It's all about personal finance...and boredom

As soon as we got a TV, we got ‘jingles’. Abby started in with “The Warehouse…where everyone gets a bargain!” and now we have to sing it each time we pass The Warehouse. Most of the other major stores have similar jingles. “Bunnings Warehouse…” and “Smith City…has it all!” Is it like this in the US? Have we just heard them so much we’ve tuned them out?

We are surviving here on only the ‘free to air’ channels. There are 4 of them, and one is mostly music videos not appropriate for prime time (they do show MXC, however) and one is Maori TV. There is not much to choose from on the other 3 channels. About 1/3 of their TV consists of previous seasons of US shows. And the other 2/3 are peculiar reality shows, some Kiwi, many British in origin.

My favorite ad is one for Cream’s Jelly Tip Trumpet (I’m not kidding, click here to see it). The ad has nothing to do with ice cream. Picture a skinny young man in a skimpy Tip Top Ice speedo walking away from the beach. Voice over reminds the viewer that 300 meters from the ocean is “an underpants transformation area”. The man keeps walking, as the voice over says “Togs, togs, togs”, pause, “Undies!”. A man on the sidewalk tries to shield his family from the appalling view. (Togs are swimsuits).

They also have heaps and heaps (a kiwism) of public service announcements, many of them oriented toward “drink driving”. They can be horrible. One of my least favorite is the one that shows the designated driver drinking, then driving, then rolling the car, then hanging up side down while his ‘mates’ have blood pouring from their partially severed necks (OK, I exaggerate a bit, click here to see it). Another miserable one has slow motion pictures of people drowning to flute music in an effort to increase the number of people who learn how to swim. There is an odd tasting Kiwi drink called L&P, which has some cool ads. These three talk about the development of Kiwi fashion (L&P#1 , L&P#2, L&P#3)

Many of the ads are highly emotional. For some reason, the NZ Post (office) has decided to try to get people to abandon technology and return to regular mail. They have wonderful commercials, though I question their usefulness. (click here) Abby’s favorite commercial has the jingle “It’s all about personal finance”. So think about that while you do your taxes.

The fact that we are blogging about TV ads might give you a clue that we're getting a bit of cabin fever and don't have much of a social life. Abby's got lots of new friends. We haven't been (and could never hope to be) as social as Abby. We either need to work harder at making personal connections, get into work mode, or hit the road. Or maybe we'll blame the "philistine hell hole" phenomena for our woes.