I saw this tonight on TV during commercial break for an episode of The Simpson’s and looked it up, just to make sure it wasn’t a joke. It isn’t. Here’s the ad specs.

Brand: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Agency: Arnold Worldwide
see the video below…
See the video here at ADWEEK
Global warming isn’t funny, but I just couldn’t help but laugh out loud at this new 15-second Reese’s spot from Arnold that, um, puts the crises in proper perspective. “Stop global warming now,” reads onscreen yellow type, in large capital letters against an orange background, as ominous music builds. “Or,” the warning continues as a round shape begins to fade in and the punch line is delivered, “all the Reese’s will melt.” A graphic treatment gives the scene a hazy wiggle that emulates rising heat as a bite is chomped out of the chocolate peanut butter cup and the logo appears with the name of the new campaign, “Perfect.” Other spots poke fun at sharing, “stupid, but nice,” the origins of the candy, “chocolate and peanut butter walk in a bar,” and the act of unwrapping the candy, “they look even better undressed.” The ads, which feel like animated print executions, are mouth-wateringly simple and whimsically give the product personality and make it the star. –
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50% of the population is below the median intelligence level. Something must be produced to keep them entertained.
They say that people make jokes about things they fear. I think people are more fearful of government programs to fight warming than they are of the warming. I would hate to live in a world without Reese’s. 🙂
Its about time! The greeniacs will hate this, and it’ll be fun to see them meltdown (no pun intended).
Why don’t we just get a gummint subsidy to render the melted Reese’s PBCs down for their ethanol?
Belittling and sarcastic humour is one of the best ways to undermine and reduce the effectiveness of a message intended for public consumption. Someone should start taking the pi** out of environmentalists and their OTT warnings of impending catastrophes and the general public will begin to pay less attention to them.
Regards
Michael
Junk science and junk food – a perfect combination!
Warning: Pierre – Anthony wants us to consistently use the same name. Thanks – Dee
I think we ought to take their advice.
Stop byuing their rubbish and use the sugar to make ethanol instead.
Ever read the ingredients ot nutritional information on their garbage?
People eating that crap ought to worry much more about their health, and much less about temperature going up 1 or 2°C over 100 years.
No more peanut butter cups in my house.
Saw it the other night. Thought it was another “We” commercial. Chuckled a bit when the punchline came…
Unfortunately, I perceive this commercial as subliminally re-enforcing the meme that global warming is real by the very act of poking fun at it.
In order to motivate the consumer to purchase the product and prevent the dire consequences of all the product melting, the consumer needs to accept the reality of global warming at some level.
Not good news at all, IMHO.
Its mushrooms now. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-11/uoc–dms102908.php
Or better still http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/badgers
What are Reeses’s peanut butter cups?
What do they taste of?.
Why am I writing this?
What else is happening?
Where are we going?
When will it end?
Quo Vadis?
The West is digging its collective graves with its decaying teeth.
For today, this thought I give,
Evil rats on no star live.
Dee Norris (04:23:34)
There’s that part of it too, making light of a crisis, real or imaginary.
At least they’re airing the ads at the start of the winter season, when outdoor heat (such as there is) will be the least of our concerns.
But then this style of ad campaigns is nothing new. Just look at all the ‘green’ commercials out there now. And don’t forget the low-fat or no-fat food ads {when fats, which give food flavor, were replaced with sugars, a far worse change than the original}.
So Al Gore’s Nobel crusade has turned into a fad ad campaign. Appropriate.
Assume you have seen this.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/11/02/do0207.xml
“Yet last week, as reported on the admirable Watts Up With That website, nearly 180 places in the US, from Alaska to Alabama, have just recorded their coldest October temperatures or heaviest October snowfalls on record, based on figures from the National Climate Data Center. “
Just yesterday
Obama: I’ll Cause Energy Prices to Skyrocket!
Obama: I’ll Cause Energy Prices to Skyrocket!
Obama: I’ll Cause Energy Prices to Skyrocket
I agree with Dee here. The message seems to say “And along with everything ELSE you need to worry about regarding GW, it could ALSO melt your candy!”…trying to make light of what’s considered a very serious matter.
Jim
off topic: You had a post about a record cold september in Ireland, looks like October is not much warmer.
“East records coldest October in 15 years”
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/1103/breaking38.htm
In Ireland there has been over a decade of mild winters which makes this interesting, could this be a turning point in a trend? Irelands weather is dominated by the Atlantic so its only when Atlantic influences weakens that we get cold weather.
Although i am in Southern Poland right now where October was warmer than normal.
Perry,
Nice palindrome. I love Reese’s and, “Look, Ma, NO cavities!!!”
Mike
deadwood says:
It seems clear that you haven’t spent much time reading actual environmentalist magazines, websites, etc. They have a sense of humor; checkout, for example, Grist Magazine whose slogan is “Doom and gloom with a sense of humor”. And actually, this ad reminds me of a t-shirt that my girlfriend bought that says “Save the Earth: It’s the only planet that has chocolate.”
I agree with Dee Norris that this ad is probably more re-inforcing than mocking (although I disagree with her on whether or not this is good or bad news).
Any idea what effect FTE’s have on global climate? Ref:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/30oct_ftes.htm
Dee,
I certainly can understand the request.
But after tomorrow’s election I think it may be necessary for us sceptics to go underground. Those eco-zealots will be out to get us.
The country is about to change.
Reply: As a Libertarian, I share your concerns, but I doubt it will be from Day 1 if at all this go round. More then likely it will cause one party or the other to crash and burn at the mid-term elections. What I fear is the damage don’t in the first two years. – Dee
Can’t blame a man for wanting to practice the CYA policy.
Making fun of AGW wackos is the single best way to make an impression on the general public. That’s why I use the “dog ate my homework” tag to describe Jones’ response to requests for his data. We could say the same thing about the responses of the IPCC author/reviewer in the UK to the FOIA requests for his e-mails.
The wild-ass guesses underlying the SST studies and Mann’s garbage stick need to be highlighted and laughed at. The unwillingness of Hansen’s crew to leave their air-conditioned computers and actually do some science (see Dyson’s comments) should be ridiculed. Ask the public, “Before we spend a few trillion on AGW, how about we actually go check the thermometers first?” With the billions spent on scientific research, can we find someone, somewhere who has figured out that it might be a good idea to check the quality of the temperature readings? We ARE talking about temperatures here, right?
When the AGW wackos say that CO2’s impact on global temperature has been “proved” because they can’t think of what else it could be, perhaps we ought to encourage them to try more thinking. Once the public understands all the climate factors which are not included in the climate models, the idea that scientists can’t think of another reason for warming will be so blatantly silly that the only response will be laughter.
Even a mediocre comic has enough material here to have an audience laughing for a long while.
Bankrupting coal…
Yesterday when I first saw the video it had been seen about 6000 times. Today that number has risen to over 300,000.
I suspect it’s targeted mostly toward young adults and/or kids, who are more apt to Believe, and whose AGW Religion is under threat. On some level, at least, I think the AGWers know that they’ve “jumped the shark”, so this ad is an acknowledgement of that. The ad is a clever way of saying “we know AGW is real, just that it’s been over-hyped a bit, but we’re a cool company that gets it, and here, have some candy”.
Anthony,
I know that you have an email address that we can access. I know that you have even listed it with an earlier post. But, when you get to be my age, I can hardly remember what I had for breakfast! It would be a help if you put it someplace like on the “About” page. In big print,
Anyway, I wanted to point this story out. It’s from an interview that Obama gave the SF Chronicle last January. His stated goal is to use taxation to put the coal business and every coal fired power plant out of business. With coal being such a large part of our energy infrastructure that would devastate the economy.
As alert as your loyal fans are, I can’t believe that I am the first one to point this out.
http://media.newsbusters.org/stories/hidden-audio-obama-tells-sf-chronicle-he-will-bankrupt-coal-industry.html?q=blogs/p-j-gladnick/2008/11/02/hidden-audio-obama-tells-sf-chronicle-he-will-bankrupt-coal-industry
Dee,
“as a Libertarian”
I share your concerns. Reed/Pelosi have talked about convening a special session of Congress this December to pass legislation for Obama to sign on the day of his inauguration. I haven’t been to church for over 20 years. But I have started praying. I have done everything else I can.