Two Charmin toilet paper commercials rub me the wrong way

Have you seen the latest Charmin commercial with the red and blue bears—one representing tough tissue and the other softer TP—running along the beach to the matching portajohns? Here it is:

Those bears look like they are on the Biggest Loser. This commercial is terrible. Are they Wall Street bears on vacation, or are they a Republican and Democrat racing to see who can arrive in the toilet faster before the 2008 election?  There was debate about whether or not the red bear was a tough Republican or full of crap and whether the blue bear was soft or just knew what a clean sweep meant.

I had actually wanted to post on this “stranded on a tropical island one” too, which was from the UK and never aired:

This commercial went from bad to witty thanks to the red and blue bears. I think that it’s funny now just because the word “stranded” plays such an important role in our toilet humor.

Here’s the official description on YouTube from the poster, bottlesofbeer:

A commercial we did which got never aired because of the Tsunami desaster [sic] and the fact that the agency did not get the right score when showing it to test audiences. I still like it though. Directed by Michael Schlingmann at my studio.

Fair enough, bottlesofbeer. It’s interesting that they chose not to air this one because of the tsunami. The terrible images of tropical destruction really still linger for me today, but I think it would be safe to tell Charmin that they should use the second ad instead here in the States. Our country can’t even remember the commitment we made to the people of New Orleans, let alone to the tsunami victims.

But we sure can laugh at two stupid bears running on the beach in a race to poop. Paradise indeed.

Strand me now please.

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Posted on September 11, 2007
Filed Under Advertising, Beaches, Commercials, Household Goods, Islands, Politics | 1 Comment

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One Response to “Two Charmin toilet paper commercials rub me the wrong way”

  1. HGTV Dream Home in the Florida Keys : Rapidsea ~ Escape from Paradise on September 12th, 2007 7:37 pm

    [...] psyches day in and day out.  They’re used to sell EVERYTHING.  Did you see the toilet paper post?  And TV producers today keep pushing it over and over to get people’s attention, [...]

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