Leonard Gray / L’Observateur / March 25, 2000

Television commercials are, depending upon your point of view, getting much more creative, or less so.

TV commercials have become so much of popular American culture, we sing its little songs, use their catch-phrases and somewhere along their way, use their goods and services.

Even the more annoying ones penetrate our consciousness, so much so that we are aware of them though we might not want to be.

There have been, of course, so many TV commercials which were popular to where we actually looked forward to seeing more. One of those alongthat line were the Taster’s Choice commercials where we saw this budding romance develop between two neighbors and we would catch ourselves looking forward to the next “episode.”For the most part, the geniuses who played the creative roles in these commercials’ development went unrecognized, with the exception of Stan Freberg, who (among countless other commercial achievements) created the Pillsbury Doughboy. He also sold a number of comedy albums in his daywhich were equally fun and creative. But it’s the creation of that timelesslittle lump of squeaking biscuit dough which made his mark on Western Civilization.

Two commercials currently running particularly catch my eye, though. Asa reporter, we are sharply aware of commercial advertising because, in print at least, it pays our salaries.

One of these is the new Life cereal commercials which mimicked the early “Mikey” commercials by using adults in the original child roles, using the identical dialogue and mannerisms as the original. The result is nothingless than charming and the commercial works even if you’re not old enough to remember the original.

To me, that’s a fun commercial to watch.

On the other hand are these new Budweiser commercials which are apparently pushing aside the Bud frogs and lizards. The new commercials,featuring three guys who call one another on the telephone and bellow, “Where ya aaaaat?!” Apparently, this struck a chord with some advertising executives for a couple of reasons. One, it creates another catch-phrase which they hopewill catch on so much that every time we hear the phrase, we think of the beer.

The other reason is, naturally, it’s easier and cheaper to film than the Bud frogs.

I’ve always had an affection for the Bud frogs. After all, they got theirstart in the swamps off St. Rose Avenue in St. Charles Parish when youwould see two frogs sitting on a fallen log. A Budweiser truck would rollby and a fly-catching tongue would lash out, stick to the passing truck and yank the frog into flying after the beer truck.

From there, a mini-series developed which brought on the “Bud-Weis-Er” croaking to the the lizards and ferrets and other swamp critters. It’s goodwriting, funny and wildly creative.

However, I just can’t get into “Where ya aaaaat?!” And I don’t really like beer.

Leonard Gray is a reporter for L’Observateur.

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