Space Shuttle Sadness
I read a tweet by @andylevy saying the Eddie Money Geico commercial is the saddest show on TV. It's up there for me, but Eddie probably needed the money and I can't think of many Geico ads I liked, so that one doesn't stand out per se.
The one that gets me is the Toyota commercial about their Tundra truck pulling the Space Shuttle Endeavor. I've got nothing against Toyota, but the only things I'm impressed with in that ad are the tires on the trailer supporting the shuttle, and the overpass for not collapsing.
The point of the ad is supposed to be "Yay Toyota! They are so powerful!" But all I feel is "That's America's greatness right there--a sad hulk of former glory being dragged along to its own funeral." Maybe they wanted more of a parade feel to it with the crowds lining the street, but that fails. It's at night with eerie lighting, so it has a horror-movie look, and then there are those people who are trudging along behind the hearse shuttle like they are in a Dickens funeral procession. It's just very depressing overall.
I've read about Cuba getting all these nice new shiny tractors from their Soviet benefactors back in the 60's and 70's. Then the gifts dried up and the Cubans couldn't get any replacement parts for the tractors, and gas was hard to get. Their once-top-of-the-line machines then had to pulled by cows and donkeys. That's what this space shuttle ad is.
