I Love Commercials
- Michael Tringali
- Jul 9, 2024
- 3 min read
With a capital C. I’ve always loved commercials. Since the age of knowing what a loose definition of a TV commercial was, I have been fascinated by them. Laugh with them. Amused by them. Quoting them to friends and family along the way. They are memorable. They are salesy – and they have a unilateral goal melded with a consistent framework – sell you our stuff by being fun and positive.
A Dairy Queen Blizzard commercial. A Haagen Dazs commercial. A Jimmy Dean crackling sausage commercial. Even the Sizzle Pork and HMM SPAM commercials are hitting hard these days.
Commercials allow you to pay attention or not pay attention. If it’s a good commercial with smiling actors and amusement – perhaps some creative humor – you are drawn in, wondering what the product is for if it is not initially presented. Or if it is initially presented, and you know that brand has advertising prowess (e.g., Doritos, KOHLS, Liberty Mutual), you may watch the commercial purely based on the brand.
An underrated trait of commercials is that they provide a natural break in the action. Think about your normal day. Are you working 8 hours straight? Or do you take an extended break in the bathroom after lunch? Or just have a nice stroll to get food or coffee. Under normal circumstances, players don’t play every minute of every game, and workers don’t work every minute of every day. Commercials are built for the natural mind break. Maybe you simply just turn the mind off so you don’t have to intensely follow the plot of season 4 of the Bear on FX. Maybe you can now make a cup of tea or fill a glass of water. Maybe it’s just a chattering box with the people you’re watching the show with. Or maybe, you actually experience enjoyment – you guessed it – watching the commercial.
I wish I could pull a WSJ insert and have little play buttons in this write-up with some of the best commercials of the past many years. The “Mike Mike Mike Mike Mike” camel humpday commercial would have a play button. The Sonic “Rejected” commercial would have at least two play buttons.
I have a dream of making a commercial one day. It will be borderline inappropriate, catchy, and about something powerful. So definitely not as funny at the Limu Emu and Doug commercials or as one-linery as ‘Liberty Biberty.’
There are millions and millions of brain cells in our most powerful creation. You hear the stereotypical phrases of “don’t rush” or “pace yourself” or “warm up” or “cool down” in your everyday life. Commercials are the natural intermittent short-term intermissions during programming.
I know I am in the minority of this. We are seeking out the “Skip Ads” button on clips or other videos we are watching. But note that I didn’t say “I love Ads” – commercials are a different breed. They are required. They are part of our programming we have formed a relationship over the years. We still believe in the power of Super Bowl commercials…right?
As content consumption has become highly variable, and non-linear streaming services have won many battles against linear cable service, commercials are losing value. Literally and figuratively.
However, the balance of watching ten to fifteen minutes of a program (reminder, our mind can only truly focus for 15 minutes – learned this at Bollettieri camp decades ago and who knows if it’s true), followed by a commercial, is very important. It’s good for you whether you want to believe it or not. It teaches us patience and it allows us to enjoy something simple. They are usually carefree. And sometimes funny. Occasionally hilarious. At times heart-warming. Please tell me something wrong about those adjectives.
We have fallen in love with negative, degrading adjectives. And absolutely adore criticism. Commercials, by definition, need to be free of such qualities. Those qualities don’t sell. It attracts our attention, but doesn’t sell. Nuanced distinction that may be confusing to follow, so apologies that I won’t add language to further explain the thesis.
I made a wish earlier writing this. My wish may not come true, but the commercials cited above are available below. Please, find me one thing wrong with either of these 30 second clips. They are good for the soul, just like many other thousands of commercials. Appreciate them for what they are.
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