Hello Wonder!

I'm working on my movie review for Wonder Woman, so here is some related entertainment in the meanwhile: the official Japanese ad campaign for the film includes Hello Kitty. Well, of course it does.  Take a look at the official Japanese website after you click away from the trailer that pops up. Here's a closer look:

Happy Thanksgiving from the Macy's Parade!

I'm not crying ... I'm chopping onions for the turkey stuffing!

Friday Fun: Nike's New Ad

Now here's a fun ad!  You may recognize the narrator. That's Oscar "Poe Dameron" Isaac. Keep an eye out for famous cameos, too.

Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated

The school year is finally coming to an end!  I can guarantee that the exhausted instructors are far happier about this than the exhausted students. Still, as I start to emerge from the black hole of school to look around at the world, all I see is TRUMP/HILLARY/BREXIT panic-mongering and media madness, and I'm tempted to dive right back into the black hole.

Anyway, as proof of life, here is a hilarious ad that I got from a friend of a friend. Let's have some fun with stereotypes and sport rivalries, shall we?

Friday Fun Video: Brazilian Shampoo Ad

Friday Fun Video: A Peruvian Hardware Store Ad

Friday Fun Video: No Green Screen!

Monday Therapy: Heartwarming Thai Commercial

Pajama Boy: What The Hell Is THIS?

The people entrusted with Obamacare publicity actually think this is a good idea?  Even left-wing shill MSNBC can't stop guffawing.  Rich Lowry calls this smug little hipster fool in a plaid onesie (a onesie!) "an insufferable man-child," and I can't agree more.  I finally survive finals and emerge into the land of the living and ... run smack into this insultingly infantilizing mess.  Hell, I think I would rather be drowning in my exam-week books and papers, where for two weeks I was too busy to notice the government's ongoing descent into oblivious self-parody.  

While we're on the topic, let me just say that nothing is a bigger turn-off than smug urban-cool hipster guys who think they're smarter and cuter than they really are.  Ugh.  If this is what "enlightened" guys are supposed to be like these days, give me a rugged, unreconstructed, unapologetic cowboy any day of the week.  You know, someone who actually has a confident definition for "self-reliance" and "masculinity." 

Friday Fun Video: An American Coach in London

Check out this hilarious ad for the Premier League on NBC.  

Cheerios and Interracial Families

I totally didn't understand the controversy.  It's an adorable ad.  The family in it had a black dad and a white mom.  SO WHAT?  But apparently some jerks got their undies in a bunch about it online.  So here's the backlash to the backlash: the reminder that hey, interracial families exist.  Thank you: this has been your public service announcement.  In fact, a whole bunch of my friends have married someone of another race and are raising gorgeous interracial families.  Love should be color-blind.  Shall we also bring up the related topic of interracial adoptions?  Don't be a hater, man.

Monday Therapy: Office Coffee

Ugh, it's Monday. Time to chug a potful of coffee so we can get our work done ... We might as well have some fun with the whole idea of coffee at the office!

Friday Fun Video: IKEA Toy Fantasy

Monday Therapy: "I Am European"

If you need a good laugh on this stormy Monday, you'll appreciate this uproariously, fall-on-the-floor-and-choke-with-laughter awful music video.  Come on, why are all EU propaganda videos so darn horrible?  Just how bad is it?  So bad that it got an eminent British member of the European Parliament to call it "an abomination" and to tag it on his blog as "terrifyingly crappy video."  Take a look for yourself and ponder whether this is as bad as the hilarrible "Science: It's A Girl Thing!" video.

Good grief, people, don't you realize that name-checking a bunch of European cultural giants only makes you look even smaller and sillier?  I know, it's hardly fair to make fun of the EU's propaganda wing.  Talk about a "target-rich environment"! It's like shooting fish in a barrel.  It's not even sporting. I was, though, rather tickled to see Reagan there giving his famous Berlin Wall speech.  Is there some tiny, grudging acknowledgment of the fact that yes indeed, the Gipper helped the free world win the Cold War?  Haters gonna hate, but Reagan rocked.

IKEA Catalogs' Airbrushed Women

Nope, it's not that IKEA airbrushed the ladies so they have ridiculous bodies in some catalogs.  It's that IKEA airbrushed the ladies OUT entirely in some catalogs meant for the Saudi market.  IKEA has since apologized.  As it should!

Monday Therapy: The Most Epic Ad Ever For Public Transportation

I don't know about you, but I could use a break from the endless drumbeat of bad if not outright infuriating/horrifying news.  Alessandra just emailed me this uproarious ad from Denmark.  Be clear to click the "cc" button so you can see English subtitles.  Then get ready for a minute and a half of sheer goofy awesomeness.

Friday Fun Video: the Ultrabook Laptop Ad

A Thought on the London Games

My opinion hasn't changed in the slightest.

LOL: the EU's Hilarrible Ad for Women Scientists

Apparently this is not a joke.  This really is the EU's attempt to encourage girls to study science.  Come on, really?  Some ladies are not amused.  I laughed out loud, though.  It's so blatantly stupid.  Dude, they replaced the "i" in "science" with a lipstick!  Here's the actual website.  

Look, I'm on the record on this blog saying that girls should feel free to be themselves in academia, and if "being themselves" means enjoying nice shoes and clothes and whatever, then that's great!  My point is that you should feel free to express your femininity and your personality however you please instead of constraining yourself inside someone else's arbitrary expectations ("you have to look like a frump in order to be taken seriously," etc.)  At the same time, I don't think you should construct yourself as a sexpot to order to get attention.  Your work should speak for itself. This EU propaganda, though, isn't about that at all.  The geniuses behind this would have done better to appeal to the intellect and highlight actual women scientists past and present ... oh, you know, people like Ada Lovelace or Marie Curie or Rosalind Franklin or Barbara McClintock or the growing number of female astronauts or ... You get the picture.  Oh, and see this too as long as we're talking about scientific stereotypes.

 

Awesome Ad: "Unleash Your Fingers: Next Generation""