10/16/07 The All Bran Ad-vantage

Has anyone else seen that commercial for All Bran where the construction worker is talking about how regular he is now that he's taken the "All Bran Challenge"? While Mr. Regular is extolling the virtues of his new potty prowess, there's all this construction/bathroom related activity, such as a dump truck unloading a load of bricks, or barrels are rolling off the end of the truck right behind the guy's derriere. It seems that the commercial is creating quite a stir; so much so that Slate has done an Ad Report Card on it. Some people think it's funny. Some people think it's gross. I must admit, my first thought wasn't that it was funny or gross...my thought was that OSHA would be having a field day with how unsafe this construction site was. I mean, barrels rolling around and I-beams shooting through walls? Helloooo worker's comp! My second thought was, What kind of boring name is All Bran? It can be all bran without being called All Bran. Name it something like Healthy Flakes, or Tasty Flakes, or So-you've-been-constipated-for-three-days Flakes. All Bran? That's All Old People. And no one wants to eat old people food...not even old people. And especially not the 12 year old boys (and Tony) who are laughing at this commercial.

Read the Slate article and see the commercial here.