Just the other day, I was surprised to see Hemky Madera, better known as Ignacio from Weeds, starring in an ad for Progressive. Tonight, I looked up from my dinner of Red Baron pizza (a step up from my usual dinner of Totino’s Party Pizza) to see that same taser-loving gangster staring back at me, this time in a commercial for Best Buy. Is there anything this lovable henchman can’t sell?
I heard about this ridiculous ad on the Kathie Lee and Hoda morning happy hour of the Today Show, and I have a hard time believing it’s for real. And if it is, why would anyone make such an inane commercial? The world may never know.
The ad purports to be for some company called MSI, and I think the laptop they’re advertising is called the X series. And that’s the most research I care to do for a butt computer.
I am wary of commercials that rely on simplistic violence for laughs, but who am I kidding, violence is hilarious. At least in the Three Stooges sense, not in the “Faces of Death” sense.
I’ve never been a fan of Best Buy, mostly because I’ve heard too many stories about them ripping off people I know. One tactic I’ve heard they use is having their store computers access a different, ‘fixed’ version of the Best Buy website, so when you come in and ask about a special or price you saw on the site, and they say it costs more than you thought, they look up their doctored site to “prove” to you that they’re telling the truth. Now, this is all hearsay, but it’s enough to turn me off as a potential customer.
But anywhosit, their new ad is annoying. It’s part of their “True Stories” ad series, which shows “employees” telling anecdotes from their time working at Best Buy. But this so-called Rachel comes off like the worst kind of customer service representative, like the kind on the phone that try to sell you something no matter how many times you tell them you’re not interested. She acts all passive-aggressive to the guy in her story, like, “well you obviously called me because you secretly want to shop here.” The ad just seems bitter and borderline desperate, and definitely takes a stab at Walmart somewhere in there. Why so negative, Best Buy?
…but the new ads for CapTel telephone services crack me up. This is an invention that’s meant to translate what’s being said over the phone for older people who are hard of hearing. But the actor they hired to play Grandpa plays it like he’s Post-Lobotomy Grandpa. My favorite part is when he slurs, “Hi Jessie.” I know, I’m a bitch.
