Posting daily at 1pm central about all kinds of things. One day it's dating, the next it's TV commercials. I hope you're entertained. Professional photos on SmugMug – https://benwilder.smugmug.com
To be honest, I prefer VRBO because I’m not really keen on the idea of being in a stranger’s home when they’re home, too. It encroaches on my peace and ups the anxiety. But to be honest again, I prefer state parks over VRBO. If you want to be in nature, as the ad below suggests, camp. But when that’s not feasible, Airbnb has your back. Check out the ad below then scroll down for the name of the song and more…
The Music. About halfway through the commercial a jazz funk song becomes the soundtrack of the outdoors. The song is called “Watermelon Man” by Herbie Hancock in 1973.
Actually the first version was released in 1962. Much more jazzy but also not as fitting for the Airbnb ad.
How do the people at the creative agencies creating these ads find these obscure (ish) songs? Kudos to them for their research!
Brock Horner, the best boat villain since that pirate in Captain Phillips, probably wakes up and says to himself, “I’m the captain now.” But something tells me that before grouper season ends he’s gonna be someone’s coxswain in prison if you know what I mean, bro. Ok that doesn’t make sense but how can I have a post about boats and not use the word coxswain, bro!?
The nautical theme continues with a handful of songs about boats. There are thousands more but see if you recognize any of these from some well-known artists.
“Come Sail Away” Styx
“Where the Boat Leaves From” Zac Brown Band
“Sloop John B” The Beach Boys
“If I Had A Boat” Lyle Lovett
“I’m On A Boat” The Lonely Island
“Pontoon” Little Big Town
“Buy Me A Boat” Chris Janson
“Sailing” Christopher Cross
The next time you brag about being the best fisherman on the water and illegally board someone else’s boat, nearly making them wet their pants from fear, take a deep breath and realize no one really knows who are and no one really cares.
Modern designs can be really cool. So can cities and neighborhoods designed for pedestrian safety. As a part-time cyclist, I appreciate when there are measures put in place to make people safer. For instance, crosswalks for people walking through intersections. That’s a no-brainer. But I’ve noticed an annoying design with some of these crosswalk areas, in combination with the concrete median curbs. Take a look at a mistake I made recently… mostly my own dumb error (the rest of the story here) but also I blame whoever designed a crosswalk through a curbed median. It nearly broke my truck!
And it happened again with a driver in front of me, recorded on my dash cam. Take a look at this little car and if you could’ve heard the bottom of the car scraping the concrete, you would’ve flinched as hard as I did. What’s the harm in making the curb sloped to keep cars from suffering major damage?
City planners– get on it. Make them sloped, or better yet– These fingernail (for lack of a better term) medians are super dumb and dangerous for vehicles so stop it!
There are quite a few rappers out there. There are quite a few commercials out there, too. But how many brands attempt to combine the two to sell their product? Well, there’s this Sprite commercial that, quite frankly, is terrible. I’m sure there are others, but the most recent is a new offering from Powerade. Check it out then scroll down for more…
I’m Not Against Rap. I’m not against rappers. But I am against those who put them in commercials. The higher ups at Powerade went the urban route with this ad. I’d call it an air ball coming from the brand owned by Coca-Cola, who infamously used AI to create a poorly received Christmas commercial last year. The rapper in this Powerade commercial is Flau’jae. You might recognize her from this Lil Wayne song or from her career playing college basketball at LSU. Her team recently lost in the women’s tournament and there are rumors she’ll declare her availability for the WNBA. I’ve never seen her play so I guess I know her more as a rapper since I’ve now listened to 2 of her songs. In her defense, while the 30 seconds used in the Powerade commercial was pretty bad, the full track isn’t as bad.
I can’t decide which irritates me more– the arrogance or the choppy delivery style of the lyrics. I’ve been listening to rap since the 90s. It was hard to live in Miami, FL and not know at least a little bit of what was going on in this relatively new genre (early 1990s). Clearly it takes talent to perform this type of music. I’m still constantly in awe of rappers in how they word things, weave stories together, rhyme, their ability to deliver so many words in a few minutes, much less how they remember all those lyrics! I don’t want to take anything away from Flau’jae’s goals and aspirations but goodness gracious this is a terrible song. Either that, or I’ve become one of those people who complain about modern music while championing music “from the good ol’ days.” So I’m seriously asking… does anyone out there think the song for this Powerade commercial is good music?
Mainstream rap music, broadly speaking, is usually about feeding one’s high ego… something like the spotlight effect in psychology. “Everyone wants to be me” because of the car(s) they have, the money they spend, the high end lifestyle they live. The world revolves around them. This is the foundation of most mainstream rap music (and the opposite of traditional country music). This track from Flau’jae is no different. Maybe that’s why the song is so forgettable. It’s just another narcissistic track from an average rapper.
Hello there! I’m assuming you came across this blog post because you were searching for Oprah….. or gathering info about menopauses? If you’re here for menopause info, you might as well stop reading now because I know nothing. All I know is that if you tuned in to American Idol Monday night and forgot to turn your TV off, you were in for a *special* (meaning: uncomfortable and unnecessary) treat immediately after… A menopause show! I know, finally producers have heard the demands of the people! 🥴
A show called “The Menopause Revolution” hosted by the one and only Oprah Winfrey. When ABC started teasing this Oprah special during the American Idol episode, I thought this had to be some kind of April Fools joke. Who in the heeeecccckkkk wants to watch a show about menopause? IN PRIME TIME TV! We’re being punk’d, right?
The absolute only reason this show was green-lit was Oprah. Here’s why: The topic automatically cuts out half of the potential audience (men). Who in their right mind would come up with a show that, before it’s even scripted out, eliminates half of the potential audience? On top of that, I betcha even trans women didn’t watch this show (because they can’t have a menopause, ya know?). Only women over 40 *might* watch, so now your female audience is reduced even more. Of the women over 40, half are in bed already. Whoever else is still awake probably doesn’t want to think about something that gives them a negative experience. So again, the only draw is that it’s hosted by the O. I’m guessing a few million tuned in but if there’s a Menopause Part 2: Return of the Red Dragon, well hot diggity dog I’m in!
I still can’t believe “The Menopause Revolution” was produced. It’s like a show for men called “The Prostate Exam Extravaganza.” No one would watch. Unless it was hosted by Hulk Hogan, of course.
Out of the Wilderness 