Ally's bankless banking commercials: Oddly Familiar, Oddly Aggressive

In one way, these ads look a lot like all of the other ads out there- this one in particular does the usual "white guy standing in the middle of a massive, immaculately decorated, gleaming-white-clean living room" (seriously, why does everyone in TV land have to possess living rooms and kitchens larger than my apartment?)  That's the "familiar" part.  All white people in tv commercials live in multi-million dollar homes with cavernous rooms that look like they are maintained by 6-man cleaning crews.  Got it.

But in another way, these ads practically beg us to dislike Ally Bank.  The operator is always sneering at the concerns of the potential customers.  In one I did earlier this year, a woman tells the Ally Bank Phone Bank Serf "I'm nervous about trying new things. "  Instead of just explaining why Ally Bank's "no place to complain in person, your money is at the mercy of a computerized phone menu" strategy is a good thing, the operator challenges this "irrational" fear- "what's wrong with trying new things?" (and the message is instantly botched- like it is in this ad- by showing examples of why the caller is exactly right to worry.)  In this ad, the caller's "I don't like hidden things" is not greeted with "I understand, here's why you have nothing to worry about" but rather "why is that?"  Again and again, Ally comes off as an aggressive car salesman challenging their potential customers to reach way down, find their guts, and just sign on the freaking dotted line, you weird spineless coward you.

What's the deal?  Here's my take on Ally's Bottom-Line Strategy:

1.  Ally Bank is the intelligent choice for very successful people.  If you want to be successful like these people on tv, you'll go with Ally Bank.

2.  Ally Bank gets that No Branches is a legitimately scary idea (no WAY I'm handing my money over to a company that will never, EVER provide a person I can sit down with and look in the eye if I ever have an issue with them, but that's just poor, unsucessful, cowardly me) so it's focused on shaming potential customers into buying in- "what's the matter with you?  Are you deranged?  Get with it.  Just give us your money. We'll always be here, just a phone call and 20 callers in the queue ahead of you away.  You don't like walking into banks and sitting down with people and discussing stuff anyway.  That's for cowards."

PASS!

What the thirty-something execs at Subaru think of the concepts of "grandma," "Woodstock," and "Love." This isn't pretty.

Ah, ok, I get it now!  "Grandma" was a stoner who hitched her way to Saugerties during the Summer of Love in order to experience Woodstock and the feeling of being soaked to the skin because of the incredibly crappy weather that marked most of the three-day music festival.  Judging from the stringy grey hair and the vaguely hippy-ish clothing, we are supposed to assume that Grandma never really got past her hippy phase and has spent most of the last forty years eating homemade yogurt and granola when she wasn't working in her organic garden and planning firebombing raids on Exxon-Mobile drilling rigs.

(Grandpa is sadly absent- while Grandma was living in the past, he was the CEO for Walmart who organized the shift to All Chinese Products back in the early-80s. Or he designed low-grade atomic weapons for the Defense Department.  Because someone had to finance Grandma's self-indulgent delusions.  Grampa died at 55 of a heart attack but he left a very nice insurance policy- thank goodness, because hey those annual excursions to visit the tortoises in the Galapagoes don't pay for themselves.)

Grandma remembers everything about Woodstock- where she skinny-dipped, where she banged that guy who would become Grampa about nine months later, where she almost OD'd on hashish....the decade or so after that is a little hazy, but it hardly matters, because those three days were the absolute highlight of her life anyway.  Kind of like that horrid old woman from Titanic, her entire existance encompasses a few hours from her 19th year.  All the crap after that- the kids, the mortgage, the koi pond, that organic garden, the trips to Whole Foods and the Think Globally Act Locally meetings in the Lincoln Navigator- all that kind of fades into obscure haze compared to those hours listening to tinny music out of crap sound systems in that soggy field in upstate New York.

This Minute of Twee wraps up with Incredibly Embarrassing Grandma hugging the tree which once provided a little shade while she and Future Grampa Did It To High Flying Bird- at least, she thinks that was the tree.  I mean, who knows- she was so plastered, it's kind of amazing that her son turned out as well as he did.  Still- she and the family are hugging a tree.  That's "love," in Subaru's book.  But let's not forget that love in Subaru's book is also stalking a female bicyclist and lovingly stroking a gearshift knob (see the archives.)  Subaru just keeps getting weirder about this.

Amazon, Amazon's Not-Kindle, and Dishonest Advertising

Most commerials are deceitful in one way or another, usually engaging in dishonesty through omission. But this ad contains an outright LIE.  Two of them.  Did you hear both?

1.  "With a free month of Amazon Prime for new members, you'll get unlimited streaming of more than 40,000 movie and tv episodes...." um, no you won't.  First, you can't logically put the number "40,000" and "unlimited" in the same sentence.  Second, it's not possible to stream 40,000 tv and/or movie episodes in one month- what the ad is really saying is "you can go back and watch up to 40,000 pieces of crap on your phone IF, when the free month is over, you subscribe to the service."

2.  "You have a lot to do."  Um, no you don't.  If you had "a lot to do," you wouldn't have time to turn your brain into warm, mushy pudding watching crap on a tiny screen.  And no, I don't count watching tv as "doing" something, sorry.

Oh, and for "good" Italian food? I guess that would mean a trip to The Olive Garden

And if you think that a national chain of fast food restaurants is the place to go for good barbecue, you've never, ever had good barbecue.  And if you insist on going to Wendy's for barbecue, you never, ever will.

Shouldn't "Red" be 100 lbs overweight and shooting insulin on a daily basis by now?  She sure should not be eating Every Freaking Meal as if she's going to the electric chair as soon as it's done.

Actually, this is more about seeking validation through face time than beer

Can someone explain to me why I give a flying damn about any of the people in this ad?

As near as I can tell, it's nothing more than totally random people urging other people to help them celebrate the holidays by drinking crappy beer.  Most of these people strike me as being really ugly and stupid and not at all interesting, but willing to offer beer in exchange for a little companionship.

The guy at the beginning is hoping to seal the deal by presenting his beer in an old-timey wooden box- yeah, because that might con someone really dumb into thinking that it will make the contents taste better. Not buying it.

(The woman who points out that she hasn't seen the people she is begging "for six years" is especially depressing.  So she's hoping that Budweiser will break down the barrier?  Really?)

And does Budweiser really expect us to make our own little video clips and send them along so they can be used to make commercials for their swill, for free?  Oh, who am I kidding, I bet a million exhibitionist losers do exactly that.

Did I miss something here?

I can see how the Woodford Way would lead to a long, lasting, meaningful relationship

"When I see a man drinking bourbon, I think 'there's a guy who knows how to build a bookshelf.  And not just a bookshelf-kit IKEA type bookshelf.  I mean, this is a guy who already knows where the lumberyard is.  Probably because it's next to the bar, but he knows where the lumberyard is.  Making him a man.  A man who likes to work with lumber and drink alcohol, which to me is just an awesome combination."

"Speaking of awesome combinations, he's also a guy who lets me use the saw, and thinks it's cute that I don't know how to use the saw.  Yes, that means exactly the way it sounds- it means he thinks it's cute when I endanger myself playing with a very sharp instrument.  I bet he'd really giggle if I drew blood, I'm such a silly girl I can't even manage to handle something he can operate while drinking bourbon.  He's so amazing, he makes me swoon."

"So I guess what I'm saying here is, I really, really like guys who drink whiskey and can build bookcases.  Because drunk and handy with tools, that's just so hot.  I really have to remember to add that to my eHarmony profile- 'Seeking Guy Who Likes To Get Drunk Quickly And Then Operate The Saw and Let Me Operate it Too.  There's got to be a lot of people who fit that description, and I'm sure they are all really nice."

"I bet he'd make a good soulmate, too.  I mean, what more could a girl want?"

"I'm here to say yes to whatever you offer me."

The guy in this stupid ad has no idea what a "gig" is, but thinks he's getting a great deal because the amount he "gets" per month is doubled if he takes this girl's offer.  Rather than simply admit he has no idea what a "gig" is, he'll take the offer because $160 a month is a fair price to pay rather than just tell a total stranger you have no idea you know what she's talking about.  If you've got the money, I guess.*

Because he can't think of an actual pick-up line, he decides that this girl is offering him a great deal because he's a celebrity ( I have no idea who he is and no, I don't care.)

"We are just talking loudly for some reason."  Probably the same reason you are standing in the middle of a virtually-empty store discussing gigs instead of acting like every single employee and customer I've ever seen in every actual AT&T store I've ever been in- employee behind the counter, customer on the other side of the counter, store crowded and noisy with frustrated people wandering around waiting for their turn to be assisted (their place on line being displayed on a monitor.)  If I ever walked into one of these stores and was actually greeted by someone like the people in these ads always are, I think I'd faint.

*In another one of these awful ads- which I don't think I'll bother giving it's own roasting- this woman reads the mind of the hipster doofus who saunters in- "yes, we have the new iPhone."  The customer is stunned that she knows what he came in for, which is kind of like being stunned that Red wants to get lunch at Wendy's.  "I knew you came in for the new iPhone because evey witless zombie with money burning holes in his pocket wants the new iPhone.  Why should you be any different?"