Navy. Almost universally, the idiots who usually confine their comments to "LOL!" and "I KNOW THE KID IN THS COMMERSHAL HES IN MY CLASS" and "What song is this?" express outrage at Old Navy's hijacking of "Our Country, 'Tis of Thee" to be used in the service of announcing some sale.

But I imagine that unless Old Navy is overwhelmed with angry calls and possibly a boycott, this is the harbinger of bigger offenses to come. So get ready for "Oh Say Can You See, by the glow of Bud Lite....." and worse. Because shame died a quiet death some time ago, and nothing, absolutely nothing is sacred. Heck, maybe even God Bless America- the song I won't stand for, and I don't give a damn how many angry stares I get- will be appropriated for use in selling Tacos, Cars, or Auto Insurance.

Actually, though- would that be so bad? Man, I hate that song. And at least if it was turned into an offensive commercial jingle, it might not be seen as an appropriate way to inject a little faux patriotism into perfectly innocent Major League Baseball games.

Just paint the bottles red, white and blue and get it over with

Ugh, I can't think of any company that has spent more time and energy over the last year trying to cash in on America's military adventurism, can you?

Miller's loud-mouthed, jackass beer delivery man (and arbiter of the proper use of watered-down Miller products) ostentatiously proclaims Miller Lite's love affair with "veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan." In a previous ad, this dick was satisfied with shaking the hands of one of these vets at an airport while admiring him with doe eyes. Apparently, the good people at Miller didn't think the message was received clearly enough, so it's been ramped up and amplified.

So this time, listen carefully, America:

Miller Lite LOVES THE VETS, OK? Not only LOVES THEM, but WORSHIPS THEM! Miller wants to salute the vets in every way possible, providing them "a piece of the High Life," and expressing appreciation in every PUBLIC forum available. But most importantly, Miller wants YOU, the VIEWER, to UNDERSTAND and APPRECIATE exactly how MUCH Miller Supports our VeteransTM. And they'll keep showing this appreciation- again, in the loudest, crassest, most over-the-top showy way imaginable- as long as we, the audience, keep sending in bottle caps.

As I said in a previous post concerning the same product- Hey Miller, if you were one-tenth as committed to "supporting the vets" and "giving them a piece of the High Life" as you were in wrapping yourself in the fricking flag and running for Most Patriotic Beer Company Ever in the hearts and minds of American beer drinkers, you'd quietly cut a check to the VA, pay for seats to sporting events, and provide cheap transportation for the Vets You Care So Very Deeply About. You wouldn't be pulling this More American Than Thou BS, and you wouldn't be so eager to use Our Vets as camouflage-clad backdrops to help you pimp your crappy beer.

On this Fourth of July weekend, a commercial exploiting America's soldiers is about as welcome as a Glenn Beck Restoring Honor rally, and about as sincere as an NYPD baseball cap on an obese tea-partier. Give it a rest, and save the flashy, cheap bunting for the car dealerships, ok?

Oh, and "I LOVE BIG BROTHER!!"

This ad reveals the real agenda of cell phone companies- to get us to use our technology to become brainless sheep with only the mentality of the mob to guide our actions.

The poor idiot who is caught acting in a bizarre fashion in the middle of the train station because he thought the "flash mob" (oh yeah, that's productive) was supposed to be taking place around him isn't really the victim here. It's virtually impossible to feel sorry for him- it would be like feeling sorry for that girl who became an internet sensation (not nearly as hard as it sounds) because she walked into the fountain at a shopping mall as her eyes were glued to her cell phone. If you are going to let a piece of technology order you around, if you are going to let that technology manipulate and dominate your life, you'd better expect moments like this.

No, the real victims are the people looking on in disgust. It couldn't be more obvious to me that they aren't pitying this dope because he made a fool of himself. They are pitying him because he made a fool of himself through his poor choice of technology. You see, if he had a cool modern phone with updated connectivity, this never would have happened. He would have known to be a total ass at 12:30, not noon. What an idiot! Let's all give him a condescending look, and then move on. But don't forget- the "flash mob" is still on, in a half an hour.

Why are these people victims? Because they've surrendered. They have cell phones because they have been convinced that what was once a luxury is now a necessity. They are on Facebook because they would not have friends without it, and Everyone Else Is There, right? They accept Tweets because if they didn't, they'd be ostracized. And they willingly engage in "Flash Mobs" because- well, because if they didn't, they wouldn't be part of the Social Network. And what could be worse than that?

It doesn't occur to them that in every step of their devolution from Individual to Faceless Non-person On List that the chain wrapped around their necks has grown tighter, and the sharp yanks on that chain more frequent.

And what is the point of the "Flash Mob?" Does anyone even bother to ask? Or do the people who engage in such things REALIZE that they are nothing more or less than exercises in mass manipulation?

A few years ago, an announcement like "Flash Mob At 12:30" would have resulted in a mass of shrugs and "whatevers." Today (at least for some people) it apparently carries the force of a command. Where not too long ago, the response to a text reading "JUMP!" might have received the response "What For?" Now the more likely response is "How High, and When?"

Willy Loman's home life was warmer than this

I suppose that this commercial is funny as long as you don't try to imagine for a minute that this might actually resemble real life for some people.

First, we have two soulless, personality-deficient potatoes referring to the time they didn't have cable as "the Dark Ages." Yeah, how horrible that must have been- you'd think it meant a year of talking, sex, taking walks, sex, reading, sex, and sex. Except...

We are "treated" to a scene of their life during the Dark Ages- zombie mom, desperate to find something- ANYTHING- worth watching so that she doesn't have to acknowledge her husband's sexual advances, scrolls through the offerings bleating "no...no...no...." Husband seems willing to start Life Without Constant Television, but Zombie Wife is having none of it.

And another scene which is not only sad, not only insulting, but actually draw-droppingly stupid: Mom and Daughter are trying to watch television, and Dad- having long since given up being anything to Mom but a Provider of Television- is on the roof adjusting the dish. In a rain storm. That's right- Dad is on the roof manipulating a large metal object, during a rain storm. And when he falls off the roof, it's LOL EPIC when Mom and Daughter don't notice. Well, I guess it's better than dad being FRIED by a BOLT OF LIGHTNING. Although if I was this guy, I might welcome the sweet release of death.

I'm not even going to comment on the "new use for the dish." I'm sure it's as LOL EPIC to the trogs who post YouTube comments as the rest of the ad.

So the message of this commercial is "life without television is barely worth living, because it kind of forces you to interact with your (snigger) 'loved ones.'" Super.

(BTW, how on earth was that daughter produced? Must have been a byproduct of another "Dark Ages.")

Those Asians! Is there anything they CAN'T do?

Considering how many Amazing Miracle Products were first "discovered" by people living in China thousands of years ago, it is truly astonishing that we aren't all speaking Chinese and eating diets rich in rice, fish and veggies (too bad, too.)

This commercial for an "Air Bead" Pillow even features an Asian-looking girl wearing flowered pajamas contentedly settling her pretty little head down for what we know will be yet another peaceful, uninterrupted night of comfortable rest. Meanwhile, we in the Un-Enlightened Western World are still putting our ridiculously heavy (ten pounds! Who knew?) rock heads on worthless, fluffy and ultimately crippling Not-Beaded pillows! What is the matter with us?

I mean, do we LIKE waking up in INCREDIBLE pain, starting our day by sharing our agony with our spouses (who wake up simultaneously, with the same complaint)? How are we to remain The Most Productive Work Force on the Planet if we can't get a decent night's sleep?

Thank goodness we've been clued in to the miracle of the buckwheat pillow. Yet, even though I'm pretty sure Buckwheat is plentiful, this pillow isn't filled with the stuff. Instead it features Air Beads, which I guess is as close to Synthetic Buckwheat as we can get. These "Air Beads" allow the pillow to adjust to our obese noggins and eliminate the roughly 6-7 hours per night we spend punching our traditional Inferior Western-style pillows.

Can I tell you how much I love the Glass Tubes and Eggs demonstration? It's not that we get to watch a 10-lb weight crush eggs not once, not twice, but three times (it left me wishing that pillows were filled with many other different substances- I did not want this part of the commercial to end, truly.) It's more the guy in the white lab coat who is conducting this "demonstration"- he really looks like a serious engineering student, not even cracking the hint of a smile as he performs what he must realize is an ABSURDLY STUPID ACT- THREE TIMES!! I mean, he's wearing a white lab coat! And are those glasses, or safety goggles? (Shattered eggshells have caused blindness in lab rats attempting this experiment at home, you know!)

And can I tell you how much I love the fact that the claim I made in my last post for "High-Definition Aviators" is reinforced here? If you order your Air Bead Pillow right now, you can get a pillow case for no extra charge- "just pay extra shipping and processing." How much do you think it costs to ship a pillow case? How much do you think these guys charge?

Anyway, this is yet another commercial which makes me smile more than it makes me frown. I really hope this isn't a trend. My guess is that there's a truly horrible cell phone ad coming up very shortly which will bring this streak to an abrupt end, and I'll be back to my usual cynical crabbiness. And life will go back to normal.

Until then- I really think these guys made a mistake of not just using buckwheat as the filler for this pillow. Then they could REALLY claim an ancient Asian connection for this product.

Unless the Air Beads are what I think they are- crushed packing peanuts. 'Cause I imagine they are really cheap, and only slightly louder than a bag of buckwheat.