Tellyrant the Third

Am I getting older and grumpier?  Or are adverts on TV getting rubbisher and rubbisher?

To be honest, I suspect a healthy dollop of both...  So I'm going to talk about a something which has been particularly proficient in the caprine attainment area recently...

Babies...  Is there anything creepier?  OK, babies, at any times, are slightly unsettling - but in some adverts, it's grudgingly acceptable to use babies...  Adverts for nappies, particularly, have a certain claim to legitimate use of babies...  But the Pizza Hut advert where the baby comes downstairs on its own and shouts at its parents?  Yes, that is the stuff nightmares are made of...!

It's the same story with that Evian Mineral Water advert, with the babies who are on roller-skates, or skateboards, or something...  Generally, it's babies acting like adults - or at least older kids...  And that's supposed to make me buy bottled water??  How?!

Please, all companies - whatever you make, whatever you sell - take note...  Talking babies do not a good advert make!!

Some adverts use older children - it's not so scary when they talk, of course, because most children can actually talk, in real life...  But why do they always pick children with the most irritating voices?  I remember being a reasonably articulate child - and I remember hanging out with other reasonably articulate children...  So how come these companies, and advertising agencies, pick the kids with the most child-like, "I only learnt to talk half an hour ago" voices?  It's actually quite painful to watch, and, indeed, to hear...

On a more positive note, there is one advert I've seen a few times recently which I think is fantastic...  (Obviously, I rarely, if ever, think an advert is any good at all, so this is quite exciting!)  It is the latest offering from opticians Specsavers - the one which cleverly makes you think it's going to be advert for Lynx deodorant sprays, right up until the last scene...  Here it is -