Applebee’s commercial stirs up hateful, even homicidal feelings One thing about March Madness, if you’re into that sort of thing, is that you end up watching hour after hour after hour of games. Which means you watch hour after hour after hour of commercials, and you get to know each one by heart. Almost no commercial can stand up to this sort of scrutiny—you’ll get tired of anything after the 300th viewing. But it takes a special ad to rise above the pack and become the most-hated ad of the tournament. This year, that ad is from Applebee’s—the one with the two idiots playing the Gilligan’s Island spoof song to sell something called Shrimp Sensations. (Click on the shrimp photo after the link to see it.) “These commercials made us—and pretty much everyone we know—want to murder everyone in sight,” says Deadspin. Adds Dispatches From Nowhere in Particular: The ads are “our punishment for the bad things we do as a society and as a human race. ... It’s a neverending circle of hellfire and insanity.” I agree that this ad is pretty wretched. The song is stupid and annoying. Every facial expression is ludicrously joyous. Plus, I can’t stand seeing these guys play music in waist-deep water. That’s just not good for an instrument. —Posted by Tim Nudd

March 21, 2006 | Permalink

Comments

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yes, yes, yes i'm for a fatwa against all involved...

Posted by: | Mar 21, 2006 11:41:35 AM

Thank you for making me feel like less of a freak for hating the fact that a perfectly good standup bass was destroyed by putting it into the ocean. This ad makes me hate applebees. I will never pop a single shrimp from there. And I want to donkey punch the woman at the end who is Not-Mad-Just-Surprised-And-Maybe-Just-Maybe-A-Little-Pleased by the water that gets splashed from the guitar players sleeve into her face.

Some 43 year old mother of three copywriter thought this was hilarious. And then it actually got sold. To the junior team that got beat on this, and is now putting their book together: you have my blessings. Go.

"Yeah, yeah, and we'll ad a seagull to the top of his head!!! Hehehe!"

Posted by: dean | Mar 21, 2006 1:12:23 PM

I agree with all of the above (and wish a painful death upon the "actor" who plays the bass player). However, I don't think the copywriter's age or child status had anything to do with this. He or she is just a complete hack. And there are plenty of young, childless ADs and CWs out there who fit that description.

Posted by: Bob | Mar 21, 2006 2:45:02 PM

Yes, YES. I couldn't stand that commercial already and then saw that it was put out by my most hated casual dining establishment chain.

Posted by: Claire Zulkey | Mar 21, 2006 3:24:55 PM

I have to admit, I love this spot.

Call it a guilty pleasure. Question my sanity. But it makes me laugh like Mel Brooks makes me laugh. Some times, make that most times, advertising people are too uptight to just relax and enjoy the silliness. It's cheesy. Yes. But have you been to Applebee's? It matches the brand. That's what the spot should be judged against.

The only part of the spot that bothers me is when they cut to the woman eating shrimp as she gets splashed on the cheek. It's as if someone at Applebees said, "We need to show someone eating."

Posted by: Joe in Philly | Mar 21, 2006 5:35:04 PM

This came out of FCB Chicago.

Posted by: BK King | Mar 21, 2006 8:26:17 PM

How this is any worse than a woman dancing with the giant fingers of a King-Kong size plastic mascot is beyond me.

Posted by: David | Mar 22, 2006 12:21:45 AM

can some one tell me who these actors are especially the one playing the base

Posted by: Randy Staab | Mar 22, 2006 11:17:55 PM

I work at Applebees. The employees hate the commercials 1000x more than the patrons! They have always been lamer than lame. I guess they would be "COOL", IF you were June Cleaver and you had way too many martinis. Believe me, those commercials embarass the hell out of us. We hate em' too

Posted by: Dizzy | Nov 26, 2007 5:40:18 AM

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