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When using subliminal advertising to sell cereal to impressionable young children, you'd think that ad executives would be cautious not to include racist stereotypes and would altogether avoid portraying genocidal maniacs sympathetically. You, however, would be wrong. Dig 'Em Frog
SECRET IDENTITY: Black Guy Smacks mascot Dig 'Em Frog wears an exaggeratedly sideways baseball cap, his name is an insulting approximation of urban slang, and his voice is low and melodious like an amphibian Barry White. It's just surprising that Dig 'Em doesn't walk around giving out unwarranted high-fives and beating white people in sports. Oh, wait"¦ WHAT WE LEARNED: No portrayal of black people is too insulting to put into a TV commercial.
(Fortunately for African-American culture, the makers of Kangaroo Jack came through where Warner Bros. couldn't-they invented a rapping, dancing kangaroo who steals people's money.) SECRET IDENTITY: British Imperialist Like any turn-of-the-century British imperialist, the vaguely accented Sam can often be found deep in the jungle searching for the natural resource he craves with an Ahab-like singleness of purpose. If the natives can't keep up with him on his quest to plunder their land, Sam offers the pathologically unsympathetic rejoinder that they just need to "follow their noses," ignoring that fact that not everyone possesses the privileges into which he was born.
By giving Sam a British accent, Fruit Loops commercials highlight the very important distinction between British and American imperialism. While both proud nations wantonly kill people who live in the jungle, British imperialists tend to kill them for their natural resources (See Heart of Darkness, Zulu ), whereas Americans tend to kill jungle civilizations because we think they're communists (Vietnam) or because we're bored (Granada, Panama). C'mon Britain, everyone knows pillaging natural resources is for the desert. Trix Rabbit
SECRET IDENTITY: Third World Beggar
WHAT WE LEARNED: Corporations are sadistic assholes. If Trix are for kids, at least buy the guy a fucking sandwich! The amazing part about this advertising campaign is that children absolutely hate it. In 1976, there was a promotion wherein children had to vote whether or not Trix Rabbit should get to eat some of his own cereal. Ninety-nine percent of the kids voted to feed the poor bastard. Kids were apparently embarrassed he'd been reduced to begging. So Trix was fed a single bowl of his own cereal and then, against the wishes of 99 percent of their consumers, Generalissimo Mills returned to their policy of oppression. SECRET IDENTITY: Addict
Then, either a bunch of children (or, if you're old enough to remember the commercial embedded below, his grandfather) would show up and torment him by demonstratively eating a bowl of Cocoa Puffs while trumpeting the "rich real Hershey's taste" and "life-giving sense of euphoria." WHAT WE LEARNED: Young children and old crows are assholes. Also, drug addicts are fun to fuck with. We can't be sure, but we think this might be why we think it's why we play Edward 40-hands at AA meetings. SECRET IDENTITY: Steroid-Abusing Competition Addict
In fact, the entire structure of Frosted Flakes commercials seems built to promote the use of performance enhancers. Almost every Frosted Flakes ad since the early '80s plays out as follows: Two unnecessarily evil teenagers come up and make a lame comment about how the wimp who's sitting with Tony isn't good at a particular sport. Also, the lame comment invariably involves the word "good," which allows Tony to say that "Frosted Flakes aren't good, they're great!" The unnecessarily evil teenagers never point out that they weren't talking about Frosted Flakes, nor do they scream: "Holy fucking shit, a tiger!" and run away in fear. Instead, they go out and get schooled by Tony and the wimp. The ad usually ends with with the teenagers saying stuff like, "Man, that kid sure can shred!" WHAT WE LEARNED: Win at any cost. There are substances you can consume that will immediately make you better at sports, and doing so will make people respect you (even unnecessarily evil teenagers who aren't afraid of tigers). |
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willy, meet Humor. Humor, this is willy. Yeah Humor I know, I know, but try and be nice, he doesn't have many friends
MY GOD you are fucked up. you somehow found "stereotypes" where there was none too be found. and youre tidbit about how "im lovin it" is rascist sounds like the biggest piece of s**t ever.
You try feeding a rabbit on TRIX.
First it starts to puke like a river.
Then it puffs up like a fuzzy beachball.
Then it dies.
...SCREAMING.
And THAT is why Trix are for kids. God help me I know.
Today's Cocoa Puffs commercials may not have kids f*****g around with Sonny, but now have him having withdrawal symptoms. Hallucinations and everything.
the supposed rabbit stereo type is ridiculous, just cause he wants cereal and yogurt does not make him a third world beggar.
I think tony the tigger is barry bonds in disguise
What about Lucky? If only those damn kids would just leave poor Lucky in peace...
Or the Cookie Crisp dog-thing.
It's just surprising that Dig 'Em doesn't walk around giving out unwarranted high-fives and beating white people in sports.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAHA
you forgot to mention world of warcraft, and png gold. but it, by the way.
i think this is the only comment that isnt an ad.....um...get a big wang by buying hores and macking them comment on how big it is.
yeah that will work
some of this is pretty funny
Good job. You fail at making anything funny.
That was freaking hilarious!! Someone get that rabbit a f*****g sandwich!
no one thinks its racist, this is stupid, that frog does not sound black, he sounds like someones white father, and black people aren't the only one who leave of the g, and we don't do it in a formal setting, ur racist
lol that was gggrrrrrreeaat!
Awesome
Actually, didn't the Trix rabbit get to have a bowl of that cereal sometime around the 1990s, too? I wasn't even born yet in 1976, but I do remember that ad, and that it came in two parts, with the first part involving the rabbit entering a bicycle race with a bowl of Trix as the prize, and then losing his safety helmet halfway through the race and sailing to victory from the wind in his long ears. The first part ends with the children uncertain as to whether he's made a legitimate win or not since he pretended to be a human kid. It then invited the viewers to vote on whether to let the rabbit have his prize (with, I seem to recall, ballots that could be found on the back of the cereal box).
The second ad had the judges announcing that the kids had voted yes, and then giving him his bowl as he thanked the voters. I recall I rather did expect that outcome, since I was a teenager and it seemed to me they'd been denying that poor rabbit his beloved cereal for an awfully long time. If that was a 1976 ad, they must have remade it, because I remember that line. Also, those safety helmets for bicycle enthusiasts were just getting to be fashionable right around the time when I was a teenager.
When faced with the task of creating a cartoon character to reach their "urban" demographic, the now-defunct WB network went with a frog, too. It's easy to imagine dozens of WB executives sitting around a table, wracking their brains to come up with an animal that is known for jumping high AND for dancing well, before deciding, "Ah f**k it, let's just go with another black frog."
Wow, didn't watch much Looney tunes as kids, did you. You fail hard for not knowing about Michigan J. Frog. Maybe check your facts before shitting all over everything in sight.
you know i always felt sorry for the rabbit in that trix commercial..sometimes i wish the rabbit would kill the kids so he could get the cereal! stupid kids! all he wanted was a piece of your cereal!!! i should call PETA on their behinds!!!!!!
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stephanology made me laugh way harder then this entire article did