Me v. Toyota Jan and some annonymous twerp

So for some reason, Toyota hired these salespeople to gawk at a bunch of cars Toyota Jan calls "the last of the 2018s."  Some annoymous twerp says "ah, what a sight" as if he's waxing poetic about the view from Mount Vesuvius or a flock of geese heading south for the winter and couldn't possibly be refering to a dozen Japanese Blandmobiles being delivered to the dealership.   I'd say these people were completely soulless but that's way too easy and way too obvious.

I say "for some reason" because the new Toyotas being delivered apparently emit pheromones which attract middle-class zombies like flies to a dirty diaper.  They aren't off the truck and priced before they've been surrounded by glassy-eyed mouth-breathers who just can't get enough of the pretty colors- and apparently aren't nearly as impressed by the cars already on the lot.  In another version of this ad, a customer actually kisses the car trailer driver and gushes "thank you!" for bringing them to the dealership- no kidding. So what the hell was the point of hiring salespeople?

What is the purpose of this ad?  Is it really intended to make me think that if I don't rush off to Toyota RIGHT NOW someone else is going to get the Toyota of my dreams?  That someone's going to knock me over to get the last Toyota like it's the last box of crackers on the shelf and the Cuban missile crisis in underway?

Is it to convince me that everyone who works for Toyota just worships the damn product they were hired to sell?  "Ah, what a sight"- really?  They are freaking cars, jackass.  If you are impressed by the sight of Toyotas, please don't drive it or any other car- you are way too easily distracted by things us Normals don't find all that amazing.

Kia piles all kinds of dumb into this ad

1.  The "kids selling stuff that only adults buy" trope:  It fails again.  That means it's 0 for roughly 1.3 million.  No, KIA, I am not impressed that these two kids are dressed nicely while they tell me how great this deal on a new KIA is.  That's because no matter how nice and white and educated they look, I know that kids their age know absoutely nothing about buying a car.  What they know is that it's shiny and has dual DVD players and WiFi and shows well for their friends.  That's IT.

2.  It's never too early to start the Smart Girl/Dumb Boy schtick, is it, KIA?  The boy in this ad is supposed to know about cars, but not about the Screen Actors' Guild or other labor law enforcement agencies which protect actors (and these kids ARE actors.)  See, it's FUNNY because Stupid Male thought he was doing this for tv facetime only- it's not that he's getting paid LESS than his sister- HE'S NOT GETTING PAID AT ALL LOL!!

(By the way, how did Sister find out Brother was getting less money- and if she had access to that information, how did she not know he wasn't getting paid at all?)

3.  Obstensibly, this is supposed to be a commercial for the KIA in the background.  Instead, it comes off as an audition tape for two kids who would really like to be on TV more often.  Either way, it doesn't work- I don't want to buy a KIA, and I don't want to see either of these kids ever again.  Nice job, KIA!

Two quick comments concerning this Best Western ad

1.  The people in these ads seem to be in some pretty cool locations, yet they spend most of their time taking selfies...in front of Best Western signs.

Look, I've stayed at Best Westerns.  Many times.  They aren't terrible hotels, but my stay was never the highlight of my trip.  It sure as hell never occurred to me to take a picture of myself by a Best Western sign, as if my friends might doubt my clain that I actually spent the night at one- "ok, I totally buy the idea that you were on vacation....but you say you stayed at a Best Western?  Sorry, I'm going to have to see some evidence."

2.  The lyrics to the "song" in this ad, as near as I can tell, go like this

This is the best day of my liiiiiiiiiiiiife 

My li li li li li li li li liiiiiife.........

And yet there's some nub on YouTube who wants to know what the song is.  Of course.

A Perfectly Revolting Corona Commercial

I wish I could tell you how glad I am that these perfect people gathered around a perfect house* in a perfect setting had the ingenuity to keep their evening perfect even the universe went off kilter and a candle went out (how on Earth did that happen to these perfect people?)

I can't tell you how pleased I am that one of these perfect people thought to turn on his phone and then put a bottle of beer on it to simulate a candle, attracting the appreciative smiles of his pretty, perfect friends.  Because it makes so much more sense to use that lithium battery than to, oh, I don't know, light a match or better yet just let it be slightly darker at your table .

I can't tell you any of that because I'm too busy wishing that a truck-sized meteorite would crash into that house and vaporize everything within 100 square meters.  Leaving a perfect crater, of course.

*which appears to be completely empty, yet has enough lights on to be seen from space.  Sucking the life out of the electrical grid.  Using a phone powered by a lithium battery instead of lighting a match.  These people are really working hard at being part of the problem, aren't they?

iPhone X demonstrates that being "powerful' isn't what it used to be

In 2018, according to our Lords and Masters over at Apple, the way to "Unleash a more powerful you" (and simultaneously attempt to rationalize that stupid decision to ignore the student loan bills and just go ahead What The Hell You Only Live Once and drop a thousand bucks on a stupid phone) is to get the iPhone X (guaranteed to be at least 1.5 % better than the last iPhone released two weeks ago.)

The only way this commercial could possibly end on a high note would be if this creep zombie who seems convinced that he is becoming more "powerful" by wandering through life playing with his ridiculously expensive little toy instead of, oh, I don't know, actually accomplishing something worthwhile stepped in front of a bus and made a big steaming mess in the middle of the street.  That would provide work for a sanitation crew and food for crows and bacteria, finally making this little nub's existence meaningful, if only for a very brief moment. 

At his virtual funeral, his online "friends," who never met him in "real" life, can wax poetic about how "powerful" he was whenever they challenged him to play whatever pointless game this guy was spending the final moments of his "life" staring at just before the bus sent the walking sack of meat into the next world.  Good times.

Pawn Shop Commercials are bittersweet comedy gold

I totally understand when "life throws you a curve" in the form of a major repair on a car with inadequate insurance, or a layoff/firing, or sudden medical expense.  Yes, Things Happen that people living in a country where wages have been stagnant for fifty years might not be able to handle without parting with stuff at the local pawn shop.  It's very sad but I'm not going to criticize people for using pawn shops- after all, they aren't QuickCash or Car Title or Money Store loansharks, and at least in this commercial they aren't being used for frivilous purchases like concert tickets or a vacation that, if they were honest with themselves, the people in the ads would admit they simply can't afford.

But I do have to say- if your examples of "life throwing you a curve" include needing to buy your son a new baseball glove or keeping your car filled with gasoline, you've got serious problems a pawn shop is not going to solve.  You don't have enough money, and you are going to run out of stuff to pawn to fill that gap between revenue and expenses sooner or later.

You need help to find your way out of your downward-spiral lifestyle, not a friendly place down the street willing to help you slowly empty your house as you pretend you are getting by.  Needing to buy gas is not an unexpected, unplanned-for expense you couldn't anticipate, for chrissakes.  What were you thinking when you bought that car?  "Sure I can't afford gasoline, but I can sell my belongings to pay for that.  I'm gold."

Good luck with your problems, People in this Ad.  Right now, you're going nowhere fast- unless it's the nearest pawnbroker with your kid's practically-new baseball glove because today you've got to buy milk and who could have seen THAT coming?

Hampton Beach: Not the Bahamas. Never claimed to be.

Here's where I'll be- for the 20th year in a row- the first week of August, so I won't be posting again until next Sunday.  Love Hampton Beach while totally agreeing with some of the criticism here- Hampton is not Sandals, it's not the Outer Banks, it's not even Rehobeth.  It's a beach with a tacky boardwalk full of ice-cream, fried dough, cheap pizza and hot dog hole-in-the-wall feeding places, an arcade filled with mostly 80s video games, and $20-per-day parking lots servicing the people who can't afford to rent one of the hundreds of tiny, air conditioning-less houses within walking distance of the sand.

What it is is an affordable vacation for Middle Class and Lower Middle Class families which includes free entertainment (Movies on the Beach Night, Bands on the beach every night) and a big stretch of sand which is usually not super-crowded even on the steamiest days.  Which is good enough for the kind of people who have to save up for a vacation throughout the year but don't want to go into debt for it.

See you in a week!  Enjoy the archives!