Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Paraphrased, but True

This is a parascript of a commercial that runs frequently on radio power, the progressive talk station i listen to at work. I hear this commercial four to six times a day.

ORECK GUY: I'm Old Man, owner and inventer of the Oreck vacuum. Recently, I was on a Caribbean cruise and I was introduced to the head of housekeeping. I asked him to take the Oreck Challenge. So he got his biggest, awesomest vacuum and vacuumed thoroughly, AND I MEAN THOROUGHLY. Then i took out my Oreck skinny small vacuum and then I vacuumed thoroughly, and I MEAN THOROUGHLY. I took out the thing that catches the dirt, and it was filthy. So i wrung it out and all the dirt fell on the floor. The head of housekeeping said "Hey! What are you doing?", and I said, "That's your dirt, not mine". Please buy my product, etc etc etc.

Let's take a look at what makes this ad funny.

1) A crew member on the ship recognized Old Man as the specific old man who shills for vacuum cleaners.
2) Possibly the same crew member thought, "Hey! We should probably get Jim, the head of housekeeping and this guy together! That would be...fun? productive? a dream come true?"
3) The Oreck guy brings his vacuum cleaner with him on cruises.
4) The vacuum fight they had. That had to have been fun to watch.
5) If salesmanship was refereed, the Oreck guy would have gotten a 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for taunting. At the very least, it had to have cost him a sale. Would you buy a vacuum off someone who deliberately and cockily threw dirt all over your floor and then blamed it on you?
6) The Oreck Guy is somehow still alive. He's like a hundred years old.

I guess that's it. I'll hear the commercial between 2 and four more times today, so if anything else strikes me, you'll be the first to know.

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