Friday, January 19, 2007

We Interrupt This Program For A Brief Message...

I hate commercials. I don't need gimmicks to persuade me to purchase your product. All I need is a good product on the market and I'll find it myself. In fact, excessive advertising often has an adverse effect on my personal consumer habits.

My philosophy toward consumerism en masse: if everybody else wants it, how good can it really be?

Typically, the viewing of these 30-seconds respites is not a problem; we DVR enough programming to where we can often fast-forward through them. But even that has its setbacks. Now, commercials have integrated themselves into the actual programming. Additionally, I view enough sports programming that commercials afford timely breaks to stock up again on snacks.

Don't even get me started on Super Bowl commercials.

Every so often, however, there are certain commercials that catch my attention.

Over the past dozen or so years, SportsCenter has had the best commercials, by far.

Rich Eisen during commercial break ("Cut me; cut me, Lou!"), Tomlinson sorting mail, LeBron fixing the copier ("The Chosen One, huh?"), Kobe at the vending machine ("Very Jordanesque"), the Manning brothers touring the Bristol campus, and, of course, the Y2K Test ("Follow me! Follow me to freedom!"). Those were innovative and funny.

Additionally so since they don't attempt to persuade me towards a certain behavior; I'd watch the show regardless.

Of late, the commercial that always must be viewed is the one with Little Richard selling Geico insurance. For the past couple of months, not a day has passed where Melissa or I don't sing "Mashed potatoes! Gravy! Cranberry sauce! Whooooooooooh."

That never gets old.