TurboTax Commercial – Old Music, New Era, Gay Weddings?

Unless you’re an accountant and tax season is your Super Bowl, the last thing most sane people want to think about is taxes. Well, that’s sort of the idea behind the TurboTax commercial called, “Not Taxes.” It’s only January and the tax deadline is over 3 months away at the time of this writing, so TurboTax has come out of the gate in a full sprint. But to do so, they reached back over 4 decades for the soundtrack. Take a look at the ad then scroll down for more info…

The Music. The visuals work really well with the song choice, which is “Plantasia” by Mort Garson, released way back in 1976. This song is quite interesting and plays just a part of the big picture presented in the commercial. I’ll explain what I mean below, but first, here’s the full song track.

An Old New Era. Most of the characters shown could be plucked right out of the 1970s. Check out their wardrobe, the room decor, etc. But I’ll admit when I first heard the song, I had no idea if it was a new or very old. At least some of today’s music has come back around to old, familiar sounds, and I don’t hate it! In regards to meshing this sound with the disco era visuals, it could be that the creators of the commercial wanted to reflect back on, and remind us of, a time in which taxes were basically a nightmare (kind of like the amount of hairspray used on those hair-do’s, am I right!?) to complete. And even in 2023, trying to do it on your own without TurboTax will send you back in time with how difficult it would inevitably be. At least that’s what they want all of us non-accountants to think!

Colors. This colorful ad shows off a few things people do when they’re not doing taxes… like horseback riding, swimming, and kissing, although I think most of those happen year-round. Taxpayers (or should ‘taxpayers’ just be called ‘US citizens’ as to not be offensive now that Stanford’s list of harmful words is out?) are encouraged to let TurboTax do the dirty work. Notice the use of darker colors and tones in the first half of the commercial and as it progresses the palette gets lighter and brighter. I’m sure this is on purpose to leave you feeling good about handing off tax responsibilities to someone else… ANYONE ELSE!!! The brightest scene is the wedding, which includes lots of pastels of pink and red. Not to be nitpicky, but this gay marriage is the only scene that doesn’t fit the 70s era narrative. It wasn’t until 2015 that same-sex marriages were recognized in every state in the U.S. Plus, with all the non-binaries, the 1,429 new genders, trans this and trans that, are they even called gay weddings, anymore?

Michael Sheen Tread Carefully GIF by ProdigalSonFox - Find & Share on GIPHY

How do you feel about the use of the song in this commercial? Is it too early to be thinking about taxes? Chime in below!

See you guys y’all (Stanford approved) tomorrow!

-Out of the Wilderness

An aging beagle and how to reinvent our relationship

When you read posts from dog owners, most would say having a dog is the highlight of their life. I’ve posted a lot about my dogs over the years (“Life with Dogs” blogs here) and we’ve had such fun moments in the last 13 years! They are definitely part of fun moments in the last decade. They’re such troopers coming along with me on all kinds of adventures in Tennessee, a big move from Tennessee to Florida, and then camping all around Florida and the southeast. They’ve gone from having their own room in a house with a big back yard to sleeping on the floor of a tiny camper. So they are amazing and I love them so much.

But lately with my 13-yr old beagle, Piper, I’ve notice our relationship has changed. It’s gone from fun and frolicky to warden and prisoner. Some days all I do with her is tell her “no” and make her stop eating paper, cardboard, tissues, and poop. Honestly, I don’t like what it’s become. I want to have fun with her but she’s not really interested in playing anymore. I understand that, I mean, she’s 13 and we’ve played a lot over the years. But without that bond of playfulness, I don’t know exactly how to navigate the next few years… or the next few days, for that matter. It really is just me keeping her from eating stuff, knocking things over, or running away when she has 5 seconds of off-leash time. I’m anxious. Are all beagles escape artists? If so, I’d still say Piper is the best of them all! I don’t want to just be her warden, but actually, sometimes I feel like the prisoner, and she’s the warden.

I love my dogs so much. Piper is smart, sassy, stubborn, cuddly, cute, soft, and curious. I just don’t like that basically all I’m doing is telling her what to do and not to do 24/7. There isn’t much bonding going on these days. Where there was warmth seems a lot colder now.

There ARE good moments, too. She’s a great dog. I think I’m just learning that while she’s getting older and more stubborn, I’m also getting older and more stubborn. If you have any advice on how to reinvent our relationship or what I can do differently, I’ll all beagle ears.

See you tomorrow!

-Out of the Wilderness

GEICO’s Wright Brothers Commercial – Is it a Tray or a Table?

GEICO has funny campaigns going simultaneously and another addition to the bundling ads features brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright, the inventors of the airplane. Take a look then scroll down for more info…

Tale As Old As Time. If you’ve ever flown on a commercial plane, you are cringing or laughing at the accuracy of the problems these brothers face even on the first flight ever. Arm rests, tiny amounts of snack food, coughing neighbors, crying babies, talkative strangers, bumpy flights, the list goes on and on for common pet peeves of sharing public spaces with other people. And to touch on this briefly, if you have siblings you know exactly what these brothers are feeling. The littlest thing can spark the biggest fights, am I right?

Tray Table. Orville and Wilbur fight over the armrest then Orville pulls out the tray table. Not to be nit-picky but why are they called “tray tables”? Shouldn’t it be called a tray OR a table? I guess in the old days guests would be served trays of food in which the entire tray would be placed on the table. That’s hardly the case anymore so can we just call them a snack table or something? Kind of like the confusion around daylight savings time. Why do still set our clocks forward and backward each year? It’s outdated and needs to change!

Kudos to GEICO for pointing out a problem we’ve all faced before and tying in their product to the solution. I like this ad to kick off the new year. What do you think about it?

See you tomorrow…

-Out of the Wilderness

Where is Michael J. Fox?

I know some of you, maybe a lot of you, aren’t thinking about where he is, you’re wondering WHO he is! Michael J. Fox is an actor and I’d say his fame came from a movie franchise in the 80s called Back to the Future, but of course there’s the TV show “Family Ties.” The phrase I’ll never forget from the show is, “Money is no object.” I’m still not sure exactly what it means except that his character loved money, so maybe the phrase is one that means money is very important, don’t take it lightly.

He was in other TV shows and movies in the 1990s like “Spin City” and Doc Hollywood.

But where is he now? After it was made known in 1991 that he has Parkinson’s disease, I haven’t seen much of him in the acting spotlight. But he didn’t disappear completely. After some research, I found out that Michael J. Fox is still very much active in raising awareness for Parkinson’s and he did some acting on major projects throughout the 2000s and in the 2010s. For more details, check out his IMDb page. I guess I’m the one NOT in the know. There’s an article in People Magazine here and evidently they get really in depth in the recent issue.

I guess I’m at an age now where I can feel more sadness for things that are, or people who are, gone. So I’m glad he’s still taking roles in movies and TV shows. There’s enough hurt and loss without MJF disappearing, too! Are there any actors you’ve seen in decades past who have gotten out of the spotlight for one reason or another? Chime in below and thanks for going down this historical rabbit hole with me…

See y’all tomorrow!

-Out of the Wilderness

The scariest bark park in Florida: an update.

You guys, late in 2021 I visiting a dog park that was near home base and I was rather shocked and frightened to find out it was THE SCARIEST DOG PARK IN FLORIDA! Not only did it have a pond right smack dab in the middle of it, it had ANOTHER pond within the dog park fence! You might think it’s no big deal but think about what Florida is known for… sharks (does not apply here) and alligators (applies like heck here!). So that was the one and only time I took my dogs to that park. Even while we were there I kept them on a short leash. I recapped the visit in depth in a post called The Scariest Dog Park in Florida. And now…

Here’s part 2…

It’s been over a year between the first visit and now I’ve already been there twice. Why? What’s changed? I was so happy to drive by one day last week and notice more fences!

All the scary parts have been fenced OUT. Now the park looks more like the aisles of IKEA, lanes of grass to romp around in. I’m so, SO, happy alligators and for the most part snakes too, aren’t nearly as big of a worry as they were before. My dogs go everywhere nose first and I just can’t fathom what trouble they’d get into if the park was left the way it was.

I chatted with another guy at the park and he was not feeling so joyful. He said, “They ruined it.” I just nodded along because I wasn’t about to be all disagreeable… but I 100% disagree. Just like the old saying, “Fences make good neighbors,” I think fences make good dog parks. I’ll be going here a lot more now. I know the pups will enjoy exploring and I’ll enjoy them exploring safely.

See y’all tomorrow!

-Out of the Wilderness