Rob Cottingham

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22 Feb 2006

Hi-ho. Kermit the Shill here.

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Category: Culture, Arts and Popcorn

I just overheard Kermit the Frog on TV singing “It’s not easy being green” and flogging the new Ford hybrid SUV.

That news again: Kermit the Frog is selling SUVs.

Send the four riders home early; the apocalypse has clearly already happened. It’s only a matter of days before Marlboro product placement starts showing up in Elmo’s World and Prairie Dawn’s out there hawking cruise missile guidance systems.

  • http://www.upinontario.com/mt James

    My first reaction: this is horseshit.

    I think Kermit did a superbowl ad too.

    Can you imagine the meeting discussing whether Kermit is a good fit for SUVs? The ‘creatives’ and the ‘suits’ all sitting around, catered of course, rationalizing how hybrid SUVs are consistent with Kermit’s lovely, neutoric character, how his reach across generations positions him perfectly as pitch, er, man for the product. Perhaps a mention of his emotive qualities.

    Horseshit I say!

  • http://www.robcottingham.ca/roblog Rob

    Wait til they roll out the new campaign for the non-hybrid SUVs, with Barney as the new spokesperson. “Hey, kids, you like dinosaurs? Cos Daddy just burned one up backing out of the driveway.”

  • http://wiredcola.com Ryan Cousineau

    Wait, nobody remembers Kermit pushing green iMacs? I sure do.

    I have no love for SUVs (virtually all of them could be better replaced by a station wagon or a minivan) but how is this especially horrific, and where were you cultural puritans when Mark Mothersbaugh was selling out to Swiffer?

    It’s not easy being devolutionary,

  • http://www.robcottingham.ca/roblog Rob

    I think you misunderstand, Ryan. Setting aside that “cultural puritan” swipe (sniff)…

    …and speaking only for myself…

    …it’s not a question of cultural purity. I’m able to withstand any number of renditions of “Right Here, Right Now” in the service of selling everything from sugar water to the New York Stock Exchange. And there’s something so offbeat about the Swiffer that I can’t help but think Devo might have actually found the product appealing.

    It’s the juxtaposition of Kermit — one-time Sesame-Street-regular Kermit, sweet innocent-ballad-singing Kermit — with a breed of vehicle known for its immense environmental damage (somewhat mitigated, admittedly, by the hybridnessitude of the SUV Kermit’s flogging), fatal rollovers and unpleasant habit of decapitating the passengers of cars it collides with.

    A little different from Devo and sweeping the floor, don’t you think?

  • http://pacificgazette.blogspot.com RossK

    That ‘send the riders’ home line….

    Very, very good wordsmithing Rob.

    I’m assuming you’ve already used it somewhere else because I can’t imagine that pro like yourself would give them away for free.

    Regardless, consider them swiped (although they will receive attribution – at least the first time).

    .

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