Morning Sickness

We're back after a brief hiatus, and what a great time to be back! I'm referring, of course, to the fact that a newcomer has recently made a claim to the title of "Dirtiest Commercial on American Television." Appropriately, the title goes to The King:



This one raises a few interesting questions.

Question 1: Is this the first commercial that uses an erection-related innuendo?

Absolutely not. Have you ever seen the commercials for Enzyte? I guess a more appropriate question is whether there are erection-related commercials for products that do not have any relation to erections. A quick web search on "commerical" and "erection" brought up a few ads for construction jobs and this, which I can only assume is European and at least a year old.



Question 2: Does an erection-related innuendo sell cheesy tots?

A much more interesting question. One might think that sexual arousal is not what people want to be thinking of when making decisions about food. Perhaps not everyone feels that way. But this is probably the wrong way of looking at the question. Instead the King is probably just banking on the fact that the people who giggle when watching this commercial are the same people likely to be craving artificial cheese-filled hash browns first thing in the morning. Time shall tell.

Question 3: How many times will we see this commercial before they pull it?

Again, only time will tell. Commercials like these for big companies don't tend to stay on the air for long before the company moves towards a more conventional campaign involving promotional giveaways, movie tie-ins, or celebrity cameos. It's possible that the company ultimately gets pressured into dropping the commercial by complaints from people or interest groups prudish enough to be offended yet offensive enough to write all kinds of colorful nasty letters. More likely, the company eventually realizes that while it might attract some attention, the novelty of a commercial like this wears off quickly, and in the end it probably doesn't boost sales much at all. Seems like it's just something they do every once in a while to maintain their cred with the small portion of the public that has a sense of humor.

So like the subject matter in question, I will enjoy this unexpected delight for the brief time it lasts.