Sunday, May 22, 2005

how bad writing is funny

i just watched a commercial where a woman turns to camera and says, "i don't trust anyone to clean my carpet, especially not some strange men who come to my house." that was the copy. i swear to god. that's how the commercial begins.

and although it's for the stanley steemer and i guess it makes sense, how come there's nobody in the marketing department at stanley that said, "oh...hey, uh, guys...you know how people might read this?"

or maybe it's just me. whatever. i was laughing too hard to give a shit.

then i saw another commercial right after, this one for priosec (i think, but really, does it matter? all those pharmaceutical ads are the same). anyway, of course the funniest parts of those commercials are the legal warnings tacked on at the end. and since they are so brutal, it takes a deft hand to write a smooth segue from that into an effective and proper take-away.

you know, something not like this:

"side effects include nausea, constipation and blurred vision. so what are you waiting for? call your doctor..."

seriously. that's real. how does that get through?

oh, mighty and magnificent unintentional comedy. may god bless you.

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