Photo Credit: Les Schwab Tire Centers
Commercials can be a kick.
We love’em, we hate’em, some of us even mute them so we aren’t subject to the special brand of torture they offer. (I am not one of those individuals who mutes commercials.)
Me? I love/loathe/lambaste them as necessary. I have seen a few I dig and even more I abhor. And I’m willing to bet cash money that’s the case for you, too. Whoever you might be.
More so, however, there comes that commercial you shake your head at in amazement, trying to figure out how in the world the content made the grade to be so impressive as to go past the formation stages and into production.
Andrea’s Les Schwab Story is one of those for me. And believe you me, it’s not because it’s impressive.
If you haven’t seen it, take a gander:
Are you as dumbfounded by that ad as I am? Seriously? One of the intelligent conclusions you draw in this scenario is TO START THE CAR … !!! What the hell … ??? There’s a freakin’ cat in the bowels of your car’s engine and the winning idea is to fricassee its hairy little ass with the fan belt?
I was flabbergasted at the idiocy of it all. And I don’t even like cats.
Granted: You have a doofus husband who can’t put his coffee down long enough to hunt for the rascal who has embedded itself under the hood and an equally bumbling fire department who, between the lot of them, can’t discover its whereabouts either. Hokay … I can see where those (unlikely) intendments might happen, head shaking as they may be. But then not everyone is cut from the same cloth as knights in shining armor ready at the drop of a hat to save the day … or a kitten in this (crank)case.
So the natural conclusion? Key up the engine. Dollars to donuts you’re going to need to steam clean everything including the underside of the hood of cat gut in pretty short order.
But luck is with Andrea and her story. Dumb luck … but luck nevertheless.
And if you have luck on your side, why not push it and DRIVE THE CAR TO SEE IF THE LES SCHWAB GENTS CAN FIND THE CAT WHERE MR. DUVALL AND YOKEL FIRE DEPARTMENT COULDN’T … !!!
Brilliant. Just brilliant.
“But Michael … she drove the car slowly …” tweet
Are you at a loss? Because me … I’m at a loss …
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She is an idiot. Funny thing is she’s my ex. And that dumbass husband doesnt know anything except Hippie to carry her purse BWAAHAHAHAHA
Are these commercials true facts? Did all these situations really happen?
Yeah, my dad drove his truck to the job site with a kit-t-ten in the engine compartment and that was all she wrote. Why a kit-t-ten would try to adjust the tension rods while the truck was in motion is beyond me… Note: the smell of smashed cat is disgusting!!!
My husband and have changed the way we pronounce ‘kitTehn’ thanks to this silly commercial!
I just googled “Kit-ten Les Schwab” and got the link to this page. Thank goodness I am not the only one who is BAFFLED by why you would drive (albeit “very slowly”) while there is a Kit-ten meowing in your engine. Thank you for the opportunity to confirm with others that it is just a horrible ad.
SO GLAD I’m not the only one annoyed. The ad agency and Les Schwab are clueless, and her pronunciation of “kitten” and “rotten” drives me to change the channel or hit mute every time.
Love it, Love it…Love it! It blew my mind the first few times I saw the ad that the solution would be to drive the car anywhere to get the kiT-Ten out! Then I began to fixate on her odd pronunciation of kiT-Ten and roT-Ten. Coupled with the hipster friendly, goofy half cartoon / half photo animation, this is a classic! Folks, I submit to you this is a one in a million, a classic. The ad agency hit it out of the park with this one but not for the reasons they intended. It begs so terribly for a parody and yet it needs none, it’s its own parody. I think Mike Judge should do a cartoon comedy character modeled after Andrea, “comedy gold Jerry, comedy gold!”
Never mind the cat — it’s the way she aspirates the hell out of those [t]s … nails on a chalkboard.
To be fair, English clearly isn’t her first language and she doesn’t have American (or Brit for that matter) English /t/ allophones … still, intolerable.
omg! I can’t stand that commercial! I just goggled Les Schwab commercial and lady that says KiTTen. She is annoying and stupid for driving her car with a cat hiding in it. My husband thinks she may be a teacher, god help her students if she is.
I am so happy that i am not the only one this commercial bothers, it is the worst commercial due to the way she says kitten and rotten………aaahhh even typing the words made my skin crawl.
So glad that I’m not the only one. They even stress that she drove slowly….the fan is still turning and the engine parts moving and getting hot. If you don’t shred him you would bake him. Why in the heck is the fire department playing mechanics on a whim. Do they have nothing better to do? Do you know how much dispatching a crew and truck costs tax payers? The pronouncing of the words are like nails on a chalk board (remember those??). Please, take it off the air.
I lived in Washington State for a whole nine years, Michael. I had occasion to visit a Les Schwab facility a time or two. And believe me, this commercial is only the third most irksome thing about Les Schwab. The thing I find most bothersome about Les Schwab is the fact that American people for whatever reason have decided that a man with the name of Les is to have his name pronounced as “Less”. Sure, it may be short for Lester, in which case it makes sense, but if his name is “Leslie” which it might be – Leslie Phillips springs to mind, as does Leslie Crowther, and beleieve it or not, they pronounced their names “Lez-lee”. So a man named Les is pronounced Less in the USA, Lez over here in the UK. Which is all well and good until you give him the last name of Schwab, because then the name just sounds… icky. Because there’s no pause between the two. it’s not Lez – Scwab, it’s Lesschwab. And it just sounds wrong to my English ears.
Oh, and the other thing that bothers me about Les Schwab is the whole Free Beef! thing. I don’t know if they still do it, but during the 90’s in WA state they sure did. I think it was February every year – you go in and get some tires and they give you a hunk of beef. here’s an article about it… http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/memories-what-happened-to-free-beef/article_61681060-7b94-11e1-86c7-0019bb2963f4.html
Tires -beef. Tires – beef. Sure, they go together like a horse and raisins. I don’t get it. But I guess it’s all changed now. Ah well.
Anyway, so I’m saying sure, it’s a stupid commercial, but it’s no worse than some of the others. And believe me, we get some doozies here in the UK.
Yes, finding a small kitten in the wheel well of your car would be frightening. Listen carefully, and replay it if necessary, but, Ms. Duvall talks as though she’s a 4 year old. NO ONE pronounces EVERY SINGLE LETTER in “kitten” or “rotten”. It’s just not “normal” conversation. Wow.
I’m with you. The story doesn’t track – how could anyone be so ignorant as to think that starting a car with a cat in the engine compartment is a good idea, let alone actually driving it somewhere? Not to mention the most irritating part of this commercial – her affectation. She mispronounces the words kitten and rotten in a way that makes my skin crawl. Please, Les Schwab, there are plenty of intelligent people out there. Use them more often in your commercials – especially those who can speak English correctly and don’t risk chopping little kittens into a million pieces.