Chez Chesler

There is a cute commercial currently airing on Discovery (don't know where else, how long, etc.) for GE "Eco-engineering" or somesuch. It features a CGI baby elephant dancing in the rain (to "Dancing in the Rain" of course) while other (apparently real) jungle animals (parrot, monkey) are watching. This got me thinking of some memorable commercials: For irony: Citibank, about 5 years ago, some guy complaining that his bank keeps changing its name. He's had one name all his life, why isn't that good enough for his bank? I don't know if this got cancelled when married women complained, or when somebody pointed out they used to be First National City Bank. Also for irony: The AAMCO Transmission commercial, maybe 20 years ago, where the salesman is being nice to the customer's kid, by taking the toy car, and bringing it back, saying "All it needed was a simple adjustment, just like your Dad's". Yup -- that's what will happen if you bring your car to AAMCO -- they'll take it in back, wait a few minutes, do nothing with it, bring it back, and present you with a bill and some gibberish. Probably cancelled for bad taste: A man is hit by a car and goes to Heaven. I think this is also about 20 years ago. I think it was for Prudential Insurance. He looks down on his family, and as he enters the Pearly Gates he, or the greeter, is glad that he had the foresight to make sure his widowed and orphaned family is at least secure financially. I only saw that once. Probably cancelled for too much sex: And again from maybe 20 years ago. A well-built guy gets up and starts a workout on his Bowflex or similar apparatus. He works every station. This must be an hour workout. After he's worked out a very sexy young woman comes out of the bedroom, wearing nothing but his shirt, and still groggy from the fact that whatever she'd been doing all night in the bedroom it wasn't sleeping, and she says "Wow -- do you do that every morning?" Current odd commercials: - Benjamin Moore color paint samples: Call 1-888-BM-COLOR. Maybe it's because I grew up with Mister Rogers, but when I think of BM Color I don't think of something I want to paint my house with. - Some local bank is asking me whether my mortgage is an asset or a liability. What is this, a test in Generally Accepted Accounting Practices?