SUMMER 2009 CAR COMMERCIALS--  WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?

Two auto makers are running new TV commercials this summer that make me scratch my head and ask "why are they doing that?"  I understand that car sales are down, so perhaps that is why they are running these commercials that don't do a very good job of selling their cars.  Entertain?  Yes, these commercials do that.  But sell?  No way.

The first troubling commercial is from Mercedes and shows their new "E Class" car zooming, speed, roaring and then crashing through a giant plate glass window and settling in a showroom.  The car nearly misses several people in the commercial and sends glass flying.  What does this have to do with selling a car?  Nothing.  Is is entertaintaining to watch a car blast through glass?  Yes, the first time.  But not the second, or the third time, or the....

The second troubling commercial is from a car company whose name I don't know.  I'm sure the name of the car company was mentioned in this TV commercial, but it wasn't mentioned enough to overpower the rest of the commercial's content which was very disturbing.  You'll know what I'm talking about, too.  It's the commercial that ends up with a consumer at a running track and his friend is hit by a javelin and the punchline to the commercial is from an announced at the track meet asking the victim with the javelin sticking out of his leg to not move until the distance of the javelin throw is measured.  Okay, now what was the car in the commercial?  I don't know.  I'm too busy being concerned about the javelin.  In fact it made me think about why javelin contests were eliminated from high school track and field contests decades ago-- because a student was once killed in one of the javelin events.

SCOTTRADE HAS A HELICOPTER... IN THIS ECONOMY?

I used to think that ScotTrade's TV commercials for its online discount stock brokerage featuring its CEO piloting a helicopter were cool.  The helicopter showed that ScotTrade was high tech, and that ScotTrade and its Chairman were literally on top of the market, and the TV helicopter commercials showed ScotTrade had prestige connected with it.  But... that was before the recession, and before the financial bail outs, and before corporations were selling off and grounding their corporate jets, and before corporate waste and greed and gazillion dollar bathrooms caught the ire of Congress.  In this economic environment, ScotTrade would be better served getting its Chairman out of the sky in the helicopter and back on the ground... or even better... in the trenches talking about savings instead of showing off his expensive corporate toy.  Corporate helicopters, like the ScotTrade helicopter, just don't "fly anymore," if you get my drift.

SUPER BLUNDERS IN THE SUPER BOWL

I saw some commercial blunders during the broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII.  Bud Light showed an office worker being thrown out of an upper floor office building window when he suggested that the company could save money by not serving Bud Light at office meetings.  Throwing employees out of windows during rough economic times is not a good idea, Bud.

A Doritos commercial during the Super Bowl showed an employee at an office throw a snow globe through the glass of a vending machine so he could loot the machine.  Another bad example in this economy.  Crime should never be made the subject of a joke.

Spring has been running a series of commercials in which certain workers "run the world."  There was a commercial featuring Firemen which I thought was creative and made a point.  But in the commercial featuring delivery services, one of the delivery workers found "a freshman" at a school stuck in a school locker.  Another bad example to put on TV.

And then there was the Jack In The Box commercial with lovable Jack being hit by a bus.  Gee, do you think the bus drivers of America like that?  And how about the kids of America wondering what will happen to Jack after being hit by the bus?