Polite Dissent

Best ad on TV currently: This one’s actually been on for a while — the GE Healthcare where the neurosurgeon states, “We have to get back to the ship” and the rest of the OR team just stares at him. Any ad that references the classic sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage get my attention. Now if someone would just make an ad with the line, “Gort, Klaatu barada nikto”*

A close second is the new Burger King ad with Darius Rucker singing about the Bacon Cheddar Ranch to the tune of Big Rock Candy Mountain. It’s cheesy as hell, but it never fails to crack me up (especially the full version, with the dancing “Ranch Dressing Girls”).

Worst ad on TV currently: Obscure, unless you watch NASCAR. It’s the animated Coca-Cola spot. The characters are so generic you can’t tell which driver each character is supposed to represent. I suspect that this is purposeful; when the ad was drawn, Coke probably didn’t know which drivers they would sponsor. It makes for a very tedious thirty seconds.

A close second and a perpetual “least favorite” of mine are those ads for Total cereal. You know the ones I’m talking about: “You would have to eat fourteen bowls of Wholewheat Captain Crisp to equal the nutrition of one bowl of Total.” Breakfast is only one meal. No one says your breakfast cereal has to contain every essential vitamin and mineral — there’s still lunch and dinner (and snacks. Mmmm…snacks). It’s called a “balanced diet” for a reason.

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*What’s sad is that I actually knew the line and didn’t even have to look it up