Wocka-chicka wocka-chicka . . .
I saw the Ragu one a lot when I was watching some stuff on Hulu this week, which was good because multiple viewings really helped me analyze it. Initially, I couldn't unravel the logic behind the timing of events in the video. I mean, if, as the lyrics say, it's 8 p.m. and the parents are in bed, why is the next scene of everyone having dinner? Was that a flashback? A flashforward to the next day? The kid at the dinner table looks much happier there than when he was walking toward the steps with his shattered innocence. (It's a great face, though — very expressive.)
Beyond that, I was interested in the underlying message about making yourself feel better emotionally by eating carbs, plus the use of imagery associated with another potentially dangerous form of self-medicating: drinking. To wit: having the jar of sauce slide in from offscreen and stop like a drink being slid down the bar in an old Western movie and using "a long day" in the tag line to bring to mind the idea of having a tasty adult beverage (or three) after a rough day at the office.
The Sealy ad seems to get late-night airplay; I've seen it a few times while watching the last few weeks' worth of episodes of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson — sometimes I lose track of the remote, or I forget that I'm watching a tape and not Hulu: I can fast-forward the tape, but not Hulu.
Anyhow, that was another ad where repeated viewing helped me follow the plot. Side note: Am I just becoming an idiot in my old age (My Oma used to get confused between what was the commercial and what was the show.), or was it the aspect of using sex to sell spaghetti sauce (there's a fetish) that startled me?
The mattress one just made me laugh, but I didn't see all of the first scene the first time, so I was confused because I thought the old guy was living downstairs from the first couple. Also, I'm trying to decide if the guys with the glasses against the wall are a gay couple. It doesn't matter, but I like to think they are.
In conclusion, this is way too much half-assed analysis for this time of night, but I'm kind of wide awake and I'm taking Friday off of work anyhow, so there you have it.
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