Saturday, January 26, 2013

Strictly Commercial 2012

Maybe some old Zappa fans will pick up on the subject title, assuming they haven't all moved to Montana to become dental floss tycoons! ;)

In case you missed the respective loud sobs coming from New England and OR, this years match up will be the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers.  I'll dry my eyes and put away the Kleenex and try not to be too miserable as the last game of the 2012 season is played out. After all, there is always next year! And with the Super Bowl comes the millions of dollars spent on new commercials and hype. Good grief, they are advertising a 100 hours of pre-game coverage. 100 hours!!!! That's a lot of flippin commercials. In fact I would go so far to say, they have stretched it all out just so they can sell commercial time. I wonder if anyone will be interviewing the towel boy?
I love to do this post because if I am going to watch any TV I'm going to see endless amounts of commercials and boy, do I appreciate a good one in the sea of mundane and stupid ones. 


For dog and cat lovers, 2012 was a banner year for commercials featuring animals. And I wasn't the only one that thought so. Dogster has listed their top 10 best commercials featuring dogs in 2012, and there are some good ones. Who could forget Weego, the beer fetching rescue dog. The bonus, Anheuser-Busch donated $250,000 to an animal rescue foundation as part of this commercial campaign. You can see them all here.
My favorite, Purina's "Inside Every Dog is a Great Dog". Just in case anyone needs reminding about how much dogs bring to our lives. And because it deserves a second look, don't forget Harvey and Rabbit by ThinkBox. Travelers Insurance is also wisely kept their cute dog campaign alive.

Now, cats were well represented in commercial endeavors in 2012, although I don't find them as compelling. It's obvious that cats usually think this kind of work is below them, but there were a few pretty darn cute ones and you can see them all here at Catster. Norman the Eco-Warrior has got to be my pick for best. It's clever and cute and I'll bet Norm had lots of fun making it!

The Kleenex Award goes to this video. It is not a commercial, but it was made by a rescue organization. It doesn't matter, it will make you cry. Fiona, you lucky girl, I'm so happy you have a wonderful new life.


Horses don't often appear in commercials I'm sad to say. There is no Horseter. But through the years Anheuser-Busch has brought lots of delight with their Clydesdale's. Serious or funny, I've enjoyed each and every one featuring these smart gentle giants. For all of you who wonder, "How did they do that?" This link will provide some answers and certainly a few tons of entertainment.  Michelle had it featured on her site a few months ago and I just have to pass it on as a best of. For the record, The Snowball Fight never fails to make me smile.

So go forth, click a few links and have a few laughs, see some beautiful animals. We'll catch up on the happenings around Runamuck in the next post.

Parting shot: Peter singing, no pre-recording needed. ;)



3 comments:

LA said...

I admit that I'm more likely to be found watching the Puppy Bowl...but I do turn occasionally to catch the score and some commercials. I love the Clydesdales, my favorite being their tribute to 9/11.

Anonymous said...

I can hear Peter's aria perfectly - what lungs that boy has ;-)

Leigh said...

100 hours of pre-game TV? They've gotta be kidding. I hope the poor players get their playing time in too. (Like all we wanna see are commercials and commontaters. )