what a difference a day makes...

My last entry was interesting, to say the least. I started out with the intention of writing about some trivial nonsense that entertains me immensely and it turned into this introspective, metaphorical, saunter down memory lane that had my mind racing on to other things entirely. All of this because I wanted to talk about a silly commercial that I enjoy.

New Balance has this great series of commercials right now about running. Well, they’re not just about running. Okay, maybe they are. You really have to tip your cap to the ad folks on this project as they have entered into the sovereign territory where only beer commercials usually dare tread. Perhaps I’m painting too broad a brush stroke here, sweeping my generalization across this cyber canvas. Allow me to amend. It has been my experience that beer commercials are more often cleverly crafted than commercials for other products. Not having a background in this area, neither as a field of study nor vocation, my observation is purely that of a layman; Joe Six Pack, if you will. Honestly, that pun was truly not intended. Perhaps it’s a budget issue. Maybe the really clever ads are created by these really slick, really expensive, blue chip, Bloomingdale’s of advertising agencies, and the others of the Paula Pine-Sol variety are done by the Wal-Mart/Super K-Mart type agencies. Who knows. But if I’m right, I guess you get what you pay for. As I’m writing, my mind is having the urge to explore this whole phenomenon of commercials and whom and how they target and when. I’m even thinking that I might want to get really deep into this topic and actually do some research. We’ll see if that’s what I decide, or if I just go off the cuff with more of an opinion piece. Which do you prefer? Which do you think I’ll do? And do you think I’ll do it tomorrow or the next time I’m at a loss for a significant event to record in my Daily? Only time will tell. You’ll just have to stay tuned. But, as usual, I have digressed.

You probably had no idea that I had actually devoted this much space in my brain to commercials, had you? In your wildest imagination, in all of the thinks that you have thunk, had you ever hypothesized that so much deep thought could go into a 30 second advertisement? If you hadn’t realized yet, I can be ridiculously random. The most insignificant things amuse me. Does that make me interesting? Who knows? Does that make me quirky? Perhaps it does. Let’s try deep on for size. Yes, I like that one. I’m dangerously close to digression again as a tangent is fighting to come out from inside me like an alien from Sigourney Weaver. New Balance has a running commercial. Focus, dude. FOCUS! It is a narrated commercial, spoken from the perspective of one's conscience in a bold attempt to give that Freudian concept an animate quality. Since I’ve invoked Freud, you know that a certain three letter word ending in “x” is soon to follow. Heavily laden with innuendo, this series puts a comedic , yet somehow inspiring spin on the fragile psyche of the runner. Running after all is a labor of love, and when love is in the building, it’s evil step-sister hate is not far away.(That’s mine, not from the commercial. Or maybe it is?) As these commercials would have us believe, our subjects (who ultimately represent the potential consumer), have a relationship with running that is tenuous at best. You might even go so far as to call it a love/hate relationship. Yeah, I know, I said it. So shoot me. You know I was going there, but it was inevitable. On a side note, I’m amused by this trend of making a transitive verb into a noun (i.e. Running being a thing that can love or hate and can also BE loved or hated, in much the same way that an actual mate could). JetBlue has attempted this with their new series of print ads about Jetting. However, these must be flying well over my head at this point because I have yet to be terribly amused by any of them.

So the New Balance series goes something like this. (See all of them here: http://www.newbalance.com/#/video ) A distraught looking guy, whom you might even call depressed, struggles to get out of bed as his conscience narrates the first thoughts of his day as he puts his feet on the floor and sits at the edge of his bed.
“Since you gave up Running last week, you see Running everywhere and looking really good”

Clearly playing on the notion that an ex-flame somehow seems to look better when the wounds are still fresh and you’re not quite over them, still vulnerable, and susceptible to their charms. In another commercial there’s another weary looking guy desperately in need of some motivation as his relationship with Running is clearly quite a load to bear, raising doubts in his mind about whether or not this is a good union or not. Maybe this is not a match made in heaven. Maybe he and Running are just not compatible. ‘Why do I even continue to be involved with running?’ he seems to be asking. Right on queue, his conscience puts this into the perspective, reminding him of exactly why the proverbial juice here may indeed be worth the squeeze, intimating

“..because Running has a really hot friend named Victory, and…maybe…just maybe…well…,”

This is classic stuff here. As I scan through the commercial database in which I keep volumes of information catalogued in my mind, I think that the geniuses behind this series of ads also recently did a series of Hertz commercials that suggested your own car was feeling two-timed, left out in the cold, lacking self-esteem, and jilted, left to lurk in the shadows spying on your good time, as you bop around with the shiny hot new rental model (Google or YouTube this, I didn't immediately find it on the Hertz page). That might be worth researching. (I can hear you now: “For whom? Why does any of this matter?!!” Relax. I’m just saying. Geeez…).

The king of all commercials right now though are the Dos Equis beer ads featuring the Most Interesting Man in the World. That is sure to end up with its own blog entry, as I think I want to be that guy, with his part Hemingway, part Indiana Jones, part Ricardo Montalban savoir faire. I could probably go on all day about this topic, but I’ve got many more things to get done yet. So I’ll leave you with a top 5 (in no particular order, not including the aforementioned of course). Enjoy.
1. “Here’s to you Wingman”- beer ad, I think it was Bud Light, or Miller Light, one of those
2. “Dude!”- Bud Light series where the only dialogue in the whole commercial is a guy using “Dude” in all of its many forms.
3. “Boss is coming”-Buffalo Wild Wings. Everyone is having a great time, wasting the day away in the sports bar until the boss is about to walk in and after the alarms sound and the big screens display a message saying “BOSS!”, everyone escapes through trap doors and such.
4. It’s about the Beer: Heineken. Main characters have a moment of clarity as the Heineken comes into view in a series set in several different scenarios
5. Wanna get away? The Southwest Airlines commercials that show somebody doing something regrettable and wishing they could just disappear in that moment.