The Publix Step Dad Commercial – Milestones for Blended Family

Hallmark. Nicholas Sparks. Publix commercials. I’ll take “Things That Make You Cry” for $500, Alex. I can’t think of any other grocery store chain that can pierce the heart like Publix can. The only one that comes to mind is Dollar Tree (they have groceries, right?) when they went up to $1.25 but those weren’t tears of joy. 😢

Publix’s latest commercial celebrates milestones many families experience from birthday parties to school graduations to weddings. Many times, these landmark moments include food, meals, whether it’s catered or home cooked. The ad is also a nod to blended families. Take a look at the joyful tear-jerker then scroll down for more info…

They definitely make a point to show the blended family aspect of the relationships so as soon as the daughter said, “Thanks Chris,” I thought to myself they’re gonna do it… they’re gonna do it… and then…. boom they did it and now I have a lump in my throat! She calls him dad, signifying that the long relationship went from Grace and Chris to dad and daughter. How sweet!

While groceries take a backseat to the human aspect of the ad, there are still plenty of Publix brand products throughout. There’s a birthday cake, ginger ale, raw eggs, vanilla extract, 1/2 gallon milk, graham crackers, baby carrots, graduation cake, pickles, olives, honey, chicken wings, and deviled eggs.

Ten years ago, Publix had another ad using the same theme of “Milestones.” This one is narrated and is still emotional, although not quite as much as their newer commercials. In the last few years, they’ve also managed to integrate their products in almost every shot, whereas this commercial doesn’t show any products at all.

Publix is in a league of their own when it comes to commercial advertising. They’ve developed a signature style and every time one of their commercials comes on, it’s almost instantaneously identifiable before their logo ever appears.

-Out of the Wilderness

Are we really doing pickleball shoes now? Skechers says yes!

Yesterday I saw a pickleball shoe commercial. Is this really where we are now? I definitely did NOT have pickleball shoe on my 2023 bingo card. Of course, crazier things have happened even just this year*, but I think we’re going to look back on this commercial and laugh… the same way I did when I saw it for the first time.

My instant reaction was, “Hey family, you gotta come see this!” as I proceed to skip back and queue it up for our general merriment. This is why aliens aren’t sticking around here, people. They’re busy traversing galaxies and what are the humans doing? Pickleball shoes.

We landed on the moon just a few decades ago** and now we’re wearing shoes made specifically for pickleball. Let that sink in.

OK, OK it’s not that embarrassing, I guess. I can exaggerate sometimes. But it just has the peculiar feeling of being the butt of a lot of jokes for a long time***. Skechers might very well look back at this and realize they made a huge mistake.

What do you think about the commercial? Any of you play pickleball and halfway through a game think to yourself, “Gosh, I wish I had a pair of pickleball shoes for this…”?

*Shaquille O’Neal still raps, here’s proof

**allegedly

***kind of like what Andrew Tate‘s legacy will be

-Out of the Wilderness

Booking.com Commercials – Not Bad Enough To Be Good

Hello! I was going to post this when I always post — 1pm central, daily — but as I was watching YouTube today another of these ads came on and I thought to myself, “I’ve had it! I can’t wait another second!” Am I just grouchy or are these commercials as irritating as I think they are? So here I am presenting a series of commercials for you to suffer through, too watch and let me know if I just need to shush and go along to get along.

You know how it feels when a singer has such a soothing voice, all you can do is drop everything and listen? That’s the opposite of these Melissa McCarthy Booking.com commercials. I have never liked them, I will never like them, and if I ever tell you otherwise, please slap me twice in the face. It’s not just the abysmal singing (she’s actually a good singer, technically speaking), but I have yet to see a commercial that’s made me laugh. If anything, they’ve only served to annoy me. Kind of like the Spectrum commercials. Written as comedy but failing miserably… especially with lines like, “Ah seagulls, the eagles of the sea.” Really? That’s all you could come with?

I have a hard time believing whoever wrote these ads still has a job. Hiring a comedian makes me think laughter is what you’re going for and if that’s true, we ought to use a pass/fail scoring system and these fail. Every one of them. Now I’m imagining those old cartoons with the shepherd’s hooks. Someone needs to tell Booking.com it’s time to cut their losses, pull these ads from TV and streaming, and come up with a new campaign.

There are a lot of great ad campaigns out there focusing on comedy. I’m thinking of GEICO, Progressive, Liberty Mutual… OK weird that a lot of them are insurance companies. I guess something as boring as insurance needs humor to relay their info. Maybe Booking.com can find the writers of those commercials, hire them, and have funny ads on TV again. Until then, they’ll continue to show us what it means to be be bad but not not bad enough to be good.

-Out of the Wilderness

The oldest sins…

I was watching one of my favorite movies the other day and I don’t remember ever hearing this line when I watched it previously. Can you guess which 2001 movie this is from?

“The oldest sins in the newest ways.”

If you guess correctly, I’m sending you a big high five and a look of awe, because that would be a very impressive! It’s from A Knight’s Tale, a movie I mostly think of as a romantic comedy but somehow they seem to slip nuggets of such quotable lines throughout the movie, mostly thanks to Paul Bettany’s character Geoffrey Chaucer. He was just so darn funny, yet insightful and perceptive.

It’s Mr. Chaucer that says the line as the movie heads towards its climax. Of course it’s him, a writer and poet, that repeats a line from Shakespeare’s “King Henry IV” which goes… Commit the oldest sins the newest kind of ways.

The moment is not highlighted in the movie, almost spoken under his breath in a transition from one scene to the next but I love that it’s in there. Twenty-two years ago when the movie was made– nay, 400 hundred years ago when Shakespeare first penned the line– and now in 2023, it’s still true. All we ever do is invent new ways to do the same evil things. The idea even goes back to Biblical times, in Romans it says “…slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil…” which also kind of puts a spotlight on God as it’s said also in Romans… God, who calls things into existence that do not exist. All we can do as humans is repackage sin in a different way, but God can make something from nothing.

For me, it’s a modern reminder that whether it’s 1600 AD, 2001, or 2023, we all sense the need of something outside of ourselves to get along in this life. So God made something from nothing. Made a way where there really wasn’t a way.

Jesus.

I’ll wrap this up with another great line from A Knight’s Tale. Paul Bettany says in the inspirational monologue below (which was cut from the movie before it hit theaters, boo!!!), Sir William Thatcher is gold and everyone else is iron, who have just come to see him rust.

-Out of the Wilderness

The fun yet sometimes petty world of fantasy football

NFL football is upon us, folks! You know what that means: Fantasy football leagues everywhere are being formed, drafting, and setting up rosters in preparation for September 7, when the regular season starts featuring the Kansas City Chiefs and the Detroit Lions.

I started my fantasy football journey with a team called the Venus Flytraps. Within a few years the team was renamed to the Billy Oceans, playing in a league with college friends for many years. That league fizzled as schedules conflicted (people getting married and having kids and whatnot) and then I became part of a fun league of coworkers. My time in that league came to an end and I’m actually kind of happy about it. Who wants to be in a league where someone hates your guts for not being a Democrat, anyway? 🙃

Church and state? I’d be happy with separation of sports and politics!

Shopping for a new league has been really fun. It’s opened my eyes to how many different types of leagues and the assortment of platforms there are. Here’s a list of stuff I’ve learned about in the past few weeks…

Sleeper (another platform like Yahoo!, ESPN, etc), IDP, common to use no kicker or defense, 2+ quarterbacks as starters, $500 buy-in leagues, auction draft, slow draft, Leaguesafe (central hub for league dues and payouts), IR spots, super flex, dynasty, experimental leagues, and lots more.

Something else I’ve learned? People have gambling problems.

Seriously, who joins a $500 per team fantasy football league where winner takes all? That’s stuff your wife and kids leave you for, taking everything in the house except for one sticky note pressed on the back of the front door… a number to call and it’s a therapist.

Do I miss the friends I played with in the college and the coworker league? Of course. But change can be a good thing and because of that I’m pretty pumped about a new season of football and a new beginning to the dynasty of…

The Billy Oceans.

-Out of the Wilderness