I've started to tune out whenever these commercials come on. I do note the product thought, to make sure I never accidentally purchase it. Ever.

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You know which is my least favourite smelly-candle commercial? The one where they say something to the effect of "do you like scented candles but hate that they all look the same"? Then there's this cut to a depressed women, head in hands, all torn up before her candles all look the same. I am actually shaking with laughter thinking about that. My husband and I bust out the line all the time- what's got you down? Sad because all your candles look the same?

I am with the formidable Tscheese, who said on the first page, who the F lies about air freshener?! Is this the worst thing in your life right now? Also, Tscheese dear, The Body Shop has pretty good holiday scented candles at the moment, and last time I was in there (the weekend) they were buy one get one free and about $5 each. So treat yourself, tooth-achy you.

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The Glade commercials create this straw woman character who thinks it's worth her effort to lie about air freshener, only to shoot her down. It's like Glade's marketing department is telling women to stop having champagne dreams on a tap water budget. Glade = nasty tap water.

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There's a couple conversing in their aspirational granite-top kitchen, clinking wine glasses and celebrating 'happy hour at home.' At the end, the husband asks the wife, "Come here often?"

Maybe I'm totally overthinking this, but I think it is so spot-on for today's economic reality. Here's a couple with a great kitchen which they can only afford if they cut out their restaurant habbit and start eating frozen food. And Pillsbury is telling people, "There is no shame in eating frozen food. You can still be hip, just like this couple." Genius.

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I do have to say: there was a commercial last year where this man did everything his neighbor did, and went and bought the car the neighbor said HE was going to buy. Then the neighbor went and bought a different, nicer car, and the neighbor was all embarrassed and hoodwinked and stuck with a crappy car, trying to hide the fact he bought it. I think that is kinda similar to the silly ladies commercials we are talking about. Or maybe just to me?

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1. There's very little talent left in the copywriting world. You now have a bunch of hacks recycling ideas from the dark ages.

2. Those hacks are mostly men. Actually, they're twenty-five-year-old boys whose main contact with women is through Mr. Skin.

3. Their clients are mainly men who are either too old or too foreign (sorry, but it's true) to understand the lives American women.

4. The people who attend focus groups are by no means representative of the average American woman. They are, by and large, exactly the sort of people you would imagine are free to spend an hour talking about Glade on a Tuesday afternoon.

This is all to say that your post was interesting, but I'm afraid you're giving a sick and dying industry way more credit than it deserves.

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