amendment to inexplicable, incomprehensible, inexcusable

I posted that the small writing in the meningitis commercial said 21 in 100,000 kids wold get the disease. I've seen it again and there is a decimal point - so it is actually 2.1 in 100,000. Even less likely makes the commercial even more offensive.

Toss me an explanation

There is a new commercial for Suzuki advertising that their cars have the #1 warranty. It features people driving around in Suzuki cars and throwing a set of keys to each other. There are several things that confuse me about this: first, the people are already driving around, what do they need keys for? The people playing are actually all passengers, so maybe they need keys so they don’t have to bum rides from whoever is driving, but still, they clearly aren’t hurting for transportation. Secondly, what does any of this have to do with the warranties? Nonsense is irritating.

Not Just Phoning it in

I really enjoy the Cingular commercials featuring dropped calls. My favorites are the one with the mother telling her daughter not to make the same mistake she did by getting married in Vegas, the one with the guy calling a girl after a first date: his expression when he realizes he has just said he wouldn't kiss his sister is great, and of course, the one with the butcher who asks if the meat supplier's wife has eaten all of the roast beef. He just keeps digging himself deeper in that one.
I also like the commercials for Comcast Digital Voice which feature people making phone calls hoping for different responses now that they are on Comcast Digital Voice. The best one of these features a man with full body striped tattoos calling the tatto artist who can be heard saying (with fabulous Asian accent) "I tell you tattoo permanent. You human tiger now!" Awesome

A sweeping good time

An old commercial has recently been airing again for the Dirt Devil broomvac. This commercial features several people at a dinner or cocktail party in someone’s house, and one of the guests spills something. The host immediately gets out enough broomvacs for everyone, and they all begin to sweep while performing a synchronized dance. Now I suppose this could be a gathering of Stomp members and they might believably dance together even in their off time, but seriously, who has that many broomvacs? I don’t want to go to parties if I have to clean the host’s house – that’s the whole point of visiting someone else’s house instead of having the party at my house!

Feel Free to 'Meet The Robinsons'

Last night we rented Meet the Robinsons, and it is one of the best movies I've seen in a while. The first half is hysterically funny - completely random comments, occurances and characters keep popping up. Obviuosly the second half has more to do with resolving the plot and imparting the message, and it is a kids movie so the ending isn't a surprise, but it is still enjoyable and totally worth it for the off hand dialogue thrown in. The writiers might have been on drugs, but this is one case where randomness works - it is quirky and funny and it all meshes well rather than just being weird for the sake of being wierd. I think this may be a movie that parents like more than the kids, who may not fully appreciate the wonderfuly bizarre.

An Eat Free Card?

there is a new commercial for Progresso soups advertising several of their soups as being worth 0 points on the Weight Watchers system. Now, admittedly I don't know exactly how the system works, but I think you get a certain numbre of points per day that you can eat and you can 'spend' them however you want. I would assume that the points relate to calories as well as fat or sugar content. Now, what I don't understand is how anything besides ice can have 0 points. This soup has 60 calories per serving, which is great, but still a caloric intake. So how is that worth zero? I don't think people out there are going to be sitting around eating 10 cans of soup (1200 calories - a full days worth) and then thinking 'hey, I can still eat that cake and not go over my points' and ignoring the fact that they have now ingested 2500 calories that day, but still - I don't get how it can be worth nothing.

Eragon; error full

Last night Eragon was on TV and I was reminded of just how disappointing the movie was. I had really looked forward to seeing it when it came out, having loved the book as well as its sequel. Anyway, my husband and I used up one of our rare nights out to go see it in the theater, and man, was that a waste. Not that the movie itself was that bad (you can't expect much from a first time director and the writer of Jurassic park 3): it's not going to be on the top of anyone's list, but it isn't the worst of all time either (The Black Hole anyone?). The problem is that the movie barely resembles the book at all. Now I am not a purist by anymeans, I fully accept changes from source material when it is necessary for cinematic purposes. Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings movies are perfect examples of this: nothing was changed that was absolutely necessary. When you have an epic novel obviously certains things need to be cut out or manipulated to make the movie a reasonable length and to draw in new fans. None of the changes in Eragon did this. Instead we had expanded character parts (John Malkovich overacting as Galbatorix, an character only referred to in the book), and a ridiculous ending battle that bear no resemblance to the book (flying smoke demons?). It is such a shame that this movie did such a disservice to the book, its author and the fans - it had the potential to bring to life a wonderful story and introduce new people to the world of Eragon and his dragon (explore it here). Hopefully some day someone with good intentions and actual directing (and screen writing) abilities will make the movie the book deserves.