World takes different approach to ads
When I was a kid back in school, asked for my favorite pastime, I'd say watching TV. "I like the commercials," I'd insist.
Let that be an illustration that TV critics are born and not made.
Sure, it was partly the innate snotty irony of the young American male that made me say that, but at the time there were only three networks and a handful of local independent stations, and there wasn't all that much to watch. There were times when, yes, the commercials broke the monotony of boring television.
These days, there are many more programming choices, but that hasn't stopped TBS from making a cottage industry out of its "Funniest Commercials" series. Kevin Nealon returns -- having procured a job for his wife, Susan Yeagley, as co-host -- with the second annual "World's Funniest Commercials" special at 8 p.m. today on TBS, and I defy anyone to find a more entertaining show in the same time slot.
Hey, from childhood on, I'm nothing if not consistent.
One of the main drawing points of "World's Funniest Commercials" is the chance to see the even racier ads airing in Europe and elsewhere. (For Nealon and his wife, the main drawing point is the chance to shoot the wraparound segments on location in Paris; talk about a working vacation.) And as if to prove that right off the bat, the program goes early to an Australian ad for Diet Coke that puns on the notion of "taking your top off." A waiter informs a woman she should take her top off for a chance to win big money, so of course she removes her shirt before he informs her that, heh heh, he meant the top of her Diet Coke, where there could be a winner's announcement on the underside of the bottle cap.
Yet let's be honest. We do some pretty racy ads here as well -- and not just for Victoria's Secret, although that's a nice start -- it's just that we've seen them over and over to the point where they no longer raise an eyebrow.
"World's Funniest Commercials" does sprinkle in the occasional U.S. commercial, such as the Super Bowl snack ad speculating what life would be like if mothers were men. For the most part, however, it prefers more exotic climes, and rightfully so.
There's a very clever Sylvania spot from southeast Asia suggesting that light is the key to demystifying monsters. Evidently if you want to keep giants from attacking you in Singapore, you need only keep the light on. That must sell a lot of light bulbs -- if TV viewers anywhere are really naïve enough to believe in monsters.
What's more interesting, however, is both the similarities and the differences in our ads and ads around the world. The pain of slapstick is a common theme, best of all tonight in a Japanese ad for hair removal in which one woman's armpits are so smooth and shiny they focus the rays of the sun into a laser beam.
However, just as there's no denying that we have some pretty racy ads here, there's also no denying that standards tend to be a bit more liberal in Europe. That isn't necessarily because Europeans are more open about sex, but it is no doubt because European companies aren't as worried about puritanical organizations like the Parents Television Council raising a stink over sex in their ads.
What would the PTC say if it knew IKEA has a terrific ad running in Europe in which a boy is playing with his toys on the floor when he suddenly comes up with a very smooth and polished space-ship-style vibrator? When he unwittingly turns it on, it goes rattling across the floor, and the kid cracks up -- and the audience at home laughs with him. The tag line is to "Tidy up" -- by buying bins from IKEA to separate the adult toys from the childhood toys, one assumes.
The Silverjet airline advertises its women-only "lady's loo" by having it serve for a couple to join the mile-high club (lesbian division). And on an even more overt scale, a French condom maker finds a boy doing various outrageous things -- driving a car, bringing a chain saw to school -- because his mother said it was OK. The explanation? When he taps on the door to ask Mom if it's all right, she's inevitably in bed (using the advertised condoms, no doubt) and shouting, "Oui! Oui! Oui!" All the way home, shall we say.
By contrast, American ads tend to play off a comic discomfort with sex, as in the Rolling Rock spot in which a man is more than willing to work in an office where it's required to wear a thong -- because of the break-room refrigerator filled with beer.
Sex sells, but more than that comedy sells. Too rare is the sort of ad Volkswagen put out that is a symphony of hand shadows cast against a wall. It's beautiful, elegant, stylish. I don't know if it would sell any cars, but I know that if I saw it I'd be disappointed if I suddenly had to go back to watching "Boston Legal."
In the air
Remotely interesting: Sgt. Bryan Anderson of Rolling Meadows, who is featured in the new HBO documentary "Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq," takes part in an invitation-only screening of the movie at the Palmer House Hilton tonight. He'll do a Q and A session with producer-director Jon Alpert beforehand. "Alive Day Memories" debuts on HBO Sept. 9.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is scheduled to appear on "The Late Show With David Letterman" at 10:35 p.m. today on CBS' WBBM Channel 2. … Turner Classic Movies' "Summer Under the Stars" festival peaks toward the end with Buster Keaton featured today. After the documentary profile "So Funny it Hurt" at 3:15 p.m. comes a string of his silent classics including "The General" at 8:15.
End of the dial: Powered no doubt by the Cubs, personality-talk WGN 720-AM padded its lead in monthly Arbitrends released last week with a 6.1 percent share of the overall audience 12 and older to the 4.8 share of urban-contemporary WGCI 107.5-FM.
Smooth-jazz WNUA 95.5-FM, all-news WBBM 780-AM and country WUSN 99.5-FM filled out the top five.
-- Ted Cox