Coke & Sprite & Zero Water & All the Races in Coca-Cola’s New Commercial

Coke has a new commercial in a joint effort with Sprite, Smart Water, and Honest. Well, “joint” is a little dishonest since Coca-Cola owns all those other brands. If you look closely, you’ll find that this fizzy fun family ad features Fanta, too, making fans flip out, for sure! Yes, Coke owns Fanta, too. Check out the new commercial called “New Guy”…

Homage? I don’t know if this counts as homage or more of just a clever allusion, but the commercial mimics a scene from “The Bear” called Ma Does Seven Fishes. Here’s that scene and be warned: it contains colorful language.

The Family. Although my family isn’t quite as diverse as the one in the Coke ad (does any family have all the races?), holidays sound very much the same. In other words, chaos. Nine different conversations happening in the same room, kids playing board games, a toddler running around in just a diaper and a shirt, food on the stove and in the oven, dogs looking for scraps around everyone’s feet, a faucet left on upstairs, television volume up to 93. Pure madness! Coca-Cola captured the craziness of family gatherings so well. Loud. An organized disorganization. Lots of love. And root beer.

Sorry Coke, I had to.

-Out of the Wilderness

Amazon’s Coffee, Stay-At-Home Dad Commercial – The Music and More!

Amazon released a double shot of commercials to ring in the new year, one featuring a plant-growing daughter and this one featuring a tired, coffee-drinking dad. They’ve both been added to my list of Popular TV Ads, click the link to find your favorite (or your least favorite 🥴). Take a look at this stay-at-home dad getting it done, then scroll down for more info!

The Music. The song featured in this commercial is decades old. Back in 1970, legendary band Chicago released “25 or 6 To 4″… here’s the full track:

What do think about the new ad? Is it a little odd the mom has zero interactions with her baby? Chime in with your comments below.

-Out of the Wilderness

The Amazon Apartment Jungle Commercial – The Music and More!

Happy new year! I *barely* stayed awake long enough to watch the ball drop in New York City. That was after giving the Nashville New Year’s Eve show a try, but I forgot to remember that I don’t like country music very much. Oops! Late in Dick Clark’s Rocking New Year’s Eve, Amazon had a time slot for their new commercial. Kicking off 2024, here’s one of two new Amazon ads (the other is the coffee-drinking dad commercial)… it’s called “Concrete Jungle.”

The Song. The song in the commercial is called “Full of Life” by Christine and the Queens and it was released in 2023. Find out more about the band on their Instagram: @ChristineandtheQueens or find out more from their website ChristineandtheQueens.com.

Party Like It’s 1680. The melody in the song is “Canon in D” by Pachelbel. Since it’s Christmas time (sort of?), here’s my favorite version from Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

I love the song and the commercial. It shows off the benefits of Amazon Prime with a pleasant song to go along with the visuals. Do you like it? Chime in below!

Take care and see you tomorrow (I post every day at 1pm central!)…

-Out of the Wilderness

Commercials That Should be Extinct in 2024

I’ve written a lot about TV commercials in 2023 because there have been some great ones. Check out a full list of the good, the bad, and the ugly here. The likes of Publix, Chevrolet, and Amazon created ads that touch the heart. On the flip side, there have been some terrible spots, too. I don’t know if any will be worse than last year’s Sprite Christmas commercial but I’ve put together a list of my 5 least favorite commercials from 2023. If I’m wrong about any of these, leave a comment below and tell me why!

Instacart Football Game and Grocery Store Jingle

Amazon Chest Hair Polar Plunge

Ford’s Gay Raptor

These Annoying Spectrum Commercials

Peloton Show Up Show Out

I’m hopeful these ads will become extinct going into 2024. Certainly there are better commercials on the way for us in the new year!

-Out of the Wilderness

College football is embarrassing itself

I’ve seen a few embarrassing moments in college football, which has basically been ruined by the playoff committee, NIL deals, and the transfer portal. This weekend featured bowl games, bowl games that weren’t called bowl games (New Year’s 6 which I’ve never heard of till this year), and top teams losing in games that don’t matter.

I’m thinking of Ohio State, a team that, when ranked #2 in the country, lost to the #3 team and somehow dropped out of playoff contention (perplexing when the #8 team somehow jumps into the top 4 just for beating Georgia). If anyone can make that make sense, leave a comment below. So Ohio State played Missouri in the Cotton Bowl (sounds like a bowl game?) and lost, but again, what difference did a win make anyway?

Florida State got blown out by Georgia in another bowl game that, except for having the record for biggest point difference in Orange Bowl history, will be forgotten about in short time. Georgia’s 1st string beat Florida State’s freshman 3rd string team. OK. What did Georgia gain by winning? Nothing. What did FSU lose by losing. Nothing.

But the most embarrassing thing I saw was from Clemson. A game with less interest than finding sand at a beach. The only thing I can gather from what I’m about to show you is that maybe Dabo Swinney’s job was on the line? That can be the only explanation for his dramatic reaction to their field goal kicker making a field goal towards the end of the game that might win the game (it wasn’t made with the clock going to zero, they still had about a minute left in the game).

Clemson did end up winning and after the game the head coach and this other coach were caught on camera showing the excitement you’d normally see when two 3rd grade girls see each other at recess. It was weird.

Portrait of a man who’s probably already updated his resume on LinkedIn.

-Out of the Wilderness