I Hate This TV Commercial, to the Point of Seething Rage

[safeinOhio]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/2/18/2016868/-I-Hate-This-TV-Commercial-to-the-Point-of-Seething-Rage



The first time I heard the TV commercial for Volvo’s $50k+, XC90, a bloated road hog, the hair on my neck twitched. The ad’s tone-deaf choice of background music, with each of many repetitions, has fed more fuel onto the fire of my rage and further inflated the monumental oxymoron of the background music’s singer + songwriter, compared to the product advertised.

Anyone who knows the life and art of the singer, Pete Seeger, may likely also recognize the song’s author, Woody Guthrie. A recording of Pete, singing Woody’s classic industrial labor anthem, Hard Times in the Mill, was first released in 1956 by Folkways Records, along with 23 other songs recorded by Pete Seeger, representing 150 years of struggle by workers for economic justice against greedy and powerful captains of commerce and industry.

[Demovictory9]

1. I see that commercial daily..didnt know history or meaning of song

Thank you

[jimfields33]

5. I don't think it's an American made commercial

The license plate gives it away. I’ve never seen the commercial before. It seems chaotic and all over the place.

[greatauntoftriplets]

12. Life with multiples is chaotic

I noticed the license plate as well. Possibly Sweden since that's where Volvos are made.

[jimfields33]

13. That's true about multiples.

You could be very right about Sweden.

[bushalert]

2. Agreed. I hate that commercial.

The hipsters driving that yuppy Volvo is an insult to the message of that song. Clueless assholes.

[pazzyanne]

14. + 1 nt

[2naSalit]

3. My sentiments exactly. ...nt

[Siwsan]

4. I see I'm not the only one who DETESTS that ad. I mute it EVERY TIME it airs.

And I never really understood why, but maybe I wasn't listening close enough to my subconscious screaming at me!!

[XanaDUer2]

6. I hate that ad

the song choice is disgusting

[TNNurse]

10. I cannot find the words to describe how wrong that song and voice

are in any commercial. Who owns the rights to his work??? What the hell were they thinking?? It is such a level of disrespect.

[CTyankee]

49. It might be in the Public Domain.

[El Supremo]

7. I'm glad someone finally said this.

So repulsive!

[Ferrets are Cool]

8. K and R

[Tbear]

9. I had never heard the song before the commercial

and I like it. Now that I know it’s origins I like it even more. So there’s that.
The commercial itself is stupid and I won’t watch.
But, I listen.

[bucolic_frolic]

11. Yes I really hate the ad, I have to run to the mute button

It's a negative for the product, but the company probably has no idea.

[HUAJIAO]

15. I don't have a functioning TV.

[dupagelib]

16. What is it about car ads?

Which is worse, most annoying, Kars for Kids or this? Tough one. I mute most commercials though I have been enjoying Wayne and Garth for grub hub.

[NellieStarbuck]

17. I did think it was an odd choice

of music for this bourgie couple and their Volvo, but I just delight in hearing Pete Seeger's voice over and over again.

[hunter]

18. I find all television advertising intolerable.

There are no ads on my television. It plays DVDs, Netflix, and touchdowns of robotic explorers on Mars.

Commercial television made Trump. I'll never forgive it.

[rickyhall]

19. Most commercials I see are aimed at people who make way more $$ than me.

And, of course, drug pushers.

[MRDAWG]

20. ME TOO!

[Jon King]

21. Ha , I always hated the ad because he looks 40 years older than her...

Its creepy, she looks like a teen in a forced marriage and he looks like a 50 year old lecher.

[XanaDUer2]

45. Lol!

I tell my SO that their choice of actor for this role is awful looking, creepy. Now I'll think lecher!

[Susan Calvin]

22. It's not the first stupid thing Volvo has done.

I wonder if the same person was in charge of both of these commercials.

https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-volvo-queen-of-night-20190128-story.html?_amp=true

The Swedish car company Volvo must have thought it was being real cultural and high-toned when it decided to use a famous opera aria as the soundtrack for its new television commercial.

Its idea, plainly, is to make a connection between the luxuriousness of its XC90 SUV and the classiness of grand opera. “Can you design an SUV for an aria?” asks the commercial, which is in frequent rotation on broadcast and cable TV. The camera wanders lovingly over the vehicle’s soft leather upholstery and its high-tech sound system while the aria sounds sweetly in the background. The ad’s tagline is: “Our idea of luxury.”

Opera fans watching this commercial must cringe, if they’re not guffawing. That’s because the music on the soundtrack is no paean to grace and lovingkindness, but the homicidal signature aria of one of the most monstrous characters in the canon.

She’s the Queen of the Night, the supreme villainess of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” and she’s one vicious specimen. Think Cruella de Vil times 1 million.

https://m.

[Submariner]

23. Those Liberty Mutual insurance ads with the Emu are pathetic

What moron at an advertising company convinced his boss that an out of control screeching Emu representing a large insurance company is a good idea?

What Liberty VP of Media Affairs approved such advertising garbage?

I can't get to the remote mute button quick enough

[LisaM]

27. Insurance companies seem to be on a race to the bottom.

I do like the "are you your parent" Geico ones. But Flo's shelf life expired years ago and I am getting peeved with the ones with the clogging and pipes 'problem' since they almost seem anti-Celtic (I am sure that's not the intent, but it's irksome to me since I had one grandmother who did clog dancing and another who was crazy for bagpipe music).

[Submariner]

35. At least the gecko speaks the Queen's english

and Flo knows she's maybe typecast out of future acting gigs, so as long as she doesn't do a Subway Guy-like career ending felony, Flo will milk her contract for every cent she can get.

I think because of her husband, the Jamie guy (fights Muay Thai, plays Spanish guitar, etc), her shelf life has been extended.

[LisaM]

39. He's not her husband.

He's married to a tall foreign beauty.

Yes, they have gotten into my head!

[Dream Girl]

37. Insurance advertising is so kooky because the insurance category is considered low involvement

They have to break through the “clutter” as they say in advertising

[SCantiGOP]

40. Marketing research had shown for years

The more obnoxious a commercial, the more memorable, therefore the more effective.
Here are dozens of people discussing the ads, which is just what the producers hoped. Their target audience is not liberals who would be offended by the misuse of Pete Seeger’s legacy.
The classic textbook case were the “Please don’t squeeze the Charmin ads” with Mr Whipple from the 60s. Everybody talked about them, and how much they hated them — and Charmin sales doubled over he next few months.
Very similar to negative political ads: the two things true about them are that the public hates them, and that they are effective.

[LisaL]

48. Then they hit the jackpot with this one.

It certainly is very annoying.

[Auggie]

24. Let your local Volvo dealer know

Nothing kills advertising faster than when franchisees complain to corporate

[usaf-vet]

25. I guess i won't buy 2 XC90s 1 for me and 1 for the wife. We'll just stick with the 2003 Ford Ranger.

[tavernier]

29. Good choice.

That was hubby’s truck before he passed and now grandson drives it up at his college three hours away and back on weekends. Although gramp’s cigarillo boxes on the floor have been replaced with fast food paper remnants.

[usaf-vet]

34. Great! I'll bet Grampa is smiling down.

[tavernier]

38. Oh for sure.

Miami traffic is brutal and an angel in the passenger seat is mandatory.

[usaf-vet]

42. I have one that travels with me everywhere. No matter where I go. Thru thick and thin.

[LisaM]

26. Oh, it irritates me too.

Hard times in the mill? Really? And then they are too stupid to back into their parking space or trim their bushes?

I have a friend that is in a Pete Seeger Facebook group, and she said (I haven't checked this, I am taking her at her word) that some of his songs had gone into the public domain.

[MrModerate]

28. I think you maybe should lighten up.

The ad creatively repurposes Guthrie's rather jaunty chorus to correlate the challenges of multiple parenting to hard labor — a joke parents make all the time.

[Thunderbeast]

32. Agree.

When can we start discussing something other than grievance victimhood about EVERYTHING!

Woody survived the depression by writing songs celebrating Federal power projects that have made salmon nearly extinct, and nearly destroyed native culture that thrived on the Columbia River for 10,000 years.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/remembering-celilo-falls-62-years-after-it-was-silenced-by-the-dalles-dam/article_be6c698a-93a9-11e8-b4d1-538eaf5535d0.amp.html

It is hard to imagine, however, WW2 ending in 1945 without the aluminum and plutonium facilitated by the dams.

Black and white thinking without context is not productive.

[SCantiGOP]

43. Thumbs up to the two posts above me (# 28 and 32)

Nice to see reasonable responses to this rather unreasonable rant thread.

[Dream Girl]

30. I worked in advertising and marketing for decades hate it for other reasons. It is lazy and

Unoriginal. The theme of unexpected twins has bee Worked to death for years. Whenever I see that ad I always think “lazy adverting creative team and dumb or inexperienced marketing team at Volvo”. Sometimes advertising creatives have ad concepts in the can an they just recycle them when they pitch to client terms until the client bites. This ad always strikes me as a ad concepts that they’ve had lying around for years and they just keep clients until someone (client) bit. I love the musical overlay, but it is a total mismatch. I always thing, high paid tech workers with great medical plans that pay for frozen eggs, IVF.”. The working man song so beautifully song is an insult.I just hate it and can’t mute it fast enough!

[MrModerate]

44. Funny. I didn't find the unexpected twins theme tired at all.

It was charming, and the music (notwithstanding any historico-political controversies) jaunty and fun. The sudden intrusion of danger was effective in changing the subject to the product. And the "and life goes happily on because you own this car" denouement wrapped it up on just the right note.

IMO.

[mountain grammy]

31. thank you for the link leading to the link

video of Pete Seeger at the Obama inaugeration.. Made me cry. This Land is Our Land.

https://www.openculture.com/2017/08/the-powerful-messages-inscribed-on-woody-guthrie-pete-seegers-guitar-banjo.html

[MontanaMama]

33. I never knew this history of the song.

Thank you for posting about it. This commercial always seems to play on msnbc while I’m making dinner....daily. It never made sense to me....Pete singing about hard times in the mill and there we are looking at a Volvo.

[Paladin]

36. Why piss away your hatred on a Volvo ad?

Wish for hotter temperatures in hell for Limbaugh, and ask that trump and Cruz join him there just as soon as possible. That's channeling your hatred properly.

[Peregrine Took]

41. That one, the Kars for Kids, "Motor," Kevin Harte yelling at his neighbors and

all those new, $$$ prescription drugs with the jivey names whose real names are like Yrlbommub.

[Susan Calvin]

46. I've often thought somebody should do a stand-up routine

About the drug names they say on the commercials, and then they say real name some gibberish. They're both gibberish.