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Commercial Worthy - Straightaway!

"First of all, you're in the middle of the goddamned forest!"
"So?!?! It's not a forest, it's woods!"

By Guest Contributor Ryan Barrett

My First Day Driving is a little long, but its length encapsulates the simultaneous horror and hilarity of one's behind-the-wheel debut. In fact, all 3 minutes and 38 seconds of this clip fill me with nostalgia. They remind me of a better time - a time when a teenage boy was free to be a sarcastic know-it-all, a little brother free to be an annoying side-kick twerp, and a mom free to nag the hell out of both of them, no questions asked.

I can imagine this clip going one of two ways as a commercial - either an embrace of the neurotic family or a rejection of it. For embrace, I'm picturing an ad for a racing video game. As we're watching the family argue in the car, we either hear a voiceover or see super saying "Ditch the fam. Crank the tunes. Own the road."

But I think the characters in this clip really deserve better than that. They deserve to be praised for their cringe-worthy charm. So I believe the "embrace approach" is the way to go. Perhaps an ad for Amazon.com or another gift shop-type online storefront. The ad would run around major gift-giving holidays including Christmas, Mother's Day, Father's Day, etc. The payoff - "Celebrate [mom's, dad's, Billy's] idiosyncrasies. Because if you don't, who will?"

And we all know the answer to that question.

Commercial worthy? You decide:
Vote Yes/No -or-
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Got thoughts on Commercial Worthy clips? Email me (Ryan Barrett) at ryanhdb@gmail.com.

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