Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Yes, he actually said "Accessing Brain Information" out loud
Stereotype Nerd Name: Check.
Stereotype Everyone In Offices With Even a Rudimentary Knowledge of Computers is a fat, pasty, chinless geek: Check.
As for the rest- kind of makes you wonder why the average office desk jockey would feel the need to seek advice from Your Company's Computer Guy on a question so mundane as "where can I buy a tablet." So only Computer Guys notice the endless stream of commercials for tablets? Only Computer Guys know about this mysterious corporation called "Verizon?" What the hell?
Oh, and Pointlessly Obvious Geek is also Neurotic and Lacking in Basic Social Skills: Check. "Could you move your beverage away from the keyboard...." Beverage? "..it's making me Anxious." Anxious? Oh yeah, we get it- you are tech-savvy, which means you must be tech-paranoid, besides being incapable of talking to fellow carbon-based life forms without using stilted language. Sigh. Whatever.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Thanks, T Mobile. I can die now that I am totally lost.
The only way this commercial makes any sense at all is if we have finally reached the day I kind of thought we would get to within a few years anyway: The day where it's perfectly reasonable to believe that someone would "send like a hundred texts," get no response regardless of the urgency of the messages, yet never once actually use her phone to MAKE A PHONE CALL.
The woman in this ad fell off her bike and broke her arm, but still found it more convenient to text her boyfriend instead of calling him. She got to the hospital and texted him again. She needed a ride home, and texted him again. She just kept texting and texting. From the dialogue in this ad, it never even occurred to her to JUST STOP TEXTING AND DIAL HIS FREAKING NUMBER YOU BRAINLESS DUMBASS!!
Maybe they aren't the kind of "friends" who can actually talk on the phone. Seems kind of odd, if she was expecting him to rush to the hospital and give her a ride home. Plus, he calls her "baby." Maybe I just don't get Relationship Etiquette in 2013. That's plausible.
Still- "send like a hundred texts" and not a single actual call made? Oh wait- are there cell phones that don't have calling options anymore? No, no- I'm not that far behind the curve...am I?
And by the way, what kind of contract doesn't allow you to actually replace a broken phone? I thought all phone companies spent their time trying to get us to "upgrade" our perfectly GOOD phones- this guy is working with a company that won't LET him swap out a BROKEN one?
Seriously. What the hell?
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Amy the Amazon Kindle Sprite lives on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Which is in downtown Karachi.
Before I get to Amy and the sad shipwreck that is her life, I just have to spend a moment snarking on the concept of a "Mayday Button" on the new Kindle Fire. I mean, jeeesh....I have an old-fashioned Kindle, with e-ink and no color. Doesn't sound familiar? It's for reading books. Still doesn't sound familiar? Sigh....
Anyway, my lame, black and white non-TV streaming Kindle doesn't have a Mayday button because it doesn't need one. What Kindle is telling me here is that their new version is so damned complicated, it has to include what is in effect a panic button that puts the owner in contact with a grinning zombie eager to guide you around your new little toy, You Clueless Dumbfuck Why Don't You Just Ask One Of Your Kids To Help You?
Ok, enough of whole "Mayday Button" thing- is Amy the Kindle Sprite related to the Magic State Farm Insurance Genie? Because if those ads are at all realistic, it means that there is an army of Eternally Happy to Be Of Service At A Moment's Notice women just waiting to be summoned by clueless morons who Need Help Right Now. Anyone else think that the instantaneous appearance of Amy is more than a little disturbing? What was she doing before this guy pushed that Mayday button? Staring at a blank screen, wishing some drooling moron would rub the Kindle in just the right way and summon her from her freaking bottle?
Come to think of it, Kindle and State Farm aren't the only commercials which sell the idea that there is an entire population of people out there just waiting to fly to our assistance whenever we are befuddled by anything for more than a few seconds. There are those Lincoln Concierge ads, where all one has to do is stare lustfully at a particular car to have someone magically materialize in front of you to explain how awesome it is an book a test drive. There's those spots for OnStar which feature disembodied voices thrilled to death to have the opportunity to book reservations and buy flowers for thoughtless moron buttmunches who are simply too busy to remember to do that shit for themselves. The message is pretty clear- if you've got money, you are a button-push away from getting some drone sitting in a cubicle to wipe your nose for you.
So my question is- who the hell are these people who respond to the pushing of buttons labeled "OnStar" or "Chat with an Agent" or "Mayday?" What happened in their lives to drive them to being handmaidens for loathsomely clueless fucktards who can't be bothered to read a manual (or a website) or anything else if hey, look, here's someone who will do it for me? Do they ever think about it? Do they dream of being on the other end of that button some day? Or are they just grateful to be picking up a paycheck?
Oh, and one more thing- come on, seriously. Amy- and all the other "click here to talk to someone right now" minions- live on the other side of the planet, right? Like in Pakistan? And they don't look at all like Amy, do they? Much darker and significantly less blonde? And there's nothing about their paycheck that justifies this level of giddiness- am I right?
And we are in for another month of this. It's going to be a painful December
There are several of these Best Buy "'twas the night before Christmas" ads.
They all feature "parents" congratulating themselves on buying something expensive for their kids.
And being appreciated by those kids, if only for a day.
They find this joyous. We are supposed to find this charming.
We are disgusted, and grossed out, and frankly very, very sad.
And then we realize that oh my god, they were actually rhyming this. And we remember fondly the times we half-watched, half-listened to these ads and didn't notice. Those times when these ads were just depressing, and just made us want to cry a little, and didn't fill us with rage at what has become of the season.
And I didn't even comment on the whole "Holy Grail" imagery.
I have to go lie down now.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Oh, and why can't this guy just fall and break his stupid neck? Why don't I ever get anything I want?
There are a few things I've never understood about ads for BMW, Audi, Cadillac, Jaguar, or any of the other high-end car companies.
First- they always feature people who seem to be married (or at least, living together) buying each other these very expensive cars as holiday presents. When I was married, my wife and I had a joint checking account. All the money we made was deposited into that account. There was no "her money" and "my money," there was "our money." So when one of us bought something for the other, we were using OUR money to do it. I'd skip meals at work and find other ways to save to make sure I had enough money to buy her something very nice- but "very nice" never meant a freaking $40,000 car. If she had wanted a car, she would not have hinted at it like the child in this commercial does- she would have told me "hey, honey? WE need to replace my car. Let's figure out what WE can afford." She would not have dropped hints that I should find an extra several thousand dollars somewhere and buy her a toy with four wheels, because again- her money and my money was our money.
Second, who the hell can relate to these ads, anyway? White people living in suburban palaces (where are the perfect kids?) who would like it very much if they got a BMW in their stockings? I mean, come on- does this happen in real life, anywhere? Should I just be grateful that this isn't a Lexus December To Remember You Are Better commercial, and we don't actually see the Appropriately Not Clean-Shaven Guy being handed the keys to a car with a massive ribbon wrapped around it? Because I'm not, really (mainly because I know that's coming, very soon...)
Third, what kind of materialistic jagoff wants one of these cars anyway? Maybe they are supposed to tell the world "I've arrived, I'm successful, get out of my way while admiring me." All they say to me is "I'm shallow, I've got money burning a hole in my pocket, and my soul is so dark that this is all I can think of to do with that money in a world which is starving to death around me."
Couldn't quite pull the trigger, Eh Dunkin Donuts?
There's so much missing in this Dunkin Donuts Ad!
Where's the cursing? Were's the "Oh no you DID-n't?" Where's the word "bitch" used at least twenty times in thirty seconds?
Come on, Dunkin Donuts! If you are going to portray African American women as insecure, possessive, paranoid weirdos, and African American men as neutered puppies in mortal fear of them, why not go all Mamma's Family on us? Let's see some head-and-finger wagging, hip-swinging, nose-to-nose bug-eyed action here!
What's with this Brady Bunch-level, inoffensive bs? What are you afraid of? Come ON, Dunkin Donuts! Go there! You KNOW you want to!
Friday, November 22, 2013
More sick, sad, sexist crap from Walmart
1. Where are the guys? Oh wait- this commercial features parents supervising children. They aren't hauling bags of dirt around in pickup trucks or spraying weed killer on to lawns or using sledgehammers to "remodel" houses or grilling dead animal parts. Why would there be guys around?
2. "Own the Season." Yeah, that's nice. That would be the Season which starts right around the same time the Halloween candy goes on sale and ends around the time the Attached Among Us are reminded that we haven't given our Significant Other a piece of jewelry for a few months, so.....'tis the season to fill our carts with cheap crap from Walmart. And pretend we are doing something worthwhile and not just shoveling money into the bloated pockets of Sam Walton's evil spawn.
BTW, don't try to tell me you don't want to borrow a sledgehammer from one of those Guys and use it on the smug faces of these awful women. Because I won't believe you. Not for a moment.
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