– – As a member of a species sometimes referred to as “the feline canine,” I don’t take violence towards felines lightly, and always have divided loyalties on questions of cats and dogs. Dog on cat violenceassumed a more humorous bent, however, in the Super Bowl Doritos commercial in which a man discovers that his dog might be responsible for the disappearance of Fluffy, a missing cat. The dog, deciding that he might be ratted out, decides to bribe his human witness with some Doritos, extending a hush note with spelling at least as good as half of that readily observable on the internet.I’m sure it’s not the first time that bribes have bought silence…
The Doritos commercial was actually the number one rated ad for this year’s Super Bowl according to TIVo, and it featured Huff, a Great Dane hailing from Virginia Beach. The consumer-created commercial which reportedly cost only $20 to produce won its originator a cool $1 million prize…Woof!
– – He’s a portly poochie, the St. Bernard-Australian Shepherd mix who we first see unable to fit through the pet door at his home. Like Rocky before him, this dog changes things around by training hard if unconventionally, running up and down stairs, dragging weights around, hitting a treadmill, and even swimming laps at his Pasadena home.
Finally trim and fit, our dog succeeds not only in making it through the pet portal, but also looks good as he keeps pace with a redesigned red Volkswagen Beetle! Volkswagen hasn’t abandoned itsStar Wars theme, however; the final 15 seconds of the commercial shift to the Cantina previously introduced in Star Wars Episode IV, with Darth Vader even making a special appearance!
We won’t dwell on that, however, in favor of mentioning that our canine hero actually donned a “fat suit” in order to appear heftier prior to his depicted physical transformation…and Bolt the dog has already shot a TV pilot, with the proposed show called, “Scent of the Missing.” If the show gets picked up, Bolt plays a dog who uses his nose to find missing people…
– – Has the Super Bowl gone to the dogs?!- -There will be plenty of commercials during this year’s event featuring man’s best friend. In addition to the Volkswagen Super Bowl teaser with dogs barking to Darth Vader’s theme, Subaru of America has a series of ads featuring dogs in the driver’s seat under the slogan of “Dog Tested.”
Airing during the annual “Puppy Bowl,” these spots feature dogs on the road doing such things as parallel parking and getting nailed by snowballs. We see them on the beach, at a campsite, or simply tooling around on the road searching for adventure. Dogs starring include a poodle, Collie mix, Great Dane, bulldog, and a Blue Heeler mix…
– – Turn to the Bark Side…you know it is your destiny!
A teaser for a Volkswagen Super Bowl ad, the new commercial features a number of assorted dogs barking to Darth Vader’s distinctive “Imperial March” theme from Star Wars. The dogs play different Star Wars characters; there’s even an Ewok and a Wookie dog, and at the end a greyhound or whippet clad as an AT-AT parades across the stage! Is it Paw Wars?–Or are these not the dogs that you’re looking for?
Apparently none of this teaser will appear in the actual upcoming Super Bowl commercial, which is to herald the arrival of the redesigned VW Beetle…
– – Multi-tasking may be carried a tad too far in a new Verizon commercial where we encounter a Crocodile Dundee wannabe rasslin’ with a 14-foot alligator while simultaneously using his trusty Verizon service phone to place a winning bid on a 1979 Dukes of Hazzard airbrushed lunchbox with a thermos! Does the lunchbox have Daisy Duke and/or the General Lee on it?- -We’re kept hanging…
There’s water and mud aplenty in the Louisiana swamp in this commercial which spoofs the popular History Channel reality show, Swamp People…and some have criticized the commercial for depicting and trivializing what they consider inhumane practices.
– – Some DietDr. Pepper commercials have recently featured mythological characters, including Sasquatch, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, a leprechaun, an alien, a merman, and others. The stop-motion features evoke the Rudolph specials of old. The underlying notion is that it’s as hard to get people to believe in a satisfying diet drink as it is to sell them on the notion of the existence of legendary or mythological figures.
In one version, the unlikely and fantastic characters are seated in a circle of chairs as part of an “I Exist!” support group, listening to Santa complaining about not being believed in by his core constituents…another version re-unites this cast, also bringing forth a unicorn and a merman, the latter introduced as the boyfriend of the tooth fairy…the merman gets so taken with the flavor of Diet Dr. Pepper that he breaks his aquatic container with an enthusiastic rap of his trident!
Perhaps I can find a local chapter of the I Exist support group…heaven knows I need the validation!
– – “Ah, so much better than last year!,” muses a contented passenger on a Carnival Cruise ship as he and his companion look over the railing of a ship at sea. Next we are shown a flashback to last year’s vacation, where at a camp site the same man is shown screaming behind the wheel of a car, his passenger also screaming on her side of the vehicle as a bear and a mountain lion both on their hind legs paw at the vehicle.
“Throw the food out the window!,” screams the man in fear and desperation as the bear roars. Unfortunately, we’re never shown the outcome of the encounter. Then we return to the cruise ship, where the woman takes a bite of a treat and swears, “Never again!” It’s all part of Carnival’s “land versus sea” campaign extolling the virtues and pleasures of sea travel vacations…
…in my twisted little mind, however, I can rewrite the ending of this commercial with an anthropomorphic bear and lion standing along the cruise ship railing, having financed the trip with the proceeds of their profitable campground takeover!
– – Most people like talking animals, which is good because I am one…a writing, blogging one, anyways. Those of the talking animal persuasion tend accordingly to be popular as product and service spokesmen, or one might say, spokesfurs. Recently Netflix has released two commercials, one with a talking beaver and the other with a talking hamster.
The Netflix beaver is genial and sociable, and takes us inside a cozy lodge where a rabbit and a duck are comfortably seated on a sofa watching a big screen television. The beaver introduces us to the Netflix service and its attractive rates, which are then confirmed by a fish which conveniently pops up from beneath the beaver’s hat. It’s all cute and charmingly retro, with the animal cast looking like they’d be naturals for hosting an afternoon or Saturday morning show for kids.- – I’d move in with them in a minute!
Not everyone has received this commercial well, however, with some noting similarities to the stop-motion Beaver Creek Episodes created in 2008 by award-winning animator Ian Timothy, and viewable on YouTube…
– – He’s still having fun, and he’s still the one!- -Maxwell the pig, that is. Reappearing in a commercial for the new Geico mobile app and having the time of his life, Maxwell is enthusiastically riding along high above the ground on a zip line, his little feet flailing, sensibly helmeted, and a pinwheel in each hoof! He catches up with a slower moving rider, slows momentarily, and pronounces his experience to be “Pure…adrenaline!” Then Maxwell is off, pinwheels spinning and “whee!”-ing as he goes! We’d expect nothing less from him…
…Well done, Maxwell, for returning just as we needed ‘ya, and getting 2012 off to a good furry start!
— Some have referred to the Yodeling Cat as being “creepy” or “disturbing” or even “horrifying,” but the holiday season seems to spawn such things, and one may see the creepy and disturbing prowling the aisles at Walmart anyways, so I welcome this white-furred warbler as a twisted commentary on where the excesses of Xmas can lead us. It’s also perhaps the most significant intrusion of yodeling into pop culture since the late great Andy Kaufman yodeled to an African drum rhythm, or yodeling was used as a potent weapon against alien invasion in the movie, Mars Attacks!
As one who loves dementedly random things as well asjuxtaposition, by extension I’m also led to wonder if perhaps by yodeling we who are furry might also also use it as a force for societal change, or at least by yodeling cause Donald Trump’s head to explode as those of Tim Burton’s aliens did.- – It’s worth a try…
We’ve come a long way since the 1955 novelty hit, “Jingle Bells” by the Singing Dogs, right?– No, I didn’t think so either…
– – As a member of a species sometimes referred to as “the feline canine,” I don’t take violence towards felines lightly, and always have divided loyalties on questions of cats and dogs. Dog on cat violence assumed a more humorous bent, however, in the Super Bowl Doritos commercial in which a man discovers that his dog might be responsible for the disappearance of Fluffy, a missing cat. The dog, deciding that he might be ratted out, decides to bribe his human witness with some Doritos, extending a hush note with spelling at least as good as half of that readily observable on the internet. I’m sure it’s not the first time that bribes have bought silence…
– – He’s a portly poochie, the St. Bernard-Australian Shepherd mix who we first see unable to fit through the pet door at his home. Like Rocky before him, this dog changes things around by training hard if unconventionally, running up and down stairs, dragging weights around, hitting a treadmill, and even swimming laps at his Pasadena home. 
FOXSYLVANIA 
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