Ok, I am now convinced that this series of Wendy's commercials featuring a staff of mental midgets doing really stupid things in front of customers is a subtle nod to the restaurant's Employ the Brain Damaged policy. I mean, really- first one of these guys attempts to sit on an old man's lap because he looks like Santa, then this garbage. Ok, Wendy's- we approve your noble attempt to get the mentally handicapped into gainful employment. Now please, stop this. Because, seriously- this is kind of gross and pathetic.
1. At no point during the preparation of this meal did either of these women notice that there were no sweet potatoes. And apparently there were no sweet potatoes because sweet potatoes were not on the list. So what else would the person doing the shopping not pick up because it wasn't on a list? Or maybe she thought that it wasn't on the list because the other sister had already purchased sweet potatoes? Either way, the original point stands- why wasn't the lack of sweet potatoes noticed before this?
2. I note that all the meal prep was apparently done by these two women. The men here showed up to share in the consumption of this sweet potato-less feast, but had nothing to do with its creation. Because it's 2022 here in the real world but it will always be 1954 on television, I guess.
So when this woman isn't stuffing her face with junk while sitting on her butt (I'm sorry, but seriously- find something to do that doesn't involve sitting on a couch sucking on a cup of sugar, PLEASE. Sincerely, your arteries) she's blathering to everyone who can't find a quick exit how much she enjoyed her buying experience with Carvana.
Which means, I guess, that she's one of the lucky customers who didn't buy an automobile from Carvana that was later repossessed because it had been stolen months earlier (yes, this happens.) Or bought a car that had been previously been through an unreported wreck (yes, this has also happened.) Or she got the actual car that she ordered and not a random car the company decided to send him (yes, this has happened.) Or she got a car which had outstanding tickets attached to the title (yes, this has happened.)
And judging from the smile on her face, she's clearly not someone who owns stock in Carvana- stock which peaked at $230 a year and a half ago but which can now be purchased at about $8 per share. And she's not an employee who got laid off like more than 2000 have this year. (Yes, both of those things have happened.) I'm guessing that she spends most of her time indoors these days even if she still has a functioning car, because she's too mortified at the thought of bumping into one of the 300 people she bragged about her Carvana purchase to.
It's just way too easy to snark on the collapse of FTX, Tom Brady's marriage, and Tom Brady's career (the Bucs may very well miss the playoffs altogether) over the past 11 months since this ad first aired. I am not even going to point out the ridiculous palace of a house, or the fact that Brady supposedly learns about the crypto currency "opportunity" that his wife is looking into by reading her phone screen from ACROSS THE ROOM and is "in" approximately six seconds later. *
In fact, I'm not going to talk about this particular ad at all. Because that's just way too easy and it's been done already, including by me.
Instead, I'm going to be my cynical best and suggest that the best indicator of how well my fellow countrymen will learn their lesson from the collapse of the scam FTX always was is the comment sections of multiple "what happened to FTX" videos currently popping up at the rate of a few dozen per day on YouTube: At least half the comments I've read so far are endorsements for some other token purchasing platform which is, or soon will be, EXPLODING IN VALUE so we'd BETTER GET IN RIGHT NOW before we LOSE OUT. You know, like Tom Brady was being scolded by his soon-to-be-ex wife to GET IN on FTX because hey, neither his football career nor her modeling career was going to last forever and it's not like they have enough money to live very lavish lifestyles for the next several centuries already. The reaction of many YouTubers to the FTX collapse reminds me of people who get burned by Multi-Level Marketing scams and respond by looking for another one to invest in- "my experience with Amway was horrible, but I'm in a much better place now. Do you have a few minutes to let me tell you about Herbalife?"
*in real life, Brady's "I'm in" would be correctly translated into "yeah whatever, I'm not walking all the way over there to look at your phone, I'm too busy looking at my phone, do whatever you want." And in real life, a casual observer would see that this marriage was in trouble. But I'm not going there.
I remember when I was a little kid seeing an older kid in my neighborhood throw a baseball into the air and call out "Mantle's under it...and he makes the catch!" as the ball slapped down hard into his glove. I remember playing backyard football and thinking "here's Grogan back to pass- he's got a receiver open!"
I know that there are kids out there today who dream of being a great baseball, football, or basketball player, and some of them feed that dream with intense practice and coaching. A lot more just have a lot of fun playing with their friends and imagining the cheering crowds without really expecting any of it to manifest in reality- but they are outside, connecting with friends, getting exercise, having fun.
This stupid doofus wants to be the starting Quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys right now- and he's going to pretend to be just that by-- putting on a VR set and, well, doing basically absolutely nothing else. Doesn't even have to get out of bed.
Life was better back then. Didn't even need fancy electronics. And did I mention the exercise and connecting with friends and having fun while being outside? There was that, too.
1. We've got no fewer than FIVE employees at this Wendy's with nothing to do but stare at an obese old man just trying to enjoy the last few minutes of his life consuming a cup of frozen candy in peace. Despite the fact that they are Adults, I think we're supposed to believe that they are debating as to whether or not the old guy is, um, Santa Claus.
Again, this is happening at a Wendy's restaurant where I guess nobody is online, nothing is on the grill, and there is absolutely nothing for any of these FIVE EMPLOYEES* to do other than to speculate that one of their customers is the physical manifestation of a fairy tale.
2. In one of the most uncomfortable things I've ever seen in a tv commercial (and MAN is that saying a lot), one of the employees walks up to the old man and proceeds to SIT ON HIS LAP because yeah there's nothing at all creepy or intrusive about that. I mean, can we try to picture this happening in the real world for a second? Fat senior citizen with a white beard is just minding his own business waiting for his heart to finally explode at his local Wendy's when he's suddenly assaulted by an obviously mentally stunted employee. The natural follow up to this Hi-LARIOUS moment is this young employee's firing and arrest, and a nice big FAT lawsuit against Wendy's when it's revealed that the kid they obviously hired as part of some social uplift program was put up to molesting a customer by his fellow workers.
None of this is funny or heartwarming or anything really other than really stupid and more than a little gross. Oh, and very very cringe-worthy, as the title suggests. If you haven't caught this one yet, I have to warn you in advance that you won't be able to Unsee the Wendy's Monkey attempting to give Santa a lap dance. You're welcome, and Happy Holidays.
*of the five employees we see, one looks like a woman in her 20s, one looks like a woman in her 30s, one looks like a white male in his thirties, one looks like a white male in his 40s or early 50s, and there's one black male who looks to be around 40. Thing is, the average fast food worker in the United States is a 24 year old white woman, so the lame attempt to present diversity here falls flat on its face. Like the rest of the ad.
...because what more could you want with your order of cheap bread, cheese and sauce in the shape of a saucer than another order of cheap bread and cheese- hey, we'll even throw in some dipping sauce!- on the side?
And if the pizza-in-another-form doesn't serve your addiction to processed, fatty, sugary garbage, well, here's some bite-sized chocolate-y goo things- at least, I think that's what it is. Domino's just refers to it here as "something else." Which is at least honest- yeah, I can't come up with labels for what are basically leftovers from the pizza creation process repackaged into free* crap Domino's will give you along with your box of warm non-nutrition. Anything to keep you coming back to this particular Diabetes Promotion Facility instead of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, McDonald's, Burger King, etc. etc. ETC.
*free if you ignore the billions of dollars in federal subsidies given to the wheat, corn (and corn sugar) and dairy (here's an idea- don't just put cheese ON the pizza! Put it IN the pizza! And put it in something called "cheesy bread" and and sell or give that away as a "side."
(I keep remembering a page from my science textbook back in High School which included the "Food Pyramid" which was promoted by the federal government after WWII as a way of propping up Agribusiness. Even then I thought that the pyramid promoted the consumption of a ridiculous amount of food-
I mean, seriously. Six servings of rice, pasta, cereal, and/or bread every day? Three servings of milk, yogurt and/or cheese every day? Who needs to eat meat twice a day? And how does one eat cereal six times a day but also "use sweets sparingly?" Oh, and I also remember this line on the same page: "Of course, milk should be your drink at every meal." Um, WHY? Why would ANYONE need to drink that much MILK? Not to mention that if people drink three glasses of milk a day, why would they also need to take calcium and Vitamin D supplements? So Big Pharma was in on this with Big Agriculture?
