newest tear-jerker commercial

[TrekkieMonster]

Back in the day there were the AT&T "Reach out and touch someone ad's" and the Kodak ad's and Hallmark ad's and the Folgers ad's that tug at the heartstrings.

Watching football today, I've just seen the latest of these and it had grown mean getting misty-eyed at the end.

If you haven't seen it, enjoy.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNeEVkhTutY[/yt]

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

I didn't like it. It pushes all the right "cute animals" buttons, but I am not a fan of the whole industry growing up around climate change hysteria. I don't like the business and political practices that have grown up around it.

That doesn't mean I don't want to clean up--regardless of whether we can trust climate change science, I think that doing things more cleanly has to be good on general principle. I just don't like seeing manipulative things like this, though.

 

[Amaris]

Back in the day there were the AT&T "Reach out and touch someone ad's" and the Kodak ad's and Hallmark ad's and the Folgers ad's that tug at the heartstrings.

Watching football today, I've just seen the latest of these and it had grown mean getting misty-eyed at the end.

If you haven't seen it, enjoy.

D'oh! Darn... manipulative... [wipes away tears]

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I'm sorry, I just lol'd when the bear hugged the dude.

 

[Amaris]

I'm sorry, I just lol'd when the bear hugged the dude.

Nothing wrong with that. I tend to pick up on emotional cues, and am highly sensitive to other people's emotions. I've always been that way. I'm the "I just cried for what seems like no reason whatsoever" guy. So the polar bear hug? Yeah, that cinched it, but I was already tearing up when the bear was sniffing at the butterfly.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

I would be lying if I didn't say I could feel something as a response to the images themselves. I just thought it was pushing an agenda rather than a product. The product itself may be good--like I said, on general principle--but I don't like tying it to politics.

 

[auntiehill]

I'm sorry, I just lol'd when the bear hugged the dude.

I did, too, because that sick part of my mind was thinking...."and then the bear rips the man's throat out."

 

[Amaris]

I would be lying if I didn't say I could feel something as a response to the images themselves. I just thought it was pushing an agenda rather than a product. The product itself may be good--like I said, on general principle--but I don't like tying it to politics.

I agree. In this case, it's not their intentions I'm looking at. I'm picking up the emotions from the bear, and associating it with homelessness, need, abandonment and loneliness.

 

[sidious618]

I like that commercial a lot and hope that we move more and more towards better cars. It's a step in the right direction. Plus, bears are awesome.

 

[Trekker4747]

That commercial made me want to throw up. Sappy, melodramatic and uses about every cliche'd "cure animal" trick it can to sell its agenda.

Fail

 

[sidious618]

That commercial made me want to throw up. Sappy, melodramatic and uses about every cliche'd "cure animal" trick it can to sell its agenda.

Fail

Why do you hate cuddly bears?

 

[Trekker4747]

That commercial made me want to throw up. Sappy, melodramatic and uses about every cliche'd "cure animal" trick it can to sell its agenda.

Fail

Why do you hate cuddly bears?

Because a polar bear is more likely to maul you and eat you for breakfast than it is to hug you for buying a hybrid car? It probably ate the raccoon it encountered too.

 

[Crusher Disciple]

I'm more worried about the invasion of privacy. I mean, how exactly did that polar bear get that man's address in the first place? This whole trend of tracking someone's purchasing habits has gotten out of hand when any Joe Schmo Antarctica can just go out and buy someone's personal information like that.

 

[Trekker4747]

I'm more worried about the invasion of privacy. I mean, how exactly did that polar bear get that man's address in the first place? This whole trend of tracking someone's purchasing habits has gotten out of hand when any Joe Schmo Antarctica can just go out and buy someone's personal information like that.

Pssst.

Polar Bears are from the arctic, not the antarctic.

Erm. Honey.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Here's a song from when I was little about that...now THIS is the proper use of cute animals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF01mBSB8rY

 

[gturner]

Yeah, a polar bear is going to eat you, not hug you. They might as well show a big wet kiss from a great white shark.

Plus, North American polar bear populations have approximately tripled since the 1960s, and narwhal populations were much higher in the previous interglacial period when the arctic was about 8 degrees C warmer than present, letting then swim about 800 km more poleward.

Think of the narwhales. Buy an SUV.

 

[Crusher Disciple]

I'm more worried about the invasion of privacy. I mean, how exactly did that polar bear get that man's address in the first place? This whole trend of tracking someone's purchasing habits has gotten out of hand when any Joe Schmo Antarctica can just go out and buy someone's personal information like that.

Pssst.

Polar Bears are from the arctic, not the antarctic.

Erm. Honey.

Eh, Artic, Antartic. Istanbul, Constantinople. State of Georgia, Republic of Georgia. Amsterdam, New Amsterdam.

 

[TrekkieMonster]

Wow, this went serious much more quickly than I'd anticipated. LOL!

Actually, I was wondering if other people would laugh or just think the commercial was stupid or what. I think the juxtaposition between us (and the guy) assuming the polar bear was going to rip his throat out and then the hug is part of what made the commercial "work" (for some.)

As for the manipulation thing, well, all advertising is an attempt to manipulate us, so the manipulation of an "agenda" I happen to agree with didn't really bother me.

Mostly, though, I just thought it was a cute idea to get a point across, and an interesting choice of "vehicles", if you will, to sell a car. I can't really recall an "appeal to emotion" in a car ad before, at least not like this.

On a sort of related note, and speaking of "cuddly bears" in commercials in general, did anyone else notice yesterday (during all the football games in the US) how many commercials for different products featured bears? They were EVERYWHERE!

 

[Roger Wilco]

I didn't like it. It pushes all the right "cute animals" buttons, but I am not a fan of the whole industry growing up around climate change hysteria. I don't like the business and political practices that have grown up around it.

That doesn't mean I don't want to clean up--regardless of whether we can trust climate change science, I think that doing things more cleanly has to be good on general principle. I just don't like seeing manipulative things like this, though.

Lighten up. The ad's supposed to be funny. And yes, one of the selling points for electric cars is that it's good for the environment. Who are you to judge people for that? Just buy a fucking SUV to substitute your manliness with 2 tons of useless steel if that makes you feel better.

 

[iguana_tonante]

I didn't like it. It pushes all the right "cute animals" buttons, but I am not a fan of the whole industry growing up around climate change hysteria. I don't like the business and political practices that have grown up around it.

That doesn't mean I don't want to clean up--regardless of whether we can trust climate change science, I think that doing things more cleanly has to be good on general principle. I just don't like seeing manipulative things like this, though.

Yeah, because the issue if the public can "trust" climate scientists have nothing to do with politics.

And are people really complaining that bears don't actually hug people? No shit Sherlock, I wouldn't ever know that!