Holiday ads prompt dancing, learning
Amazon got me again, y’all. I already can’t stop ordering from these folks. Now I have to say that my two favorite Christmas 2023 commercials are both Amazon Prime hawkers.
Funny, those Christmas commercials. We may try to pretend they don’t affect us, but like the Superbowl ads, they can make a lasting impact. We admire the creativity of those ads. Perk up and sing along with them. Heave a heavy sigh, and roll our eyes, at the corny ones. We may not necessarily be prompted to shop the merchants represented in them … frankly, it may even take a while or two to remember the merchant represented. But they can definitely add to the Christmas decor (or, for those of us who don’t decorate, virtually create it) and help capture the spirit of the season.
The first of my two faves is just pure fun, due to the music score: A hip-hop/rap version of “March of the Toy Soldiers,” from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker,” helps to advertise all the Christmas decorations and other season-themed merch Amazon has to offer. I’m a fan of a good beat, one that puts me in a good mood and makes me dance or want to. I was hoping Amazon would bring back last year’s Black Friday commercial — the one in which a karaoke machine purchase prompts Romeo and Juliet’s feuding families to stop glaring across the holiday dinner table at each other and start to get down to “Jiggle Jiggle” by Duke & Jones and Louis Theroux. Haven’t seen a re-airing of that commercial yet, but it lives on thanks to Youtube. Meanwhile, I’m dancing in my seat to Tchaikovsky, and I don’t mean ballet.
The other favorite among the handful of Amazon ads this Christmas season is the jewel in its crown: the “Joy Ride” commercial. Three elderly ladies are perched outside on a bench on a snowy day, the desire in their eyes obvious as they watch a gaggle of younger people sledding down a hill. That desire is clouded by their assumption that it’s too late in life for them to follow suit; that those hard sleds are too rough on old glutes. But one of the ladies decides to do more than assume that such enjoyment is out of reach. She turns to Amazon to order pads that fit in sleds for the three of them. The trio joyfully goes sledding, briefly turning into child versions of themselves (a bit of a ripoff of the “Kick the Can” episode of the original “Twilight Zone,” but hey). It’s set to an instrumental version of the Beatles song “In My Life.”
I love this commercial for the same reason everybody of a certain age has to love it. Amazon describes it as “a love letter to deep friendships and the joyful memories we share.” It’s more than that, though. It’s a clear message that it’s not too late for us to do many of the things we’ve dreamed of doing in life. Amazon is out to make
money, but there is some implied altruism in the message: We don’t have to order from Amazon to make such dreams happen. We need only look around, think outside our boxes, ask ourselves what would MacGyver do, etc.
I take the message personally as I approach Birthday No. 62 and find myself having to fight bummedness over having still not done some of those things I’ve long dreamed of … and wondering if it’s too “late.” (Full disclosure: Some of the reasons these things remain undone go back to less-thanbest choices made earlier in life. When you’re not exactly drowning in resources in the first place, plus you made lousy choices, you run the risk of sitting on the sidelines watching others enjoy what you wish you had.)
But the ladies in the sledding commercial make the point that it ain’t over ’til it’s over, and a closed door doesn’t matter if you can just spot an open window. You can still, even with a sensitive butt, go sledding if you can find the right pad. And I’m inspired to go looking for figurative pads. It should all be (using the positive meaning of the phrase) downhill from there.
Some other recipients of the Talkmistress Holiday Commercial awards:
◾ Christmas 2023 honorable mention: Capital One Quicksilver’s “Holiday Night Fever”— John Travolta as Santa Claus with a Tony Manero vibe, complete with the song “Stayin’ Alive.” (Yes, Hubby and I are Capital One
Quicksilver cardholders too; I promise I’m not just favoring the companies I deal with).
◾ Least favorite 2023 Christmas commercial: The Etsy ones, featuring people singing very ill-fitting lyrics to the original “Mission Impossible” theme music. Chiming in with my own sing-along lyrics: Make ’em stooooop … ruiniiiiiiing …. good musiiiiiiic … LIKE THIS.” (Some may apply the same criticism per adding rap to “March of the Toy Soldiers,” but at least the effort there displays some actual cleverness.)
◾ Favorite classic Christmas commercial: That animated Santa Claus riding the Norelco razor over snowy hills.
I say once again — often the commercials are so much more memorable than the shows.
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