Motorcycles in (other) Product Advertising

[Loonette]

We've had TiVo for about a year now, and I have to say, one of my favorite benefits of this little device is having the ability to zip past commercials at high speed. I absolutely HATE commercials. Once in awhile, however, I'll catch a flash of something interesting and I'll take a peek at the commercial. This includes commercials with motorcycles in them.

Well.... have you seen these?! One is a commercial where a young man is bragging about how cool his Grandma is. She's never in the slow lane, yada-yada-yada - she's so cool, she'll even go for rides with him on the back of his motorcycle. The commercial is for adult diapers!!! Yeah, well I guess thank goodness that she didn't have a leak all over his back end.

The other one shows a 50-60-ish looking dude riding his motorcycle with his special lady riding pillion. Again, he's not ready to slow down - lives life on the edge, and he can keep going all day long if necessary. Why? Because he's got his stalagmite!!! I'm wondering whether or not he's trying to manage his bike while still dealing with the remaining woody from his last dose of stalagmite.

I suppose with a larger, more diverse representation of our population out on bikes these days, we're bound to see more of these sorts of ads, but it just struck me as odd, the choice of product in these two different ads. My favorite would have to be the one for the adult diapers. Go, Granny, Go!!

Cheers,
Loonette

[Gummiente]

I'm wondering whether or not he's trying to manage his bike while still dealing with the remaining woody from his last dose of stalagmite.

Did the commercial show what his "special lady riding pillion" was hanging on to?

[Loonette]

I'm wondering whether or not he's trying to manage his bike while still dealing with the remaining woody from his last dose of stalagmite.

Did the commercial show what his "special lady riding pillion" was hanging on to?

I guess there are some additional advantages to it, eh!

[Nibblet99]

Minor Rant.....

As good as Tivo's are for getting rid of commercials, they look set to make things worse.

At the moment, you get a 4 min break to go make a cup of tea, etc. but due to the amount of people skipping adverts the lost revenue will most likely be made elsewhere.

Theres 2 main places the industry is looking at, at the moment,
1) Product placement inside programmes I reallise the film industry has been doing this for a while, but this is going to be another level of it entirely
2) A text crawl across part of the screen, whilst you're watching a programme

As I understand it, licensing authorities are currently allowing restricted trials of these schemes.

I don't particularly want to see this, but on the other hand, theres rarely anything on TV that strikes me as worth watching, either.


*puts soap box away*

[Loonette]

I can't speak for the rest of society, but I'm a person who doesn't watch commercials anyway. I would mute the TV and talk to someone or get up and leave. But not only would I miss the commercials, I would also end up missing some of my show. And... watching commercials or not had never enticed me to buy one product over another. It just doesn't work on me. With TiVo, if I catch a glimpse of something clever enough to catch my interest, then I can view the commercial. I'm happy too that my kids will also zip through the commercials with TiVo - they definitely don't need it in their lives.

Having said that... I know what you mean about product insertion in the shows themselves. I've been watching the show "Biggest Loser", and they have been quite blatant with advertising within the show. Quaker Oatmeal, milk (US Dairy Council, I'm sure), Extra sugar-free chewing gum - they display the product whilst talking about it, just like on 1950's TV. The one I hate the most, is the American Express commercial with Tina Fey - they run it during 30 Rock, so if you're using TiVo, you think that you see the show starting up with Tina Fey, but it's only the American Express commercial.

Oh, wait, I have another rant! I rarely go to large movie theaters, and one of the main reasons is this... if I spend $9.50 for a freakin' ticket, I shouldn't have to sit through 10-20 minutes of advertising for everything from colas to TV shows to US military recruitment ads. Movie trailers, yes - commercials, NO! I don't even remember when this started to happen. Product insertion into a film isn't quite so bad, IMO - I can just block that out mentally. But when I get to a theater early enough to find a decent seat, it just feels like torture to have to sit through all the pre-film garbage.

OK - now my rant is over.

Cheers,
Loonette

[Wrider]

Actually a year or so ago Tivo found out about people skipping through every commercial. They almost started something where you HAD to watch one commercial every break, but got so much negative feedback they canned it...
Wrider