Tuesday, October 2, 2007

I Root for the Bigfoot

I happened across a commercial the other day for Jack Links Beef Jerky. It showed a couple of hikers eating said beef jerky who come upon Sasquatch (aka Bigfoot, the Yeti) and decide to play a practical joke on the creature. They go through with it, which results in the enormous Bigfoot attacking them.

I do not get these commercials. Why would you want to suggest that eating your product will make you do something stupid and potentially suicidal?

The kicker is that the Bigfoot is pretty much minding its own business when these guys decide to harass it and get beaten up. Personally, I root for the Bigfoot.

Now, I realize the commercials are trying to capture your attention (it did capture mine, though in a negative way), so they are attempting to be strange and off-beat. And apparently, it is working, as there are a bunch of these commercials on their website.

Now, if I happened upon a Bigfoot in the woods, my first thought would not to be to antagonize it. This would seem like a basic survival skill, along the lines of not kicking a pit bull, kissing a black mamba, or wrestling a zombot.

Jim Croce said it best: You dont tug on Supermans cape. You dont spit into the wind. You dont pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger and you dont mess around with 8-foot tall man-beasts who can use you as a fly swatter.

Actually, the song doesnt say that, but it seemed apropos.

Cheers,
-Jason

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

C'mon, man. You're right that they're trying to be offbeat but geez, have a sense of humor. The complete absurdity of guys just "happening" upon a sasquatch is so unlikely (compared to "actual" sightings), there isn't the slightest implication that you should actually try something like that if you ever did come upon one.

Plus the guys always get their comeuppance at the end of the commercials anyway so the message still is DON'T be "messin' with Sasquatch".

Jason Janicki said...

I accept that I might be missing the humor value of the commercials, but it still seems odd to me that the brand would associate itself with the malefactors, so to speak.

Still, I admit the commercial worked. I remembered the name of the product, after all.

Thanks for the comment.

Spider said...

No. Kick a pit bull. He'll think you're playing. All those teeth he's showing you... he's smiling. Seriously. I wish I could have taken a picture of my old pit while he was eating and had four toddler girls petting him. He was the happiest pit on the planet, and would never hurt anyone.

Jason Janicki said...

I have never known a Pit Bull, but I have known a couple Rottweillers that were really great dogs. Pit Bulls (and Rotts too) have a negative reputation, which is probably undeserved. It's all the idiots who raise them mean (and the idiots that breed them for that).