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Television

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Johnny Lawrence

I don’t watch a lot of television so forgive me if you’ve already seen this…

So, I saw this Buffalo Wild Wings commercial for the first time last night and, well, I hit the rewind button to watch it again.

Twice.

Okay, maybe it was three times.

Whatever. I thought it was awesome, obviously, and it’s likely due to the fact that I’m pretty much the exact age required to instantly grasp the reference. (I was heading into the 3rd grade when Karate Kid came out.)

Thankfully, for my sake, I can’t think of a time in my life where I was the prime target of a Johnny Lawrence type.

I got picked on by a prick (a year younger) named Chris Knell in 8th grade briefly but that ended far worse for him than it did for me.

Hope you enjoyed having to switch high schools as a minor-niner, buddy…

And while I may have sported some Johnny Lawrence hair in the early 1990’s I can only think of a single instance, in high school, where I could possibly have been perceived as a Johnny Lawrence.

Man, I was mean to that guy…

He totally deserved it, though.

For real.

I’d bet Chris Knell is still an a-hole.

So, wait, even though I looked like Johnny, I now think that might make me more of a Daniel LaRusso type, you know, when he beat Johnny in the tournament, right?

Yeah, I’m the good guy. High school is confusing.

Anyway, while a nostalgic commercial like this strikes me — nearing 40 years of age (OMG!) — I’m quite certain that the under-30 crowd (which you’d think would be the chain’s main target), you know, having been born AFTER the movie came out, would be like, “Um… I don’t get it…”

And speaking of Buffalo Wild Wings, have you tried their Mango Habanero wings?

Holy crap — my eyes are burning just reliving the time I made the mistake of putting one (or 12) in my mouth…

– – – – – –

PIAC Addendum

And speaking of commericals I’ve just recently seen, I can’t get enough of this Yoplait commercial either.

I mean, I could watch this lady stomp across the screen all day and I have no idea why.

I think I’ll have a yogurt. Or 12.

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Of late, as in just over the past couple weeks, the local television newscasts have neen using the “block” term when reporting stories — usually of the crime or housefire variety.

Makes total sense in a big city where the streets are laid out in a grid — “Armed robbery reported on the 1200-block of Michigan Ave…” People know where that is, well, local folks do, anyway…

But here in Connecticut, where the main roads are all laid out following some really terrible city planning that dates back to the 1700’s (and secondary roads are just squeezed in), well, this “style” of reporting is really out of place.

The street I live on doesn’t even have an address number that reaches 100. Do I live on the zero block?

And, really, even within the borders of our wannabe BIG cities, I’d venture to say that there are more cul-de-sacs than grid like blocks.

I don’t think local law enforcement even refers to ### blocks.

In the era of Google maps and GPS units, I dunno, in addition to being useless in this part of the country, the “block” reference seems really dated.

Maybe it’s just me?

From the 0 Block of Smurfberry Lane, this is Brainy reporting for PIAC.

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Henry FordI couldn’t help but chuckle at Grant’s recent comment regarding my issues with the Land Rover.

He said, “Shoulda bought a Ford.”

It’s a tongue-in-cheek reference to a comment that I made on his site back in 2009 where we were both kicking ourselves for not buying a ton of Ford stock back when it was on the brink of worthlessness.

Re-thinking back to that time, and imagining if I had pulled the trigger on buying into Ford like I’d wanted to, what would I have done with it since?

Would have I have wisely sold it for a tidy profit before this most predictable downward trend of the past few weeks?

Or would I still have it in my portfolio?

Well, I’ll tell you… I’d still have it.

Since there’s nothing on television worth watching on Sunday or Monday nights, for the past few weeks I’ve found myself wathing those hoarding shows on A&E and TLC.

Personally, I much prefer the TLC variation of the show. It’s far less confrontational.

Anyway, from watching these shows, I think I’ve somewhat confirmed something that I’ve long suspected anyway.

I have hoarding tendancies.

No, no, I’m not *anything* like the people on the show but I do have a thing for collecting and accumulating things (cough, hockey jerseys, cough, cough) and then being reluctant to ever part with them.

Remember that $30k worth of photography equipment? Yeah, I should have sold the stuff that I no longer used back then for a tidy sum.

A Canon 10D, Canon 1D, and a Canon 1D Mark II aren’t worth nearly as much now — and I’m *still* not using them and have no plans to either.

Still, I’d have a hard time parting with them.

And that’s exactly what would’ve happened with the Ford stock.

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Money Beagle‘s comment to Monday’s posting was so awesome that I thought a response was worthy of its own posting.

Click here to read the original post — and his follow-up comment.

Really, you need to click on the link — otherwise the rest of this post is meaningless.

Regarding me missing the mark…I beg to differ.

Don’t get me wrong — I thought it was a good commercial. Well, the first minute or so of it was good.

I thought the soundtrack worked (partially because you never heard his (Eminem’s) nasally voice).

I thought the message was, well, it was good too.

I just thought the star was all wrong for the reasons I listed out originally.

Beag mentioned the Grammys — Eminem’s got to have some curb appeal. Good point but that’s the thing — how many folks over the age of 30 have ever heard any of the songs nominated in any of the categories?

We’re about the same age — right in the center of that most coveted advertising demographic. I don’t know about you, but I pretty much punched out of the modern music scene in the Dave Matthews era and the waning days of Pearl Jam.

Don’t get me wrong — I know who Katy Perry, Taio Cruz, and Miley Cyrus are. I’m not totally out of touch.

I’m also not ashamed to admit that I enjoy listening to all three… Back-to-back-to-back…

At the same time, though, I have zero interest in the acts performing on Dick Clark’s Rockin’ Eve celebration anymore. Haven’t had any interest in over a decade. The same holds true for the Grammys — performers, nominees, and presenters.

I think I’m in the majority on that one. I still watch the show but mostly because nothing else is on on that night — kinda like how I watched the Super Bowl even though my Bears weren’t in it.

Point is, Eminem has little appeal to me and probably everyone that I know over the age of 30.

On a tangent, since I mentioned the Dick Clark thing, I’d like to take this moment to mention that Will Smith’s daughter is terrible. Just terrible. “Whip My Hair?” Huh?

Now, for the whole “Made in the USA” thing, well, I know that that hasn’t been the case in the auto industry since, well, probably the early 1970’s — just like you mentioned.

I drove a GEO Metro in the early 1990’s. It was a GM product. Inside the door, it said Suzuki. Go figure.

My BMW was assembled in the heart of NASCAR country. German engineering? Yeah, right…

My Scion was actually assembled in Japan. I’m actually pretty surprised by this.

I only mentioned the “across the river” to connect it with the Justin Bieber reference. That, and hailing from southern Ontario, I know first hand that the landscape is dotted with humongous auto assembly plants. And technically, Windsor, Ontario could be considered a Detroit-area assembly plant like you mentioned — close or not, it’s still in another country.

I also thought it was appropriate as they threw “Imported” from Detroit right in your face as if Detroit itself is another country. What’s up with that?

We’re in total agreement that Chrysler had/has lost its edge. I blame the Plymouth Voyager explosion of the mid 1980’s. Mini-vans were their bread-and-butter back then and they held on to that “image” for far too long.

They do need some “edge”. But I still say that Eminem in a Super Bowl commercial was the wrong way to go about it. On MTV, during a Jersey Shore marathon, sure, but not the Super Bowl.

When it comes to widely viewed events (such as the Super Bowl), the memorable commercials are the ones that have appeal to the masses.

Comedy is one way to get there — though that generally works best for beer commercials.

The Volkswagen Passat Darth Vader spot used comedy and a “villian” from 35 years ago. That worked. My son is the same age as your little one (to the day, I think) and he knows who Darth Vader is. My mother knows who he is too.

It appealed to all ages (and genders) making it a perfect Super Bowl commercial.

VW is not suffering from an image crisis though…

Back on topic and regarding what I think was a poor casting choice for a Super Bowl commercial.

The last big, BIG televised event that I can think of was the Winter Olympics last February. You may or may not remember the BC Tourism commercial that ran nearly every break featuring Sarah McLachlan, Ryan Reynolds, Michael J. Fox, Steve Nash, Kim Cattrall, and Eric McCormack.

If not, here it is:

Same idea as the Chrysler commerical, while not all local to Vancouver or even British Columbia, all of them are Canadian and pretty much everyone on the northern half of this hemisphere will know of at least one of those celebrities. Further, it’s pretty unlikely that you’ll have a neagative image towards any one of them either…

The 30-something crowd knows who Sarah McLachlan is, whether it’s from her music of the late 1990’s or the ASPCA commercials that can make grown men cry.

Ryan Reynolds was named People’s most beautiful person three years in a row. I’m not certain why — he’s alright, I guess — but that crown ensure that grocery store tabloid readers know who he is along with all those folks going to see his chick flick movies.

The older crowd would know who Michael J. Fox is from his time on Family Ties. Or even the Back to the Future movies. More recently, he’s the face of Parkinson’s disease. He’s well known and, as far as I can tell, pretty well respected too.

Steve Nash was the NBA’s MVP for a few seasons. All of the wannabe jocks know who he is.

Kim Cattrall covers the cable crowd. She was one of the stars in the Sex in the City series that got so many people to pay extra for HBO. She’s also been in tons of movies and even dated Pierre Trudeau (a former Pime Minister of Canada).

Eric McCormack, rightfully so or not, covers the gay crowd. I’m not sure if he’s actually gay or not, I don’t think he is — it doesn’t really matter — but from his role on the tv show Will & Grace, I’d say that the masses just assume he is.

How do these six spokespeople differ from Eminem? Well, first off, the variety alone ensures that 95% of the audience will identify with at least one of them. Maybe Chrysler should have had a few more cameos.

Further, though, and more importantly, they all have pretty squeaky clean images.

I’m not an expert on any of those celebs — I listed pretty much all I know about them — but I do know that their image is treated with higher regard than that of Eminen. Image is everything.

That’s why I thought the commercial was terrible.

You just don’t want a perceived thug telling you they’re coming back. To me, that’s the message Chrysler sent and it’s 100% because of the casting. It’s not edgy — it’s almost insulting.

Oh, and I don’t see Detroit making a comeback.

Dearborn, maybe.

Okay, does this mean we should have a rap showdown?

;0)

Seriously — I really appreciate the well thought-out, not to mention long, comment. Thanks Dude!

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I’m going to ignore the Brisk Iced Tea commercial for the time being but what was Chrysler thinking?

I got the message of the commercial — yeah, yeah, Detroit is making a comeback and Chrysler is trying to market themselves as edgier or something by using a local celebrity in a wicked long commercial.

On paper, or in a brainstorming marketing meeting, that sounds like a pretty good commericial, I’ll admit.

But then you choose Eminem to star?

What, was the scummy Kid Rock unavailable?

Now I know that Emimem has a pretty big fan base but his fan base would only make up a tiny sliver of the total Super Bowl audience — most of which would have tuned out long before the commercial aired anyway…

To the masses, Eminem is the guy who can’t get a full sentence out without using profanity, beat his girlfriend/wife, and on top of that, he hates his mom too.

Would you want someone like that as your spokesman for a 12-million dollar plus spot during the Super Bowl?

The vast majority is who Chrysler should be marketing towards…but they chose not to.

I won’t be buying a Chrysler. I probably won’t be buying anything out of Detroit — actually.

Seriously, though, most of the cars are made across the river in Canada anyway. “Imported” from Detroit is right…

Justin Bieber might have been a more appropriate spokesman… and, last time I checked, he still lives with his mom.

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    I’ll confess openly to actually desiring a Snuggie anyway but now I *really* want one!

    To think, if it weren’t for the Snuggie being included, I probably would’ve lifted the better of the songs off of the internet somewhere for free… I know it’s wrong.

    Now, though, I’m going to spend $30 on the album. Or someone will get it for me for Christmas. (Hint, hint — the blue one, not the zebra print.)

    Great marketing on Weezer’s part.

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    Billie Jean is NOT his lover...Unlike my previous post, this one actually is about Michael Jackson.

    Even though I wasn’t born in the US, if I had been, I’d be one of those bicentennial babies. What that basically means is that the Jackson 5 were a little before my time. But it also means that I was the perfect age for MJ’s solo career.

    My parents were still listening to popular music when “Off the Wall” came out in 1979 so I got my share of “Don’t Stop ’til You Get Enough” and “Rock With You” riding in the back of the car.

    I don’t remember either song being a favorite (neither could top Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” or Christopher Cross’ “Ride Like the Wind”), but I certainly remember hearing them an awful lot.

    By the time Thriller came out, sure, my parents had turned the dial to the oldies stations instead but I was six years old by then — I had access to my own radio dial.

    Best of all, our next door neighbor was an audiophile. His “band” was the Who but he also had the Michael Jackson album before anyone that I knew. I’m not sure he’d be willing to admit it but he had it in his collection probably the same day that it came out.

    We used to go over there, put on his enormous headphones and giggle endlessly wondering what on earth “Ma-Ma-Se, Ma-Ma-Sa, Ma-Ma-Goo-Sa” meant… Back then, you couldn’t just jump to a song as easily as you can now (partly because we weren’t allowed to actually touch his turntable) so we listened to “Wanna Be Startin’ Something” (the first track on the album) more than any other song on the record. In fact, I’m not sure we ever listened to the flip side…

    My friend Chris and I even used the “Ma-Ma-Se” thing as a greeting? Weird.

    We were living outside Chicago at the time and I remember walking to school with Chris and his older brother Kurt pretending that the sidewalk was lighting up in front of us like it did in the “Billie Jean” video.

    I also remember very long sessions of attempting to moonwalk on the kitchen tile with our slipperiest socks on. I never quite mastered it.

    I remember the hi-fi guy, Kurt and Chris’ dad, saying that it was a fake special effect but we kept trying anyway…

    As 1st graders, we had no idea what the song, “Billie Jean”, was about but we certainly knew all the words. When “Beat It” came out, well, game over, everyone that I knew was asking for the Thriller record for their birthday.

    I got it on tape that summer — along with a tape recorder.

    Then we moved to Connecticut and my access to Hi-Fi music was dashed. But with the move to New England came something new — cable television and MTV.

    Not only could I listen to MJ, now I could see him too! I’d seen the videos before, probably on Solid Gold or something, but never over and over and over again.

    I remember when the Thriller video came out — I think it was even listed in TV Guide — my parents even watched. And they enjoyed it!

    Imagining my son being 7 years old now instead of one month, I’m not sure I’d be able to “enjoy” the music or the videos he might be watching right now. Somehow, in the early 1980’s Michael Jackson was able to appeal to 7 year olds AND 37 year olds.

    My next big MJ memory came a few months after the big Thriller music video.

    I had the jacket from Thriller in 3rd grade — it was awesome.

    Yeah, my parents were too cheap to buy me a glittery glove that I also wanted but they totally went all out and hooked me up with a red and black pleather jacket.

    Did I mention yet that it was awesome?

    I remember it almost having a Michael Jackson like effect at the bus stop.

    No, the girls weren’t passing out or anything just being in my presence but they were asking to try it on and I thought that was pretty cool.

    While I can’t prove it here with photographic evidence as I’m not sure a photo of me in the jacket even exists — thank god, too, evidence like that would have jeopardized my popularity in high school — trust me, I had it. And it *was* awesome.

    I’m sure that if I dug through the attic enough, I’d find it. Or maybe my parents still have it? Mom?

    Anyway, I’m not really sure where it ended up but I’d hate to think that we just threw it away…

    The next time Michael Jackson came up was when I was just heading into junior high school.

    It was the end of the summer and I had a birthday party to go to and I wanted to buy the “Bad” tape for my friend Ryan.

    Problem was, the album was being released the day of the party *and* it went over the $10 birthday present limit my mom had set. (Yeah, back then, cassettes were $16.99 for a new release).

    My mom ending up buying the tape last minute (going over the $10 limit) and as my friend was opening his other presents, I was a little worried about how he’d react to mine.

    See, Michael Jackson wasn’t as cool as he’d been when we were in third grade but when he opened it, everyone at the party was excited. (I did a little fist pump in my head. Yes!)

    I remember after the party, when his mom was driving us all home, she had the tape playing in the car (they were loaded so, unlike the rest of us, they had a tape player in the car – remember, this is 1987!) and we were all in the back clapping along to “The Way You Make Me Feel” which was the first song on the album that none of us had ever heard before.

    If I remember correctly, that was pretty much the last real birthday party that wasn’t just a sleepover with a few friends that I ever attended. Later that week, we were, afterall, junior high schoolers and far too grown up for “Fudgie the Whale” cakes.

    His next album was “Dangerous” with the big prime time network debut of the “Black or White” video and the morphing faces at the end.

    I was in high school at this point and while it was okay to admit that you thought the end of his video was cool, it was best to keep being a fan on the hush-hush.

    I bought his Dangerous album in Germany on tape because, yeah, I didn’t have a CD player yet and because I was certain that I would probably never again see any of those Germans there to witness me purchasing it.

    Yeah, in 1992, there was a little bit of shame in admitting that you liked Michael Jackson *and* Pearl Jam.

    I’d say that it was the first MJ album that I didn’t play the crap out of.

    It’s not that it wasn’t worthy, but I think my tastes had begun to slide over to less mainstream stuff like They Might be Giants. And, um, Pearl Jam.

    Crazy to call a guy like Michael Jackson mainstream, huh?

    June 20, 1995 receipt from the last Michael Jackson purchase.The last time I gave Michael any thought, prior to Thursday, was when HIStory came out in 1995. It was in the summer of 1995 and I was taking a few courses in University.

    My friend Alison, almost as a joke I think, suggested that we line up to buy the album at midnight.

    Thinking that sounded like more fun than watching Baywatch and Unsolved Mysteries reruns I said that I’d be up for it.

    When we got to “House of Sounds” on Princess Street in Kingston, which still sold records at the time, there was already a line up?!

    I couldn’t believe it!? At a time when few would admit to even liking Michael Jackson, he could still get people to line up in the middle of the night to buy one of his albums. Amazing.

    Anyway, 6 minutes and 15 seconds past midnight, I owned HIStory… and Disc 1 (best compilation EVER!) is the CD player in the car right now…

    (Though I must admit, I had to dig through a few boxes this morning to find it.)

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