Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Is This Targeted Marketing? Racism? I Don't Get It.

I think the 10 of you who read this blog were probably in the room at Side Bar's house during the discussion of this IO digital cable commercial, but I still don't get it. Here, watch it:



Who in the world thought of this commercial and what the hell were they smoking? I can just imagine some like 38 year old white dude who went to Cornell sitting in his cubicle on Madison Avenue thinking, "I know. The Latino market is gonna be the next big thing. That reggaeton thing is really popular. Lord knows that me gusta la gasolina. Why don't we make a commercial that speaks directly to the Latinos who are really the ones that want digital cable with free HD."

I just don't get it? Why is this a good idea? I mean, if the purpose of it was just to get people talking about hte commercial and then ultimately thinking about getting digital cable, then I guess it worked. I have had at least 4 or 5 conversations about this commercial. But why the fuck is this a reggaeton song? And why is it addressed to "mi gente", as if latinos are the only ones who can listen or think about getting digital cable with free HD? And why does he say "twenty nine ninety fye" instead of "five"? And why the fuck is that guy dressed like a sea creature about 50 seconds in?

This is just an existential conundrum. I have to know who conceived of this commercial and why? It's almost like the time that Jamie Lynn Sigler put out an album with some of the songs in Spanish because her mother is Cuban, even though she's Jewish and from Long Island. (I'm not trying to rob Jamie Lynn Sigler of her Cuban heritage, but I don't think the term "Latin Explosion" really should have applied to you, Meadow. How about that switch from third to second person?)

The point is, what the fuck is up with this commercial?

4 comments:

Open Bar said...

I wouldn't say it's racist. It seems to be going full-on in the absurdist direction. If they had had a bunch of dark-skinned midgets in sombrero's swigging tequila, that'd be one thing. But I feel fortunate to learn something new about the prevalence of mermaids and sea monsters in Latin-American culture.

Thanks, commercial! Vaya con dios!

Anonymous said...

Who are the 10 people?

Anyway, I am hyper-critical of commercials in general. I hate bad commercials, and love good ones.

Maybe an idea for a future post... best/worst all time commercials...?

Irish and Jew said...

son of a bitch. I literally JUST posted about this g-damn commercial (I haven't even read what you wrote yet, but am about to). And then I noticed that "Where's Luke" isn't on our blogroll... so I came over here to get your URL and BOOM!

But for real god this phone number out of my head. HELLLLP!!!

~Irish

Open Bar said...

Irish -- glad to hear you observe the same ridiculousness.

And now that I've watched that commercial for the thousandth time, I found a new awesome moment -- when the guy is buried in the sand, he looks up and basically does the "Walk Like an Egyptian" thing with his head.