When I think back to ads from an earlier time, they were pretty innocent. They may have flirted slightly with actions and language that, if you had a dirty enough mind, you would have said, “Whoa!” But for the most part, commercials reflected an attitude of a simpler time.
For example, I think of Charmin, and that mild-mannered milquetoast of a man, Mr. Whipple who, while trying to keep the Charmin in good condition for buying customers, still gave into the pleasures of the squeeze.
But it was an innocent squeeze. See the expression on his face? It’s sensual, but not sexual. And since everyone’s doing it, there’s no real harm.
Flash forward to today. We see animated bears having an intense butt fixation and a need for Charmin to get properly clean. They’re not squeezing so much as clenching without access to the right toilet tissue.
They’re animated creatures so the advertisers attempt to express some innocence—do cartoon bears crap in the woods? Apparently not, they have their own house, sans Golidlocks. But still, the near-twerkiness causes me some concern.
Also, remember the “seven words you can’t say on television”? We come close on so many occasions, such as this Sheetz ad.
It’s a pun, of sorts, but can you imagine hearing something like that back in the day? I saw Harry Chapin in concert in the late 1970s and he said, “Harry, it sucks.” (You can hear it on the live album of that era.) And the audience went wild because no one said such a thing in public. How things and times have changed, huh?
I remember, well into my adulthood,suddenly realizing Foghat’s song, “Slow Ride,” was about sex. How did I miss it? But lyrics to more modern songs are so overt, you’d have to be unable to speak the language to miss it.
ANd so I leave you with Foghat.
MUSOFYR 