Thursday, June 8, 2017

Bad Ads -- AT&T


First of all, are we all just going to pretend that Mark Wahlberg hasn't done some terrible things?
(from Wikipedia: Commenting in 2006 on his past crimes, Wahlberg stated: "I did a lot of things that I regret, and I have certainly paid for my mistakes." He said the right thing to do would be to try to find the blinded man and make amends, and admitted he has not done so, but added that he was no longer burdened by guilt:)

But putting aside for the moment that AT&T decided they wanted a violent racist felon to represemt their brand, these ads are a tribute to Wahlberg's fragile masculinity.




So, even though he already would seemingly have proven his macho bona fides by punching out a bunch of robots when he gets to the lovers on the beach and says somehting about "unlimited romance," he has to toss in the line "if you're into that." Like it's important to him that the viewers understand that he does not go in for any of that mushy lovey-dovey girl stuff.  Like he's afraid that his old townie friends are going to see him endorsing "unlimited romance" and say "hey, Mahky, what are you, quee-ah?" I would bet money that the "if you're into that" line was not in the original script but Marky Mark insisted on adding it.





And then he has to make sure that everyone understands that he does NOT know who the "little cartoon thing" is.  The guy has four kids, no one would think it was strange that he would recognize a character from a cartoon. I have zero kids and I know that the cartoon character is named Gumball. I don't have to pretend like "I'm a grown man. I don't know anything about some dumb kids' show. I'm not a baby!"

Really kinda pathetic.



6 comments:

jadedj said...

Makes one wonder...why the "manly man" doeth protest too much.

Bob said...

I actually enjoyed the commercials until the "if you're into that kinda thing" line.
That seemed like a putdown of anyone in love, or anyone who loves a romantic comedy, or anyone who isn't as macho as Marky ... the underwear model.

Lowell said...

I don't watch any commercials if I'm awake so hadn't seen the AT&T thingy. But AT&T is about as scummy as Wahlberg was. So, you don't think Wahlberg has changed and he's still a racist and violent? Just asking...

Debra She Who Seeks said...

I'm kinda glad we don't get these ads in Canada.

Professor Chaos said...

I don't know. I assume he has changed somewhat, but it just sits wrong with me when someone like Wahlbrrg or Mike Tyson gets back into the public eye as if they were just lovable scamps or whatever, as if they hadn't committed horrible crimes. And I've never seen,any real show of remorse from Marky, he even tried to get his record expunged a few years ago as if his offenses were minor youthful indiscretions.

Professor Chaos said...

Dammit, Canada! Why must you be better than us in everything?