2/12/2007

Okay- I need your help. There’s a TV commercial that’s on that is causing a great deal of controversy in my family…and I need someone to give me the truth. You’ve probably seen the commercial- it’s for Cingular, and features a grocery store that’s got all sorts of popular music stuff going on…Ludacris is pushing a shopping cart, check out guys are doing the “Okay Go” thing on the check out conveyor belts- and there’s one part with the Pussycat Dolls in the produce section. Somebody pushes a cart with what I think is - a box of oranges past the lovely lead singer Nicole, and she takes one. Here’s the problem- I say she has taken an orange – and everybody else says no- she takes an ONION!!! I say it just looks bleached out, but it’s an orange. Is she going to take an onion and take a bite out of it? Come on! So- if you’ve seen that ad, give me the lowdown- at svengoolie@wciu.com . Something else I noticed in the spot- it used to be, when the commercial was first running, that you’d see the black and metal clad foot step out of the freezer section, and you’d see a KISS-like character standing there. Now, all you see is the foot step out. This makes me think that Gene Simmons or one of the boys from KISS complained, that the Cingular folks had just intended the character to look like one of them, but never got permission or paid a licensing fee for their image. Hence the “foot only” shot. …and that cell phone ad reminds me of a fun game you and your friends or family can play in the car- forget about license plate bingo, or “Slug Bug”- now you can play “Cell Phone Jackass Bingo!” It’s fun for the entire family! When in the city limits, where it is supposedly illegal to be using a hands-on phone- you get a letter every time you spot some idiot on their cell phone! Get all five letters- B-I-N-G-O – and you win! I cannot tell you how many times I see someone driving erratically- especially on the expressways- and , when you pull up, you see them paying more attention to the phone they have stuck in their ear than the traffic whizzing around them. Hey- they’re within the city of Chicago- where are the cops who should issue them a ticket? Or, at least, get that final “O” to win “Cell Phone Jackass Bingo?!” Or, get an onion when they thought they were getting an orange?!