Every now and then I see an ad on TV or whatever and there is instantly a battle in my head between the teenage boy and the grown-up that lives there now.  The teenage boy laughs at goofy stuff, like people getting hit in the nuts and so forth, and the grown-up sounds like my dad, who provides his own director’s commentary on movies to remind us that most people wouldn’t live through a tanker truck explosion.

When I saw this ad for FloTV while catching up on my Adult Swim programming one night, the battle got quite loud:

Now, from the teenage boy perspective, this is just funny.  The wife fakes a disaster at home so she can sneak off and watch TV in the park.  It’s great, edgy humor that actually made me laugh out loud (plus, I had a friend of mine, who is a mother, crack up at this ad as well).  Again, funny stuff… applause, applause, applause.

Then, the grown-up is awoken from his nap by the laughter and comes up with his own opinion. The grown-up says, “Wait, she’s throwing milk in the face of her children!  She’s making a mess just to sneak away from her family! It’s all a lie!  What a bad parent! Why are you laughing at this!”  I would think this would cause fathers to look over at their wives and go, “Is that what you do?” and then call child services.  I would also think wives would get pissed because FloTV just gave away one of their secrets (kidding! put the rolling pin down). I don’t hang with that guy very often, he’s a downer. But I can see how, if you’re trying to sell a product, you would sweat that kind of opinion.

Oddly enough, while I was looking for this ad, I discovered this douche bag (link), who not only thinks what the grown-up thinks, but also thinks it’s a Liberal plot.  As do the parade of idiots who commented on that “news” story.  Why does he think this? Because FloTV actually customizes the content of the TV for the network it appears on and this d-bag was watching Keith Olbermann that night.  When I saw it, I think it had Aqua Teen Hunger Force or something from the Adult Swim line up, so to me, this guy just looked like an idiot (which apparently he realized, because he updated the story eventually).

This is actually part of a series of ads for this product.  The other is actually kind of cute and features a little boy in the early stages of potty training heading into the bathroom for some time with the Duke, altering his dad that he’s got it on his own this time.  You see the dad at the door listening to the kid laughing as he is really watching his little FloTV rather than taking care of business.  That one is just funny to just about everybody.

So, sure, the ad was damn funny, I get it.  But unless you’re shooting for a crowd hip enough to think this thing is funny and not be offended, you might want to field test it a bit more, or just keep the riskier ads on Adult Swim or Comedy Central where the people with a sense of humor live and thrive.  I don’t know if it ran there, but if you ran that sucker on Fox News, I’m pretty sure Glenn Beck would organize a crowd of angry villagers to burn down your offices.

J.

Related posts you might enjoy:

1. Burger King UK commercials just as bad as in the US! (Live from #SES London)
2. [COMMENTARY] On TV Commercials and Selective Racial Outrage
3. Happy New Year, Progressive, it is officially time to wrap up the Flo commercials
4. Time Warner Cable, bad service, bad commercials
5. Ballsy LifeLock commercials fined $12 million for bogus claims