Oh Dairy Queen, what happened?

I've been loving Dairy Queen's TV commercials for the last few years. I know some have stirred up controversy (like the current one featuring the pre-teen girl who is apparently already using her flirty, feminine charms to make the boys buy her things), but I love 'em anyways.



So what the heck happened? All this week I've been seeing the DQ ad where a 70's dad beats his own son at arm wrestling in the name of finishing off the Dairy Queen deliciousness. Okay, so far so good. Reminiscent of their other commercials where families show each other up:



But then all of a sudden it's the present, and the grown-up son lets his elderly father win. What's up with that? Why didn't the son whip his father's prone-to-gloating butt? It's not like they haven't had people do much, much worse to each other.



I hope the Dairy Queen advertising team hasn't gone as soft as their ice cream. DQ has provided a consistent high point during commercial breaks for years now. At least if they do change their tactics to less hilarious ones, there'll always be YouTube.

I Wish I Had a Protective Layer to Buffer Harmful Commercials.

A few months back I saw an actor buddy of mine just after he went to a commercial audition. He didn't expect he'd gotten it, which was fine with him since he didn't think the finished ad was going to be all that funny.

He was right, he didn't get it, and now the commercial is on the air. It features a boy in a bubble finally being allowed his first kiss, trying to chew some gum before he does, and squiriting the liquid centre everywhere. He is promptly resealed in his bubble, sans any lip-lock lovin'.

Now from blog-surfing to http://scidada.blogspot.com/ I've learned that the ad is about to be pulled for being generally inconsiderate to people who really do have severe immunodeficiencies.

That's great, but I'm also glad it's being pulled for a much more basic reason - my buddy was right about this, too; it's simply not funny.

Why is it that so often bad ads can stick around for months or even years, while a show like "Wonderfalls" only gets four episodes?

Le sigh.

Rob Fulton Can Sell Me Anything

I don't like a lot of commercials, but when I do like them I tend to remember them. I am not, however, very good at remembering faces, so it's not surprising I only recently discovered that a guy I've been working with for a few months was previously in a ton of awesome, memorable commercials. I didn't realize this though, until I visited his website.

Revel, one and all, in the ridiculousness of Rob's Commercial Reel.

Do you put commercials in a show that is one?

I've been seeing these ads on the Comedy Network for what seemed to be a show called "The Gamekillers", which confused me as that's the hook for a current string of anti-perspirant commercials. Curiosity got the better of me (which I suppose means the ploy was already working, but I'm hardly the target market) and I headed over to the Comedy Network website. Here's part of what I learned:

"In this reality-based special, The Gamekillers will be unleashed into the real world on one unsuspecting young guy. He is not an actor. He's just a guy who you're going to see go on a series of 5 dates in an effort to win over a young girl. He thinks his fate is in his own hands, but little does he know that on each date, The Gamekillers will be unleashed to kill game. Will The Gamekillers kill his game, or will he keep his cool and win the girl?"*

I didn't think "reality-based" shows could get more depressing, or further from reality, but now I know the sky's the limit.

Of course, I'd feel much worse if it ended up being funny. It's probably a good thing I have to work Saturday night.

Quick Link:
*The ComedyNetwork.ca - The Gamekillers