MHz, and Commercial

[actor61]

I get the MHz network with my cable package, which shows foreign language series and movies. I'm bilingual as I'm half Swiss, so I particularly enjoy the French programs. There is a series about a French town occupied by the Germans during World War II that I'm completely hooked on called "Un Village Francais". Has anyone else watched it? It is really gripping; very well written, acted and directed. And the subtitles have been pretty good when I've looked down at them from time to time. Just wondered if anybody else was watching it and enjoying it as much as I.

 

I've practically stopped watching commercial t.v. because of the commercials but I turn on the morning news programs from time to time and endure the endless ads for as long as I can. There is one in particular that kind of horrifies me. It's for a gastrointestinal medication in which there's a young woman with gastric problems, and her tummy follows her around. Have you seen it? I hope the actress who plays her tummy is making a lot of money because the poor wretch stands there in a flesh colored leotard with the intestinal tract drawn in white on her lower abdomen, and she wears a really, really bad red wig. She has obviously been directed to portray the intestinal tract as mentally challenged because she kind of lopes around behind the other actress with a goofy, off kilter grin and at one point leaps into a doctor's office wearing a cape, and at another point kind of stares off into space while she taps on her human counterpart's shoulder. It's just very strange. I actually feel kind of sorry for the woman who plays the intestines in this dippy concept but then, she must have known what she was getting into when she went for the costume fitting.

[bostonman]

Medical/prescription drug ads are uniformly awful.

 

Where else do you get to hear the phrase "moderate to severe" as a diagnosis for everything?

 

Where else do you get to hear an endlessly long litany of reasons NOT to take the drug, no matter what it's meant for?

 

The gimmicks, like the one with the smug celeb bozos playing golf (well, sort of) and having an oh-so-casual conversation about Xarelto, are always horrendous and annoying.

 

Or the one with the gleeful voice-over about all the different kinds of catheters you can order.

 

Even ads for "sanitary products" have gotten worse. That toilet paper ad with the dippy British twit who interviews people about whether their toilet paper cleans up well enough for them to "go commando" - really???

[actor61]

Medical/prescription drug ads are uniformly awful.

 

Where else do you get to hear the phrase "moderate to severe" as a diagnosis for everything?

 

Where else do you get to hear an endlessly long litany of reasons NOT to take the drug, no matter what it's meant for?

 

The gimmicks, like the one with the smug celeb bozos playing golf (well, sort of) and having an oh-so-casual conversation about Xarelto, are always horrendous and annoying.

 

Or the one with the gleeful voice-over about all the different kinds of catheters you can order.

 

Even ads for "sanitary products" have gotten worse. That toilet paper ad with the dippy British twit who interviews people about whether their toilet paper cleans up well enough for them to "go commando" - really???

Oh God, yes! I'd forgotten about that one! It's horrifying. At least the one for Charmin with the bears is animated and therefore a little less obnoxious, although I still cringe when the one bear tells the other that Charmin gets his butt so clean he can wear the same underwear for 2 days. The catchphrase is awful: "Well all go, so why not enjoy it?"

 

I find any ad with Jennifer Aniston pretty painful too. The Aveeno ads are really twee and precious and now she's got one for dry eyes that makes me punch the mute button on the remote so fast it practically flies out of my hand.

[body2body]

Remember that the actress in the "stomach suit" is probably raking in the residuals. I knew a couple who were both accomplished actors and appeared frequently at The Mark Taper Forum, and The Actors Gang, as well as films and TV. He always said that it was his Subaru commercial and his wife's Tide commercials that allowed them to buy a house.

[actor61]

Remember that the actress in the "stomach suit" is probably raking in the residuals. I knew a couple who were both accomplished actors and appeared frequently at The Mark Taper Forum, and The Actors Gang, as well as films and TV. He always said that it was his Subaru commercial and his wife's Tide commercials that allowed them to buy a house.

I know what you're talking about and in my original post I said that I hoped the actress playing the tummy was raking in a lot of bucks; that's the only reason for doing such an idiotic commercial. I have a friend whose entire career is in commercials and he was a millionaire by the age of 35 through steady work, generous residuals, and careful, intelligent investments. He has done everything from Nutella to IKEA to Honda to Claritin to Ace Hardware. He once joked that the money gets delivered to his house in a dump truck. He has no interest in any other kind of acting work. He has no pretensions to great talent but he has a "look" and the personality that the ad agencies seem to love, and he's taking full advantage of the opportunities. I don't decry any actor who does ads, I just feel sorry for them having to do such silly ads. I can't believe that the girl in the leotard with the intestines on the front thinks she's advancing the Method but I'm sure she's happy to be paying the bills that way instead of waiting tables!

[+ sync]

Imagine the revenue for an icon the likes of Stephanie Courtney (Progressive Insurance's Flo).