MetaChat - I assume

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

25 June 2008

I assume many of you have seen the Mucinex ad with the cuddly green anthropomorphized blob of mucus that sets up housekeeping in your chest. There's also the ad with the cute, grumpy wart that gets frozen off by the OTC remedy, and going way back there's Digger the Dermatophyte, the adorable creature who digs under your cuticles and makes your toenails yellow. My question is this: if they're trying to sell medication, why make what it's getting rid of 'cute'? That's weird to me. But then again, those ads with Charlie the Tuna (who wanted to be put in a can of StarKist and eaten) always baffled me, too. But that's why I'm not an adman.

post by: jonmc at: 19:00 | 10 comments

Hehehehehe. Yes jonmc , to become an adman you need to keep all your astute observations, but ALSO shoot pride, logic and sense out the door. It's tricky. That's why we are all drunk. Always.

posted by dabitch 25 June | 19:27

Yeah, Charlie the Tuna's motivation always seemed weird to me.

But cute disease entities, I can see. It would sort of ruin the lighthearted mood of the commercial to show a disgusting slime creature from hell growing inside you.

posted by DarkForest 25 June | 19:44

A similar kind of thing is the mac ads that make the pc more likable than the mac.

posted by puke & cry 25 June | 20:15

Cute? Bleah, those little cartoons snots and whatnot always kinda gross me out. (Not Charlie- he was suave.) I avoid those commercials because they make my stomach churn a little. The toenail critters one, especially.

posted by BoringPostcards 25 June | 20:16

Charlie- he was suave

Yeah, but he wanted to be eaten. and not in a good way.

(also, I've noticed that when it's in a can and put on a snadwich, I think of it as 'tunafish.' when it's in sushi, or grilled it's 'tuna.' Weird childhood holdover, I guess.)

posted by jonmc 25 June | 20:34

I love it when an anthropomorphized version of a food product says 'eat me!' Talking cookies, Barbecue signs with pigs on 'em, Kool-Aid Man, I can't get enough of that stuff.

posted by box 25 June | 21:40

Remember when the kool-aid jug-man-thing suddenly was wearing shorts?

Ah yes, that was a big hit in the realm of ad-news-on-the-net. we are such sad bastards.

posted by dabitch 25 June | 22:18

Most ads baffle me. It seems like messages from a world I have never lived in.

posted by arse_hat 25 June | 23:37

I still remember the jingle from an insurance company I heard advertised on the radio...from 2003...in Ghana.

Network Assurance! Taking care of you and your family, protection guaranteeeed!

posted by mdonley 26 June | 01:29

those ads with Charlie the Tuna (who wanted to be put in a can of StarKist and eaten) always baffled me, too.

I had the same problem with the Valleydale dancing pigs.

posted by JanetLand 26 June | 06:36

← I posted this pizza menu || Nader is such a dick. →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN