Lately, I've noticed a mildly disturbing trend among TV commercials - that of giving inanimate objects human motivations, characteristics, voices, and traits. I'm not sure if it's a latent fear of my world of appliances suddenly coming to life and fighting me in a sci-fi inspired electronics-vs.-human end of times war, or just the transparent advertising strategy displayed in these commericals, but every time I see these commercials I protest inside.
Maybe it's that the things that make us human - our tragic flaws, our use of language to communicate, the complicated nature of achieving happiness and satisfaction - is so easily slapped on to objects that were made to serve a simple function - and nothing else. So in some way perhaps I take offense to the forced merging of these worlds as a human being. i.e. no, my brain and emotions can't be graphed onto a strappy sandal for your commerical, I will not be boiled down to a talking vacuum cleaner handle. In short, I just find it weird. Here, a summary of some of the most blatant offenders:
Philandering Shoes.
I guess dudes suck even when they are talking shoes.
Philandering Shoes.
I guess dudes suck even when they are talking shoes.
Hey, guys, what if the vacuum cleaners, are like, YOU. DUDE. Awesome.
I can only speculate that this commercial was made by potheads.
Boobs Vs. Butt
These aren't necessarily inanimate objects, but worth mentioning. Hey, Reebok, can you guess what my throat and the vomit within it are chattin' about?
Creepy mops and brooms.
Okay, these aren't that horrible - and I get it. It's still creepy to think about a broom needing a restraining order.
With legs like that, No wonder they went out of business
According to ad age, these commercials featuring "sexy" talking applicances aired just before Circuit City went out of business in 2009.This gives new meaning to plugging (in) your TV.
Conclusions and Warnings
Okay, these aren't that horrible - and I get it. It's still creepy to think about a broom needing a restraining order.
With legs like that, No wonder they went out of business
According to ad age, these commercials featuring "sexy" talking applicances aired just before Circuit City went out of business in 2009.This gives new meaning to plugging (in) your TV.
Conclusions and Warnings
Okay, so we are becoming used to conversing with our appliances and body parts. So what? says you.
I say if we're not careful, we'll end up like Japan - where men date video game characters (and some even marry them). Then again, this Japanese vacuum commercial from the 70s shows they've been blowing us out of the water in this arena for years:
