Lately...
I've been watching a lot of TV, and in the course of doing so, lots of commercials. Mostly they exist in my periphery as I wait for my favorite program to return, but some manage to seep in - the jingles running in my head long after the television is turned off and even going so far as infiltrating my dreams. Is this the sign of my own mental decay or just very effective advertising?
The new Doublemint Twins campaign seemed disappointing at first, as though doing a kitsch revival of the upbeat spots from the '70s and '80s, but there's an underlying sinisterness to the spots that slips under my skin. The blond bombshell twins, painfully attractive, sing about the grotesqueries of modern society (plastic surgery on tv, junk emails, one-day sales) in a so-catchy-it's-annoying song. Everything has a white-green plastic veneer in this world, as though chewing Wrigley's Spearmint gum will not remove the extremities of pop culture but help us to forget about them for as long as the yummy doublemint flavor lasts, which, knowing the product well, won't be for very long. We are doomed, and the Doublemint Twins know it.
On a decidedly lighter note, the campaigns of Target have justifiably earned themselves a place in the TVC hall of fame. Their production values, color schemes, music scores and general smarts are guaranteed to deliver sensory delight, if not food for thought. Recently, they started running "back to school" commercials which feature a new spin on Sir-Mix-Alot's big butt song ("We like back-packs and we cannot lie... with a cellphone pocket on the side...") with boys and girls spinning in and out of the bright red frame in fast motion and reverse speeds. 15 seconds into the spot after a cute black girl who looks 23 is flapping her hands about as she walks from the camera and the Target logo comes up and SMACK! They go on to talk about kids fashions for another 15 seconds! It's two spots in one - with double the sonic pleasure! Hmmm... I'm noticing a pattern here.
Most lists come in threes but it seems appropriate that this one comes in two. I like these ads and i cannot lie - they're on my brain and now it's gonna fry.
The new Doublemint Twins campaign seemed disappointing at first, as though doing a kitsch revival of the upbeat spots from the '70s and '80s, but there's an underlying sinisterness to the spots that slips under my skin. The blond bombshell twins, painfully attractive, sing about the grotesqueries of modern society (plastic surgery on tv, junk emails, one-day sales) in a so-catchy-it's-annoying song. Everything has a white-green plastic veneer in this world, as though chewing Wrigley's Spearmint gum will not remove the extremities of pop culture but help us to forget about them for as long as the yummy doublemint flavor lasts, which, knowing the product well, won't be for very long. We are doomed, and the Doublemint Twins know it.
On a decidedly lighter note, the campaigns of Target have justifiably earned themselves a place in the TVC hall of fame. Their production values, color schemes, music scores and general smarts are guaranteed to deliver sensory delight, if not food for thought. Recently, they started running "back to school" commercials which feature a new spin on Sir-Mix-Alot's big butt song ("We like back-packs and we cannot lie... with a cellphone pocket on the side...") with boys and girls spinning in and out of the bright red frame in fast motion and reverse speeds. 15 seconds into the spot after a cute black girl who looks 23 is flapping her hands about as she walks from the camera and the Target logo comes up and SMACK! They go on to talk about kids fashions for another 15 seconds! It's two spots in one - with double the sonic pleasure! Hmmm... I'm noticing a pattern here.
Most lists come in threes but it seems appropriate that this one comes in two. I like these ads and i cannot lie - they're on my brain and now it's gonna fry.
posted by Mugs at 8:15 PM
2 Comments:
Welcome back :)
Matthew - Michael Slaboch here checking in on your blog for the first time in months; looks like you were on hiatus - anyways, funny you should mention pop-culture ad's, because I was writing an album review the other day for Bill Frisell's "East/West". There's a nice cover of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" on it and I couldn't help but think about the DAMN California Rasin ad from the 80's. As I started to think about it some more, it is the first Top 40 hit that I can recall being associated with a product and burned into the conciousness of American's. This is years before Microsoft's "Start Me Up" campaign or Cadillac preying on the minds of Baby Boomers with Zeppelin's "Rock N' Roll". Just a little food for thought. I guess I should go now and double my pleasure with some double extra sugar-free gum on my way to getting some hip new Mossimo shirts at Target. Maybe I'll meet some "hot" twins who will swoon over me as I shell out the 25 cents for some Doublemint in the checkout line. ;)
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