I'm not the first to bring this up, but I'm getting really sick of watching AT&T's lame Harry Caray commercials. They are an annoying affront to Cubs fans, comedy and Caray's memory. See for yourself:
Now imagine that this commercial is repeating every seven minutes and you'll begin to understand the agony.
The ad is off-putting in every possible way. First of all, this year marks the 10th anniversary of Harry Caray's death. This puts the ads in questionable taste as it is. Caray was a living legend in Chicago, even though the baseball team he broadcasted for consistently found itself in the gutter of the standings. (Ironically, this commercial is probably the first time that Harry's been spinning in his grave over something besides the way the Cubbies are playing...)
Secondly and more importantly, the commercials simply aren't funny. A Harry Caray impression that isn't funny may sound like an oxymoron, but somehow AT&T is up to the challenge. If you don't have the writing staff of SNL and the genius of Will Ferrell, don't even try to compete.
The man behind the Caray costume is local comedian John Campanera. In his defense, I remember when he appeared on a Cubs telecast a few years after Caray's death and delivered a spot-on impression with his own Caray-inspired material that was quite hilarious. Clearly the impression has not aged well. I hope the public outcry has been sufficient enough for them to stop this stupid ad campaign. We were much better off when Harry was doing his own commercials.
So now let's cleanse the palette with a real Harry Caray impersonation. When you watch this one, you're pretty sure Harry would be laughing along with you, and that makes all the difference.
UPDATE: Dutchie Caray has joined the public outcry against these abominable ads and they have been pulled off the air!
No comments:
Post a Comment