Hippies in the Suburbs Eating Lunch Meat

While I like the concept of the couple not happy with their neighbor's overgrown place and the comic tension of the scene, something misses with this Hormel ad. I like the pacing, the dialog, the acting, even the silly punchline of the natural and naked wife in her yard. The spot makes you smile slightly, keeping you interested, until they shift gears and hit you with the pitch voiced by perky girl reading odd copy.

The corporate tag at the end is trying too hard and failing, stuck on at the close in what feels like a template designed by a meddling CMO. "Life. Better Served." Seriously? LIFE? Better Served? Kind of a heavy-handed message to be coming from lunch meat.

Slap a Slogan on a Logo and Let's Roll

As political ads go, it's got better production values than most. What stands out is the not so subtle slogan Senator McCain has affixed above his name (that is not so subtly adorned with a military star).


Better still: "The other guy is a friend of terrorists and would actually TALK to that crazy fucker in Iran who says the Holocaust didn't happen. Did I mention I was a prisoner of war?"

Sadly, this little line, "Putting country first" will be on the lips of all the talk-show drones and spilling from the keyboards of blog commenters as they parrot in defense of their candidate, "McCain will put America first!" Expect to hear Hannity, Buchanan and Coulter using this very line by tomorrow.

That would be like me urging you to drink a Corona by saying, "Who cares if you don't like it, man! It's Miles Away From Ordinary!" Or if I wanted you to join the Army and I said, "You seem to me the type who could be Army Strong." (Last year I'd have told you, "Don't you want to be an Army of One?" At which point you'd look at me and say, "Uh, no. I'd prefer an army where I had comrades and friends and people watching my back.")

These are slogans. We use them because they work, not because they mean a damn thing. And we change them when they don't work. This one will work for McCain.

And in fairness to McCain, Obama's slogan means even less: "Change We Can Believe In." Huh? Whatever, Barry. But it's working.

I will have to do a piece soon on the logos of the two candidates, because they are even more meaningless, but probably have even more sway on the idiot populace.