Amazon’s Cleopatra Commercial – The music and the actress!

Amazon Prime has a new ad that’s sort of a mashup of The Prince of Egypt and Mad Max. Take a look at the “dry” ad below…

The actress is Maya Samaha, who’s been in commercials for clothing, cars, and computers, among countless others.

The song playing in the background is “Driver’s Seat” by Sniff ‘N’ The Tears. The official music video from 1978 is below.

The commercial is not going over very well with folks posting comments on YouTube. Lots of comparisons to the riches of Jeff Bezos (who ISN’T the CEO of Amazon, by the way) and the poor treatment of Amazon employees (I’ve been a driver for Amazon, it isn’t always bad). Perhaps the agency who came up with the ad should have done a little more research as to not come across so tone deaf.

What do you think of the ad? Are the people who don’t like it looking too far into it, instead of just taking it at face value? Chime in below!

-Out of the Wilderness

Using my car against a moccasin in Florida – dash cam video

The other day, I kinda ran over a moccasin. I kinda ran over a moccasin and kept going. The weird thing is… the moccasin kept going, too. A guy who was walking nearby said sometimes you need a heavier car.

Um, WHAT???

A car should squish a snake every time. Or else, I’m gonna need a bigger car.

The moccasins here in Florida must be like the John Cena of snakes. Except instead of his slogan “you can’t see me,” it’s more like the snakes are saying, “I know you can see me, and you know I know you can see me, and I know you know I know you can see me,” and while we’re all confused by their long slogan they bite us!

Anyway, here’s the dash cam video of the recent moccasin encounter as recorded earlier this week, complete with voiceover commentary.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness

Purple Mattress Actress – The Catchy Commercials

I am way late to the game but I caught a new ad from the brand Purple showing off the raw-egg cradling power of their mattress. In this particular new ad, they referenced an ad from the mid-2010s. Take a look at that one here.

The Goldilocks actress in the ad is Mallory Everton. She’s been in other things, but it seems like at this point she’s becoming the face of Purple mattresses. Here’s the new 2021 ad… (click link)

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/t713/purple-mattress-anniversary-savings-angry-memory-foam

And here’s a fun behind the scenes video of this ad campaign.

I enjoy their use of humor to promote these mattresses. They could present us with facts and figures, but they chose to go the route of over the top humor, sarcasm, and it works!

Do you have one of these mattresses? If not, do these commercials make you want to get one? They do, for me!

Thanks for stopping by…

-Out of the Wilderness

Signs to Mark the Evacuation Route?

The other day I was driving on the gulf coast of Florida and every few hundred yards were signs marking that the road was a hurricane “evacuation route.” Now, I’m a firm believer that we have too many road signs in this country — case and point, a sign that tells you a historic marker is coming up — and these evacuation signs seem a little excessive if I’m being totally honest.

Hurricane route marker from Anthony Insurance Agency site

To help explain my thought process… when a hurricane is coming, ISN’T EVERY ROAD AN EVACUATION ROUTE???? I don’t need a sign to tell me which road leaves town, because I’ll drive on any road possible to get out of the way.

*side note: I still don’t know what THIS road sign is*

I’ll admit, though, as I’m typing this that it occurred to me why might these signs exist. Let’s say you’re trying to escape the path of the approaching hurricane. If it’s coming from the south, you’d want to head north. So at the very least, as needless as they seem, it would support the idea of using signs simply for the fact that you know you’re heading in the right direction to get far away from whatever coast is about to be hit by the storm.

But if you’re at the beach and don’t know which direction goes away from the beach, I think there are bigger problems that these signs can’t fix. So I’ll return to my original mantra if a hurricane is approaching: Every road that goes away from the shore is an evacuation route, whether there’s a sign confirming it or not!

Am I being too close-minded about this? What am I missing here?

Thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness

TUI’s new adventurous TV ad – The Music and More!

UK travel group TUI has a new ad on the telly called “Live Happy.” You can guess what that means coming from a travel agency– amazing destinations with people you love. It’s all here in the new 90-second ad…

Strictly from a production standpoint, this is a great ad. I love the quick edits, the transitions between certain clips are connected through motion and colors, but my favorite part (as an editor) is the use of sound. They rely on the age-old, yet tried and true, method of WYSIWYG… what you see is what you get. It’s first noticed with the alarm ringing. Then throughout the ad there is a subtle use of sound that shows their attention to detail. For instance when the woman dives in the pool and we see her underwater. The soundtrack also sounds as if the song is being played underwater. Speaking of which, the song in this ad is “Ah Bah D’accord” by Juniore.

The French title translated to English the means, “Ah Well OK” according to Google Translate.

This ad is exactly what an ad should be. It shows off the company and what they can do for their customers. It’s easy to understand, so along with a great song and precise editing, it’s a win. If I lived in the UK and wanted to travel, I would definitely be compelled to check TUI first.

How do you feel about the ad? Is there anything they could’ve done differently to make it better?

Thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness