The Sh– To Just Sh–ty… Toy Commercials
From shitty to shittier indeed...
Let’s face facts… kids are dumb. I don’t mean the concept of them (entirely), but they’re suckers. Hell, we were just as gullible in our youth.
But back in the day, marketing firms fostered (word choice!) our imagination when they sold to us, and look at the consumers we’ve become today.
Here’s a commercial for an 80’s toy probably no one remembers called Army Ants. The promo was eventually pulled from the airwaves due to the fact the toys moved by themselves (and since kids are dumb they might think they’re alive… oh no!) Remember, this took place before warnings were placed on coffee to remind people that coffee is fucking hot, so the idea of putting a notice on the bottom of the screen never crossed anyone’s mind.
Now here’s a commercial for the toyline based on the new G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra movie:
Where’s the fun in that commercial? I smell no sense of adventure. I envision no afternoon of making those vehicle crash into each other. It’s all tell, and no show! Sure, there’s hints of scenes from the movie, but where’s the poking other bugs in the squishy and squashy guts, whether I have to make them do it or they do it to themselves (since they’re alive, you see).
To be fair, they are completelysort of different toylines, so I’ll draw upon an old G.I. Joe toy commercial for apples to Apple Paltrow Martin‘s sake:
Fucking Refrigerator Perry?! Seriously, a Chicago Bear is on G.I. Joe, and he kicks major Cobra ass?! And I can call him and get in on the action with only four certificates (and a 50 cent phone call plus $1 handling charge)?!
See the difference?
SIDENOTE: I recently won a chance for a free haircut at a salon that panders to men and, to be honest, that I don’t quite frankly trust, but I went anyway. (It was free…) Upon leaving and realizing it wasn’t a complete hack job, I tipped the stylist $2 and $1 in quarters. It was all I had. She made a face, and I left. Haircuts are normally $16, so I don’t know if she expected $5 or more on a FREE haircut, but it did make me wonder… what can you buy for $3 nowadays? Cigarettes? No. A beer at the bar? No. Two 20 oz. bottle of Mtn. Dew? Sometimes. Seeing that I could have got Refrigerator Perry for $1.50 really got me thinking…
Man, I loved that living room TV. It was encased in wood and its screen was somewhere around 30 inches across. There were no dials. Instead, it had touch sensor controls. You could change the channel with your toes! (Because there was no remote, you see.)
monkeyBLOG monkeyDO 
