Sharing the Love
Summertime always brings us such a wonderful array of odd television shows. Here are a few rapid fire reviews . . .
Wipeout: Boring! I was hoping it would be something like Most Extreme Elimination, the Japanese game show often "marathoned" on Spike TV, but it cannot live up to that caliber of entertainment. It's just an obstacle course show with poorly rendered sarcasm. Et tu, John Henson?
I Survived a Japanese Game Show: This is a little better. You get the fun of MXE mixed with a little Survivor strategy. It takes an hour, and you do notice.
My Name is Earl reruns: Make sure you get TBS and watch this American classic. My favorite episode was on last week where Joy is on the "happy pills" and she goes off, though still in happy mode, on her neighbors then compliments them on their dancing Santa. "Oh snap!"
America's Got Talent: not watching it.
Last Comic Standing: ditto.
Dodgeball: whenever that movie is on, I stop and watch. What's our motto? Aim low?
Braves baseball on FSN/SportsSouth/Peachtree TV: Sometimes rewarding. Sometimes painful. You would have won a bet trying to convince me that Brent Lillibridge is almost 25 years old.
Accompanying most of these great broadcasts is, I contend, the beer commercial of the year. Heineken hopes to sell its new Premium Light via their "Share the Good" spot. When I first saw this commercial I commented, "Oh man, that was a Coke commercial--for beer!" Take a look . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn-NtOXFE3Y
At first glance, I judged this beer ad to be the millennial version of "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing." I wondered, "Can we do that with beer?" Was Heineken treading on some sacred space in our culture that for at least 35 years has preached world peace could be achieved with a candle in one hand and a Coke in the other? After seeing the commercial several more times, I felt a little different. This one is supposed to be sarcastic, and, yes, it is even funny. You probably don't need me to tell you what's funny, but trust me anyway. For as much as Michelob Ultra commercials wanted to be Gatorade commercials, the Heineken Premium Light commercial is not a Coke ad. It's actually beating up the Coke ad during recess--and we're in summer school! When we get a little bit closer to the Olympics, I imagine Coke will trot out several "world united" spots and you to might be able to see that Heineken has already made fun of it and perhaps even pointed out that "the Emperor is naked".