A Look at TV Commercials

So, like most people, I've spent a good share of my life watching TV. There are some things I've noticed though about commercials that have been nagging at me though lately. Mainly how most commercials are unrealistic as possible...

Car Commercials
In car commercials what do you see? You see cars being driven like they were stolen. If people were to drive them like this they would most likely severely damage the car, if not injure or kill themselves and others. Can you honestly think of a time when you would need to floor your car off the back of a semi trailer? Or for that matter use your truck to haul a loaded semi? Or how often do you go and do doughnuts out in the desert? Or how often are there cones set up on the road for you to slallom? Not often enough! In fact, it's NEVER! So then why show all this? Sure, it may make the cars look snazzy, but I think a car would sell better if you showed off it's practical purposes. Some car commercials do accomplish this, without all the snazzy driving and raging techno music. Those are great commercials. But in most car commercials there is always that disclaimer that says, "Professional stunt driver on a closed course," or something similar. Are you a professional stunt driver? Most likely not, and even if you were could you still do all that driving stunts during the afternoon rush hour, in construction? NOPE! Anyway, that disclaimer is what brings me to my next point...

Car Commercials and Alcohol/Gun Commercials
If there is a such thing as a "Professional Stunt Driver" then why can't there be a such thing as a "Professional Alcoholic?" In alcohol commercials it shows people drinking, relaxing, and laughing. How often, at say a frat party, does everyone sit and drink? Not often! People are passing out after time, or doing keg stands, or beer bonging, or something else of that caliber. So why not show people doing something like that instead? Wouldn't that be more realistic? I can see the disclaimer now: "Professional Alcohol in a closed frat party."

So what about gun commercials? Is it even legal to advertise guns on the TV? I honestly have no idea... but for the sake of argument let's just say it is. Now, how would a gun commercial go? Well, with the arms ban coming to an end soon, it could show some people hunting moose with a 50-cal machine gun. That would be pretty unrealistic, right? Of course, there would be another disclaimer. God only knows what that could say...

Combining Unrealism
Eventually you could combine these commercials into one big advertisement, so as long as there's the disclaimer... You could have someone get trashed at a party, drive home drunk (swerving around the road, nearly passing out, vomiting, and eventually coming to a stop at home by hitting the mailbox or garage door), getting pissed off at whoever they live with, and shooting them ALL WITHIN 30 SECONDS! Just so as long as you had your disclaimer: "Professional Alcoholic, Drunk Driver, and Murderer in a closed party, on closed roads, and with a mock gun."

So my question is, how the hell do all of these things that are so ludicrious and impractical, get our attention? Or get us to spend money even? Because it works, and I have no idea how!

Disclaimer: This is an unprofessional critism on the open internet.

As one comedian once said...

You know, in toothpaste commercials, they show a woman brushing her teeth....but in tampon commercials, they show women playing tennis....what's with that?

The hot babes in alchohol commercials are because after a few drinks, thats what they ALL look like (same with us, to them)!!! That's why only hot people are in beer ads...(with the exception of the Starsky and Hutch throwbacks in the Bacardi commercials....jury's still out on those two)...


As for car commercials...what's the alternative? At least they've gotten a little more creative as of late.... Would pulling up to a house, or parking in a parking lot, or getting stuck in traffic sell a car?

Originally posted by Gazrok
The hot babes in alchohol commercials are because after a few drinks, thats what they ALL look like (same with us, to them)!!! That's why only hot people are in beer ads...(with the exception of the Starsky and Hutch throwbacks in the Bacardi commercials....jury's still out on those two)...

Well hey, they could just start off with the people being ugly in the beginning and by the end of the commercial be hot!

As for car commercials...what's the alternative? At least they've gotten a little more creative as of late.... Would pulling up to a house, or parking in a parking lot, or getting stuck in traffic sell a car?

I have no idea... Just pointing out that what happens in those commercials rarely, if not never, happens in real life.

Just pointing out that what happens in those commercials rarely, if not never, happens in real life.

Just a thought. Perhaps those commercials are designed to help us escape the boredom of everyday life. Most folks I know are always looking for something, a better job, car, home, TV, beer, whatever. We are simply not satisfied with what we have, so we look for something to excite us.
A few years back Pontiac cars used a slogan that said "We Build Excitement". The words change, but we still look to products and their advertising to thrill us.
How often do you hear folks talk and brag about the new product they bought, or the vacation that will add a week or two of non-routine to their lives? This is excitiing to us. The fact that our child gets a passing grade in school is ignored, not discussed. WHY? I think most of us are being conditioned to think that almost everything is unimportant unless we buy it. You purchase the product that will give you "implied" power, sex appeal, or makes you feel more 'intelligent' than your neighbor. We are a vain people. Advertising simply focuses on that.

You know what the difference between you two is, geography.

I used to live up by cmdrkeenkid, and the majority of people around Detroit do not drive like in the commercials.

Now, though, I live in the same town as you, Gazrok, and we both know that the people around here drive WORSE then in the commercials.

As a matter of fact I was late in to work tonight and was hauling along at a pretty good clip down I-4, the next thing I knew I was being passed like I was standing still by some guy running on Nitrous with two foot of flame coming out of his exhaust, on a crowded expressway. He must have passed me doing over 140mph, at least.

People here drive on the shoulders, refuse to yield to emergency vehicles, race on the causeways, you name it.

Our society has become the disposal society, out with the old,
got to buy the newest and latest. The commercials play on our
values, and sex to sell.

The psychology of a commercial is to sell an image,
when we buy something we are buying into that image.
You know how you can tell a person by the clothes they
wear or car that they drive, as it is an extension of ones self.

Tell me the car and color and I'll tell you who you are...
Car insurance companies do this all the time.

Local gunshops advertise on TV here. I haven't seen any commercials for a specific firearm, however.

What's so unusual about the driving in car commercials. I drive that way alll the time.

I don't like commercials, If i want something, I will find them, they dont have to find me... but then again, all that advertising money has to trickle down to the economy somewhere along the line...