I have been seeing a weird commercial a lot lately for the fast food restaurant chain, Jack In the Box. I hadn’t had much experience with this chain before coming out to the West Coast, but I have to report that their food is in general pretty heinous. Which would explain possibly why they need to resort to bizarre commercials to drive their product home.

I’ve spent a lot of time deconstructing advertising. One thing I discovered a long time ago, which may be obvious to some of us, is that the less you need something, the bigger the ad budget has to be. Makeup? Cars? Useless appliances?
Marketing is a dark, dark science. The fact that I see more and more car ads appealing to a non-existent “freedom” is really funny to me. I am constantly reminded of a quote from the Principia Discordia….
“Ye lock yerself up in these cages, yet ye complain ye lack freedom…”

why the hell should i be expected to change my voculabulary to appease some stupid subculture, who just happened to arbitrarily appropriate the term for their own use anyway?

Wait, but didn’t YOUR subculture also just abitrarily appropriate that term? Not to say I haven’t used the term myself in that sense either - it’s a lot more acceptable to say that type of shit on the east coast than here on the Left Coast

now, in the midwest, where i’m from, that would mean, “totally fucking lame/stupid.”
however, out here people get highly offended if i say that. i’m not homophobic in the least, but why the hell should i be expected to change my voculabulary to appease some stupid subculture, who just happened to arbitrarily appropriate the term for their own use anyway?

Yeah, the irony (hypocrisy?) is not lost on me.

It would only be hypocrisy if you had claimed to be immune to Connect the Dots Marketing and if the Jack in the Box commercials in this post were actually an example thereof, which they aren’t really. The whole “inducing controversy or discomfort to spur discussion” advertising strategy is kind of a different thing, or a different means to the same end.

I agree, marketing is definitely an aspect of pop culture (maybe the most important aspect, or at least the most pervasive and commonly experienced), and to discuss and explore it on this blog is right and necessary, even if doing so “plays into the advertisers’ hands.” You can’t really talk about anything these days without indirectly selling something. It’s like Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Except it’s Advertising speaking, instead of Jesus.

There, I just sold a Bible.

By putting out a weird commercial they managed to get you to introduce their brand (albeit negatively) and even link to a place where your readers can view more of their commercials.

Yeah, the irony (hypocrisy?) is not lost on me. The only way it seems to disentangle yourself from it is to go cold turkey on all of it. Drop pop culture like a bad habit. I recognize that I’m not able to do that because I’m as much a part of the system as anybody. I have a product just like anybody else… I used to get kind of stressed out and guilty about that, but not so much anymore.

The gay thing is overdone. Period. But I guess you can say that it’s good that it’s out there in the open… that pop culture is “getting it out of its system.” Hopefully it’s a step in the right direction that all of this cultural honesty (a lot of which is through caricature) is on the table. A novelty like Blaxploitation until eventually it naturally tones itself down to normality. The homophobia thing is pretty honest too, and I think putting it out on the table makes people think about it. I’ll be happy when there are less queeny gays represented as the gay-norm though. Whew.

The exploitation falls into two categories. First, like this ice cream commercial, there is the straightforward approach titilation with a hot “unisex” ass in a pink bikini bottom. The other style is to cater to the guilt/loathing aspect of homosexual desires.

Commercials are one of the worst aspects of our consumer culture. They are invasive, rude and wildly underhanded. Tivo is a fantastic invention.

By the way, did you happen to pick up the word “spokesthing” from Mr. Show? It’s used in this sketch, which is probably pretty relevant to what you’re talking about:

Cute, friendly, lovable: three things you are not, but you know who is? Pit-Pat, Globochem’s new mascot! Pit-Pat: a magical, pansexual, nonthreatening spokesthing!

I’m also reminded of a Saturday Night Live sketch where an ad agency or somesuch is presenting a commercial they’ve produced that consists almost entirely of Molly Shannon and Tim Meadows tongue-kissing (jarring for the interracial thing; also, as I recall, hot). Can’t find that one online, though.