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‘Cougar’ Mom Used to Sell Cough Drops
The blogosphere is all atwitter with commentary on what is, hands down, the weirdest cough drop ad ever. I’m not sure I’m as fired up as the American Decency Association, which believes that the ad is promoting the “legitimization of elderly ones with younger ones,” but I certainly agree that this commercial is “perverse.”
The 30-second ad features a mother helping her son move into his dorm room. When his nerdy roommate offers her a “surprisingly mouth-watering” Hall’s Refresh Cough Drop, sexual tension flies in a manner that is not only “surprising,” but also a bit nauseating:
The commercial ran during the TV show “Cougar Town,” so Hall’s, like any good corporation, was simply catering to the interests of their would-be consumers. (The fact that the word “cougar” even exists is a disgusting phenomenon that I can’t bear to analyze on a Tuesday afternoon.) Still,as Slate’s Seth Stevenson wonders,who exactly is this ad intended to target? In answer to this question, Stevenson notes that several blogs, all of which are written by professional women and stay-at-home moms, had been given free samples of Hall’s Refresh to promote on their sites.
Which leads Stevenson to another natural, albeit icky, question: “Do women fantasize about sharing a naughty moment over a lozenge with a scrawny dweeb?” No, we do not. Whether we end buying the product anyway, since the commercial is so absurd the product gets stuck in our heads, is another matter.
Are you disturbed by the “Cougar Cough Drop Mother?” Or just puzzled and maybe even a bit amused?
Photo: tvfanatic.com
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7 Comments
Alison commented on Nov 10 09 at 4:08 pmThis commercial has been airing for a few weeks now and I still find it confusing. I don’t get the impression that the mom is sharing a naughty moment with the kid, more that she is surprised by the Halls’ mouth watering cough drop and the kid confuses this with fantasy indulging. So it is more an anti-dweeb “the only way you could ever even remotely get it is by giving a chick a cough drop” thing. Which still doesn’t make me want to buy the cough drops.
Mistress_Scorpio commented on Nov 10 09 at 7:04 pmI’ve seen this commercial for a few weeks now too. I thought the same as Alison. The dweeb guy macking on his friend’s mom is the joke. The target demo is still moms. If they were really trying to cougar it up, they would have gone for a less plain, more obvs sexed up mom.
Brett Singer commented on Nov 10 09 at 8:41 pmIt’s a weird ad. I have a theory that a lot of advertising people are frustrated comedy writers. Ads like this are the reason why.
“Cougar Town” (the sitcom), the one time I saw it, was pretty funny though.
Dad commented on Nov 11 09 at 8:42 amyeah, I’ve been seeing this for weeks during various shows. I never really thought of it that way until this post…
Eric commented on Nov 11 09 at 9:46 amI totally agree Brett, ad writers are frustrated comedy writers. I often think after seeing an ad like this: There was a meeting where this ad and others were pitched, meaning there were other options than this ad, and this is the ad that was selected. What must those other options have been like? How truly awful must the alternatives have been, for this to be the top of the heap?
a's mom commented on Nov 12 09 at 1:45 ami think it’s kind of funny.
Panther commented on Feb 23 10 at 12:40 pmI am not at all disturbed by this ad. But you drive people up the walls.
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