I have a superpower. When a commercial break interrupts a television program I’m watching, I can disappear completely into my head for the duration of the commercial break. I don’t need the commercial skip on my Tivo because I’ve trained myself to skip them. That’s one of the reasons I was surprised when my wife pointed out to me something very interesting about an ad for the Chrysler Town and Country minivan that I’m sure must’ve passed before my eyes hundreds of times without any notice. The ad depicts a young boy being challenged to a race home from school by some of his classmates. Once he makes it to his mom’s minivan, he taunts his friends as his mom pulls away. Check it out.
All fun and games, right?
Well, if you watch the ad without audio, it become another ad, entirely. It then becomes an ad about a poor kid being picked on by bullies at school. They wait for him after school’s out and chase him all the way to his house, where the mama’s boy leaps into the safety of his mom’s minivan and rolls away, taunting his tormentors. I’ve added a little different music to the commercial to better underscore the point.
Poor kid!
The best part is once you’ve had the benefit of watching it this way, it becomes obvious how tacked on the kid’s voice-over is in the official commercial. That leads me to wonder what the commercial was originally like. I imagine the tagline was “Chrysler Town and Country. The next best thing to returning to the womb.”
I swear I saw a different version of this commercial earlier in the summer that was 10x creepier, but I couldn’t remember what vehicle it was for, just that it was creepy.
Nobody believed me, and I spent months trying to find it again, and this version with it’s bad voiceover is the closest I’ve found…so I think *somebody* somewhere must have complained and they recut it (or maybe I’m just crazy, but I don’t think so).
OMG, I’m glad I’m not the only person who has noticed this (and I must say, I’ve been noticing it since the ad started running). It’s obvious that Chrylser got cold feet about its first ad because none of the three kids running after the little runt look anything like him, and logically speaking, if they are “racing him home,” why does the race end when he jumps in his mom’s car? Why isn’t he running home? And if they are “racing him home,” isn’t the mom driving the car also the mom of one of those three kids? Whom she just ignores as she drives off. Oh it makes absolutely no sense and I can’t imagine the meeting where they actually said, “Wait, we can’t show school bullying and our car together! We demand a rewrite!” Idiots.
OMG!!!! GET A LIFE …. its just a commercial ….
If you actually believe that you have major issues. You must be one of those libs that wants evil McDonald’s to rid their Happy Meals of toys. I’m sure the folks at Chrysler’s marketing department are just as evil. Those corporate bastards!
What you can handle ur kids!!!!!!!!!!
Y do u blam someone for ur actchis !
Do your job as a parent.
and if u dont like it then dont F**** Go To Mcdonalds
!! and poor kid hes just doing a commercial …
I second (third?) the notion that this commercial had a different version when it first came out. If I come across the original version I’ll pass it along.
After discussing how the ‘racing home’ story just didn’t make sense, my wife and I came to the same ‘bullying’ conclusion. The commercial, as aired, was clearly not how it was originally intended.
Yes, the original did have bullies threatening the little kid. And the dubbing is way off.
Really no doubt here, the original version aired in the Sacramento area earlier and both my wife and I noted it, before the incident became a race. I can’t remember the original script, and evidently the original version has been suppressed as I can’t seem to find it cached anywhere. But the kids were basically threatening him before he makes his escape.
I LOVE IT !! *__*
I saw the earlier version of the ad on broadcast tv and it was totally about bullying. They totally re-edited the ad and tried to add this silly ‘race’ script to it. I always thought the original version was creepy because the child is scared and the mother is completely ignorant to his distress. I wondered if anyone else noticed the bizarre re-write to the story line. I have to wonder who sat around a story-board ad session and thought ‘this will make a great ad’.
Thanks for explaining this dumb ad. It has puzzled me since I first saw it, thinking, isn’t the kid who challenges him his brother since he says “home”, and why are they sitting on Parker’s lawn, and why is the mom just hanging out in a van with the hatch up…? Chrysler and its ad agency are the dumbest thing since HNG/Internorth paid big bucks to an ad agency to come up with the name Enteron, and then quickly ditched it for the name Enron–that is, after the public laughed at them for naming a company a word that means “intestines.”
because its a commercial . thats y they are all over park house … get a life !!! look like you dont have one *___*
GET A L LIFE !!!!!!!!! HA
This ad is a terrific example of bullying and how some adults are oblivious to it. Watch it with the sound off, or just watch the boys and the body language of the boys and the chasee.
The poor kid is running home…… . HELLO thats y there is body language!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am from Chicago, and I found this blog because i too am looking for the originally aired commercial. They were chasing him before, like bully’s. WHERE IS IT!?!?!? Nice parody.
Not too mention the kid must be adopted because the mom looks very W.A.S.P.-y and the kid looks ethnic. That could be a reason he is picked on too.
The boy is not geting pick on………..
Hello !!!! Its a fuckn commercial !
I’m glad other people noticed this because the dub-over was really obvious to me. I believe in the original the bully says, “Hey, Parker! Watch out. We’re gonna get ya!” Or, something with that theme.
O GOD YOU GUYS ARE MAKING A BIG DELL OUT OF THIS !!! LET IT GO >
I love this commercial … Its just a commercial let it go GOD!!!!!!
YES its Cool ! I dont know y people are macking a big dill………
I LOVE IT !!!!!!!!!!!! *_____* AND WHAT !!!!!!
I KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MY KIDS !!! I DONT LET NO T.V OR COMMERCIAL COME BETIWIN ME AND MY FAM .!!!!!!!!!!
Cool Commercial !