Boy pimps sister for a bacon hamburger.

[Fridays Child]

It's a Wendy's commercial, and it's very disturbing to me. Am I overreacting? Here's the deal:

Two boys are sitting on a couch watching TV or playing a video game. Boy 1 looks at a framed photo of boy 2's sister. He turns to boy 2 and asks if he can date his sister. Boy 2 indignantly says,"No!" Boy 1, then, offers boy 2 a Wendy's burger, which has the unspoken, but obvious, effect of changing boy 2's mind.

Then, the scene switches to the Boy 1 asking the sister out. She rejects him. He offers her a Wendy's burger but we don't get to see her reaction.

[mestup]

1. The whole male ownership issue is creepy enough.

"Can I date your sister?"

:eyes:

[LSdemocrat]

3. I interpreted it more as a issue of maintaining a friendship

[misternormal]

4. I think making an issue about male ownership...

concerning siblings is absurd... Afterall, he is "her" Brother, no?

[1932]

6. Yeah. The only answer to that question is "go ask her yourself."

[misternormal]

10. I raised 5 kids...

1 girl and 4 boys... I know for a fact that she is "their" sister, and anyone that wants to date her better damn well ask. (Their words not mine)

[mestup]

15. Have girls ever asked for your daughter's permission to date her bros?

Serious question. (I'm old. I didn't realize that mindset was still prevalent.)

[stanwyck]

23. Yikes. Are you here in

the U.S.....or Saudi Arabia? What have you done to foster such "ownership" on the part of your sons? She's their sister....not their daughter or their pet. She's not a possession. And it's her decision, not theirs.
Or are you posting from a past century?

[Freedomfried]

2. Are the boys black?

[verse18]

9. No the boys are white, but

what does that matter?

[Freedomfried]

13. Just a question to help frame the context of the ad.

I don't watch much TV, so if I don't ask, I'd never know.

[-..__...]

25. That would be more suitable for a KFC commercial.

:eyes:

:sarcasm:

[neebob]

5. I didn't take it that way

but then I've seen a couple other commercials from the same campaign, hypnotizing people with this incredibly gross-looking burger.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

7. That was me....

I would have rather had the hamburger.

[B Calm]

8. Why would anybody go to Wendy's when you can get a real burger

at Hardee's?

[misternormal]

11. Or a healthier one...

...from your own kitchen

[WLKjr]

16. I have seen some pretty nasty Hardee's

I know of one right now that I can tell you about that is almost 7 out of 10 times will give you a "stomach flu" becuase I can say ****'s ....


I try to steer clear of them myself.

[Alcibiades]

18. Steer clear, get it?

Good pun, if intended.

[Lena inRI]

12. More proof . . .

of mind control by corporate advertising and televised mass media.

Both have turned majority of Americans into spineless, dull-minded lemmings; no wonder Rove applied both to sell B*. . .Marshall McLuhan's point that the medium has become the only message.

Turn off the boob tube. . . stick with blogs!

:rant:

[Fridays Child]

24. And then there are the drug pushers. It's not just that they...

...peddle their drugs, outright. They use another approach, too, of pushing a given disease, for example, and saying I may have it and I should go to www.youaredyingrightnow.org and I should talk to my doctor about tests and treatments, and blah, blah, blah. Almost everybody has experienced at least one of the described symptoms, at one time or another, and to purposely invoke widespread health fears is...well, it should be called pharmaterrorism.

Anyway, it's just a slick repackaging of the same old snake oil scam, and, in that regard, pharmaceutical manufacturers differ from drug cartels only in their marketing techniques.

[Puregonzo1188]

14. I haven't seen it, but from your description and the description of it from

others I think you might be over reacting. Just a little though ;)

[hiabrill]

17. If a Girl pimps her brother for a hamburger

There wouldn't be any complaint..

[dogman]

19. Well, it had 'shrooms too.

Inquiring minds want to know, did she go for it?

[Fridays Child]

30. The commercial ends and we're left hanging.

:shrug:

[Dervill Crow]

20. I find it more annoying than disturbing.

Pretty unrealistic. I have two daughters and two sons, and I always sounded out the kids about what they thought of their sibs' romantic interests. I also checked out how the cats and dogs reacted to them. One of my dogs might be won over by a burger, but I'm pretty sure the rest of the family couldn't be bribed.

[Ksec]

21. The boy is a future Rethuglycan

He will stoop to any level to make money, including selling his own Mother like they did with the new Medicare prescription plan. The GOP sold their Mothers down the road with that one.

[JVS]

33. The boy is not a future GOPer, he's a fictional advertisement character!

Next thing I'll read here is that Mikey from the Life cereal ads went on to blow up an airplane when enraged about the lack of good meal choices.

[Puregonzo1188]

22. I just saw it and it is a dumb commercial, but now really

offensive. I think the whole asking the brother for permission might not be "male ownership" as much as not wanting your best friend to date your sibling so as not to complicate your relationship. Think about if your best friend dates your sister/brother and they have a pretty ugly break up.

[GreenPartyVoter]

26. All Ithought was "Gee, that's dumb.. As if the little brother has any

control over who his big sis dates."

[bluedog]

27. I thought it was totally degrading to the girl...n/t

[crispini]

28. The whole point is that the burger is "hypnotising."

There are other commercials in the series. For example the son asks his dad for the car keys, dad says no, then the son shows him the burger and the dad gets all glassy eyed and says YES.

The overall impression I get is that the burger is supposed to have some magnetic mystical mesmerizing power.

[LisaL]

29. Don't take it's so seriously. It's a joke.

I mean, did you take a commercial "what would you do for a Klondike bar" seriously? It's the same thing.

[muriel_volestrangler]

31. Reminds me of an old wine commercial in the UK

for a cheap and nasty brand of French wine.

A young couple stand nervously on a doorstep; she says "don't worry, he'll love you". Door is opened by her father - grumpy, looking at the young man as if he's about to kick his arse. Young man nervously produces, from behind his back, a bottle of Piat d'Or wine. Father's eyes light up, he kisses boy on both cheeks, ushers them inside. Tagline - "The French adore Piat d'Or".

A TV sketch programme recreated the whole thing, just changing the tagline: "The French - they'll sell you their daughter for a bottle of cheap wine".

[quinnox]

32. honestly that sounds funny

I'm chuckling just thinking about it.

It's humor, some things aren't meant to be taken seriously.

[Nikki Stone 1]

34. It sounds creepy.

You instincts are right, I think.