My favorite ‘Mixing Pods’ Commercial

I mentioned in my last blog that I love commercials. Since the Superbowl takes place today and some of the most creative and inspiring commercials will be airing, I was thinking about my favorite ads through a Mixing Pods lens (insights from work, life, and being a dad).

For some background, I wanted to be an advertising executive in high school and in my early college days. This was the late 90’s, so not the depiction on Mad Men, but more like Mel Gibson’s character in the movie, What Women Want. My role would be the liaison between the client and a number of really creative people to come up with great pitches. I didn’t (and still don’t) have the power to hear women’s thoughts, but I thought I could combine my skills with the creativity in others (I was inspired by some very creative friends). The advertising industry was going through a major shift after being disrupted by the internet, and I found my way into management consulting.

Today, with DVRs to skip through the commercials, on-demand programming that forces a few ads on you, and targeted (sometimes creepy) advertising based on your search history; it feels like some of the fun is gone in trying to capture an audience. There is an art to it.

My Top Choice: The University of Phoenix: We Can Do IT.  This was launched in May, 2017 during ‘The Voice’ and I thought it was powerful and amazing. In a one minute animated ad, it captures the strength of a working single mom investing in herself to find another career in IT (Information Technology), after her job was taken over by AI and automation. There are no spoken words, just the lyrics of the Cranberries’ song, “Dream”. The only written words are “We can do it!”, from the Rosie the Riveter poster, the Bachelor of Science in Information Technology Application on her laptop, and the words “We Rise” at the end. I thought this was amazing.

On a lighter side, there are a few other Mixing Pods commercials that have stuck with me over the years as funny and inspiring that I thought I would share below.

• GEICO Insurance Hump Day. GEICO is doing their best of Superbowl commercials and this has to be one of the best. The funny thing is that I think I identify most with the camel :).
• The Fed Ex Office Meeting. Showing the various personalities at the office and the manager calling them out. My favorite line out of this one is ‘like a lawn chair’, with regards to folding under pressure. I use that every once in a while.
• Total Whole Grain Cereal Commercial This is truly random. I am definitely not in the demographic for this commercial, I don’t know why it stuck with me 12 years later, but I thought it was super effective.

Lastly, it’s not a commercial, more of a comedy short by Tripp & Tyler. But this is a great parody of office conference calls. It’s five minutes long, but for those of you that are on calls all day, it is well worth that time watching it.

Anyway, rather the begrudge the next commercial you see, maybe just sit back and be entertained. Someone is trying to write something that will connect with you.

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