Welcome to the year 2025!
The holiday season is ending and we’re all starting to get back to our normal lives. And for me, with the college football bowl season mostly over – with the exception of the final three College Football Playoff games – it means my television viewing will drop-off drastically.
Yes, I admit, I do tend to spend more time than normal watching television during the holidays. Between all the specials and movies, and those bowl games, I find the seasonal downtime results in more lounging-in-front-of-the-TV time. Although, I’m usually not alone, so I believe it does count a bit as “family time.”
Regardless, I’ve made it to the new year and am looking forward to 2025!
Now, in watching more television than normal, I unfortunately ended up watching more commercials than normal. It seems on some channels the amount of time given to commercials is close to the amount of time given to the regular programming. Even the bowl games seemed to have a few more ads than regular season football games.
And because I ended up watching more commercials, I also ended up contemplating these commercials. The results of which are the following 17 random thoughts, ideas, suggestions and questions about the televised advertising I was bombarded with over the holiday season.
- Burger King debuted its “Have It Your Way” slogan in the 1970s. The original purpose was to differentiate themselves from McDonald’s. But, even though I can have it my way at any fast food place these days, apparently the thing people remember best about BK is this slogan. So, 50 years later BK still promotes something that’s no longer unique unto itself.
- There is a TV show called “Impractical Losers” on truTV. It’s basically a televised “truth or dare” game with only the dare option. The ad for the show includes some scenes from it, and I really have a hard time understanding why anyone would want to watch a show like this.
- I’m always amused when I see commercials for food places that don’t exist anywhere near State College. Sonic, Buffalo Wild Wings (though that will soon change), WingStop and on and on. I’m sure someone has justified these ad expenditures, but they seem lost on me.
- Who is Jim Cramer and do people actually pay this guy to give them financial advice?
- West Virginia University apparently reviewed the Allstate ad portraying fans spelling “Stew Virginia” – rather than “West Virginia” — on their chests during a fictional football game. According to a member of WVU’s athletics department, they view it as Allstate “taking a light-hearted approach to promoting their product.” Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I’m having a hard time seeing that as being a positive for the school.
- There are a whole lot of pharmaceutical products whose side effects seem much worse than the illness/disease they were created to fix.
- I’ve rented vacation houses for decades and had no idea that vacation rentals existed where you shared your visit with a host. And thank goodness I didn’t, because Nick Saban makes it look like a nightmare!
- What’s a genmoji?
- I guess we’re really getting old when Katherine Heigl starts promoting Poise fresh protection liners. But, I have to hand it to the writers, they wrote a hilarious line Katherine used to describe why the mom’s kid is at fault for her incontinence. “You see, when we have kids, the pelvic floor or the muscles and ligaments that help support the bladder can weaken. And then, of course, with perimenopause and menopause, there’s a reduction in estrogen, which can cause further control issues.” Which, when quizzed how she knew this, Katherine replied, “Well, I used to be a doctor.”
- I don’t drink Dr Pepper because I don’t like Dr Pepper. I don’t get the taste of it at all. To me it’s, how Ted Lasso refers to tea: garbage water. But I can’t watch a college football game without seeing a Dr Pepper commercial. Commercials that I always assumed were a colossal waste of money, because, who could drink that stuff? Apparently I was wrong. In the last 25 years Dr Pepper has gone from being America’s fifth favorite soda, to now tied with Pepsi as No. 2. Dr Pepper had 8.34% of the soda market last year, Pepsi had 8.31%. Of course, Coke, my choice when drinking caramel-colored carbonated sugar water, leads them both with 19.2% of the market.
- Home Depot pointing out in an ad that there are only 256 spots in the NFL draft this year, when there are 400,000 open trade jobs, made me feel good about this column I wrote a few months ago about our need for more trade professionals.
- It was nice to see a new version of a Ricola ad (well, new to me), while at the same time Corona’s ”O Tannenpalm” commercial has been running unchanged for around 35 years.
- Which also brings up this thought: It seems a lot of the beer we’re drinking comes from Mexico. I saw plenty of commercials for Dos Equis, Corona and Modelo. I hate tequila, but I have to admit to enjoying a Dos Equis or two.
- A company called Metro Cellular was touting their outstanding deal to receive a new iPhone 12. I had to see it several times to make sure I wasn’t mis-hearing it. The IPhone 12 debuted on October 13, 2020, which in “phone years” means it’s ancient. I wonder how much business they’re getting from this ad and promotion?!
- When did “whole body deodorant” become a thing?
- If you slide down a snowy mountain on your stomach, inhaling Cheez-It crackers as you slide, and the friction from the sliding causes your clothes to come off, why does the friction not affect your underwear?
- Lastly, the commercials for the new holiday film “Red One” intrigued me enough to want to watch. I have to give the filmmakers their just due, because in the movie the reindeer are referred to as females rather than the age-old male orientation all other Christmas films use. And, as any wildlife expert will tell you, if Santa’s sleigh is being pulled by reindeer on December 25, and those reindeer have antlers, they must be females. Because, typically, male reindeer lose their antlers in the late fall and don’t start new ones until February, while female reindeer keep their antlers through the winter until their calves are born in the spring.
Happy 2025!
