PeaceBang

Commercials We Hate, 2006 Edition

Have you seen the ad for this product?

http://get.ampd.com/
On the commercial that played about ten times already tonight on VH1 (I’m indulging in “I Love the 90’s”),
a blonde guy of indeterminate European origin rides a city bus. He’s got a little gadget in his hand. He says to two men in the back of the bus, “You two: fight.” And a young black guy and an old white man start to mix it up.

He turns next to a cool-looking dark-skinned dude and says, “Turn up the music,” and the guy docilely obeys by cranking up his boom box.

Next, the man turns to a young African-American woman. “Shake your junk,” he commands, and she obligingly turns, grabs the bus pole, and shakes a juicy posterior.

The man looks satisfied and the tag line reads, “Entertain yourself.”

I wrote to the company telling them what I thought of their concept of “entertainment.” My God. How patently offensive, racist, sexist and despicable.

I’m also not impressed by the Temperpedic bed ads, but just for silly reasons: why do they think I care that their bed is endorsed by NASA, or whatever? They don’t even have GRAVITY in space, so I don’t think astronauts have the best sense of what kind of mattress I might like best here on planet Earth. Cheez.