PILTDOWN MAN AND THE CARDIFF GIANT
Two longtime friends, one a former comedian and the other a world traveler, riff on life, the arts, music, sports, travel and Horehound candy, and follow rabbit holes on just about anything. Much of it tongue in cheek while entertaining themselves and hopefully you. Future plans are interviews and at least one listener.
PILTDOWN MAN AND THE CARDIFF GIANT
(36) "Ad Overload...Why An Limu Emu And A Latuda In A Jardiance Ruined My Playoff Game."
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A Celtics-76ers playoff game should be about defense, shot selection, and whether the role players show up. But while we’re watching threes rain down, something else steals the spotlight: the ad flood. We start listing what shows up on the court, in the arena, and in the breaks and it turns into a dizzying snapshot of modern sports broadcasting, where sponsorships, TV commercials, and promos stack so tightly that it’s hard to breathe.
From there, we get honest about what all that advertising does to your brain. We talk marketing and consumer psychology, why ads are mixed louder than the program, why the colors look more vibrant than everything else on TV, and why repetition can feel less like persuasion and more like disrespect. We also hit the weirdest part of the current media ecosystem: pharmaceutical ads that push brand-name drugs while telling you to “ask your doctor about” them, followed by side-effect lists that sound like an auctioneer reading your worst fears at high speed.
Then we pivot to sports betting ads and how gambling has been woven into the broadcast itself, from coin tosses to every pitch. We dig into why the odds are designed for you to lose, why that matters when people feel squeezed, and why the constant promos can feel predatory. We wrap with a ridiculous fable built out of drug names because sometimes comedy is the cleanest way to tell the truth.
If you’ve ever felt worn out by commercials, annoyed by gambling promos, or baffled by drug ads, you’ll feel seen here. Subscribe for more, share this with a friend who rants at the TV, and leave a review telling us: which ad are you most tired of seeing?
Please leave us your comments, text me, DM me, give me your thoughts. what works and what doesn't land? We want to improve.
thanks for listening
Joe
Banter And A Celtics Blowout
SPEAKER_01Hey everybody, it's Built Down Man and the Gardiff Giant, and we're looking at episode 36 right now. Wow. And you know what the crazy thing is, we still don't know who the Derby owner is, at? No, I at least I don't. I mean, never, actually. Well, it's the it's the magic of taping things ahead. That's right. But I have to tell you, Eddie. Oh, by the way, I'm Joe Flesh, and this is my partner, Ed Penn. Good afternoon. Uh last night, Eddie, I was watching the Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers game. Did you watch a game? Pretty one-sided game, but I I've never seen so many threes in a playoff game. You know why?
SPEAKER_00They were open for the shots for one thing.
SPEAKER_01They were, but there's never been that many three-point shots made in a playoff game. Really? Yeah, it was, I think, 26 by the Celtics. Something, something like that, some ridiculous number. And as a Celtics fan, it was great fun for me. I think Pritchard hit at least five, didn't he? Oh, I think it was more than I don't I don't know, but you know, they had uh guys that were role players coming on, and they were hitting them as well. Yeah. Uh so it was one of those 90 that kind of relieved me because after the Celtics lost game two and were in a dogfight to win uh game three, I thought this may not go as well as I hoped. And then uh they kind of mirrored the first game. They just killed them. They had 32 points. So yeah, it was fun. But I'll tell you part that's not fun for me. I I'm easily
Counting Every Ad In The Game
SPEAKER_01uh agitated by ads. I I think most people just kind of they don't pay attention to them at all. They just kind of zone out, go to the bathroom, uh, take it as a book. There's too many ads that even get a drink anymore. But I'm gonna tell you, these are the ads that I saw last night in that game. So two and a half hours of what's in basketball. Were you gonna tell us all of them? I'll I'll give you uh all of them that I could catch because sometimes they were so fast I may have missed a few. But here's where we start. We started with the 76ers. It makes sense because they're one of the teams playing. They uh also at the Boston Celtics. But on the floor itself, on the 76ers floor, there was an ad for NBA playoffs. That makes sense. Google, uh DraftKings, also on the floor. On the floor, okay, yeah, on the floor, uh, Emirates Airline, Michelobe Ultra, right, Expedity Mobile, Coinbase, and then they had on the on the floor they had a a running sign that had the Kentucky Derby on there, and on the uh upper balconies they had goldfish on there, as you will. Goldfish? Goldfish, you know, the little crackers.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, yeah. Nabisco.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yes, goldfish. I I'm surprised it didn't just say Nabisco, but it said goldfish. And it had little goldfish on the side.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they would.
SPEAKER_01Uh NBC Sports. Uh now they talked about the Boston Celtics and gave backgrounds on the Boston Celtics. Now, the ads themselves that played. Are you ready for this? Yeah. I didn't get them all. I didn't get them all. I'm they were so fast that I and I myself need to get drinks and go to bathroom stuff in two and a half hours. Uh the ads were progressive. Uh pioneer, I mean pioneer, uh NDA pioneers. You know that? No, I don't know who that is. They were advertising some new uh place where they uh celebrate all the pioneers.
SPEAKER_00All the older players. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um Buffalo Wild Wings, of course. Uh Macy's. And when Macy's had their ad, they had somebody turn in a page and there were ads on all all the pages. I didn't get that. It was too many of them. Uh Cody Strata, Elite. Cody Strata Elite. I I've always been interested in Cody Strata, but nothing. I don't even know what that is. I have no idea. Uh Universal Orlando Resorts, Hyundai, AWS, State Farm, McDonald's, Capital One, Kohl's, Jeep, Circus Sports, Captain D's, Lexington 18, Lexington Overstock Warehouse, Sky Rizzy, Cinnamon Pebbles. Don't you love the hand? Sky Rizzy and Cinnamon Pebbles back to back. Back to back. They kind of go together, don't they? They do, yeah. Uh Galaxy, uh, Samsung, uh, Chili's, SoFi, Gatorade, Walmart, Telemundo, Peacock, Kia, Starbucks, Intuit, QuickBooks, Target, WNBA, Chat GPT, Hogandaz, Lexus, Wayfair, Illusions Minions, FIFA, The Kentucky Lottery, GMC American Express, ATT, New Balance, Lilly, Booking.com, LA Lakers, Houston, Rockets, Ford, Reese's, Chime, Mortal Kombat, Verizon, Applebee's, Airbnb, Mia, Amika, Tisso, Allah, Cutwater. Cutwater, do you know Cutwater? I don't know what Cutwater is. Most of these others I don't know as well, but uh uh Chipotle, Major League Baseball, they advertised Detroit Tigers, and uh GMC, then Bet365. Of course he had Bet 365 in there, uh Toronto Blue Jays, the Philadelphia Flyers, Zbound, uh Kobe, Capital One, Miracle Grow, Corona, Wing Stop, Honda, SVU, Duke University, ESPN, and Carnival.
SPEAKER_00So that seems like a smorgasbord. There's something for everybody in here. There's bound what was the 16th one that you mentioned? The last one was 100. No, the 6th, no, I think the 12th. Yeah. So, but I didn't hear you mention Liberty, Liberty, Liberty. Oh, I missed that ad.
SPEAKER_01And uh Limu Emu. No, you know, there's nothing more fun than watching a guy try to tackle an emo. Uh how thousands of times.
SPEAKER_00V emo has your sunglasses on. Do you know that you wear them all the time? Even in on on cloudy days, he's got those. You think it's sort of as he should, really.
SPEAKER_01But yes, that was just the ads that fell there. I'm sick of them. I mean, that's that's in a two and a half hour window. And most of those weren't were mentioned multiple times, some of them five, six times.
SPEAKER_00Does that I guess it's the price we have to pay for all the channels and all the stations that we're able to get
Why Ads Feel So Exhausting
SPEAKER_00that, you know, somebody has to pay for those. I mean, you we've talked about having three channels on our TV, two or three channels. Now we've got hundreds, and uh it takes revenue to pay for to pay for those. Are people already paying for that? I mean, well, you'd think it would be through their spectrum or orange.
SPEAKER_01I've got I've got a a package. And it's non-prime times. I've got a package that includes sports programming. Yeah. But if you're not watching sports, every every how many times do we need to see Liberty Bibri?
SPEAKER_00Well, approxim approximately three million times. So that's because that's a pr pretty pretty much how many times I think it's a great, great ad, don't you think? No, I do not. But the fact that it's so bad is the is the thing that makes us remember it, I suppose, and remember the uh Well, I'm gonna try to say, first of all, I I shouldn't even, I mean, I don't think I have much in common about this, but I was a marketing major.
SPEAKER_01I was a marketing major in college. Why was I a marketing major? Uh well, because I thought ads were entertainment, and I didn't think I was smart enough to do accounting. That was pretty much it.
SPEAKER_00So it was well, I think it's still sort of entertainment, but it's so redundant if you think that that it ceases to be. There's some good ads out there. If you were to ask me if I knew some right off the top of my head, I probably can't come up with them because they're so dang redundant as much as possible.
SPEAKER_01I you know, and I guess I should be pro-advertising since I'm a marketing. It would make sense that you would be. I am not. You're on the other side. I'm on I'm way over on the other side because I don't think, I don't see how in the world it could help. I mean, how many insurance ads are we seeing? Do you ever see the Liberty, do you ever see the emo almost being tackled when you and go, well, I think I'd like for them to handle my insurance.
SPEAKER_00No, but I do, but I do see a Lexus ad that appeals to me, and I go, I didn't think about Lexus a little bit. You know, that I can like that car. And so I'm susceptible to it. We all are.
SPEAKER_01I think I think certain things are like, I mean, you talked about in the early days when they did cigarette ads.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh you know, a lot of people who are listening to this podcast, I would uh suspect don't know about how pro uh they were ubiquitous. They were cigarette ads were every place. They were in print ads, they were on television. And I'm not really quite sure what year they decided not to not to do away with those, to do away with those ads. But was it in the early 70s that they uh maybe because they decided that showing a doctor smoking a cigarette and giving an exam probably wasn't very smart, really. And what my doctor did normally in their own offices.
SPEAKER_01So two out of three doctors are recommended.
SPEAKER_00That's right.
SPEAKER_01This, that, and the other thing. That that's another another thing that uh boats the crap out of me is all these. Ask your doctor about. Ask your doctor about this, that, otherwise. What doesn't he ask me? Exactly. I didn't go to medical school. I didn't. I don't know what to ask, actually. So the only thing I'd ask is, why am I asking you? Did you miss a day in class? Uh, you know, I I really don't get that. I mean, and and when you talk about the cigarette ads, back in those days, if I'm right, I know that uh they couldn't do medical ads for a long, long time. They weren't allowed to do those. Doctors could not advertise on TV. Neither could a lawyer.
SPEAKER_00Attorneys couldn't either. Now they can.
SPEAKER_01Now they can. And uh, you know, so we got that and uh bet 365 and you know, all of those things.
SPEAKER_00You've got to give it to Madison Avenue. Uh I I I had someone ask me one day if Mad Men was about Madison Avenue, and I said, well, that's kind of obvious, isn't it? That's where all the typical that's where advertising comes from,
Old School Ads And Hidden Innuendo
SPEAKER_00Mad Men, Madison Avenue. And uh, but you've got to give it to them. They've been able to sort of struggle over the public for in in uh for a long time in in ways that we didn't even know that they could, you know, through advertising.
SPEAKER_01I guess just using uh the example of insurance, though. I don't understand, I understand the car thing. You can see a car, yeah. You don't know it's out. It's the same thing, you know, maybe with uh uh McDonald's, because people look at that and never heard of McDonald's before, and they think, wow, that actually sounds good. That new hamburger they have looks delicious on there. And I found out in advertising a long time ago. When they do the ads and when they uh do photography for that, they don't even use hamburgers and cheese. It it doesn't maintain its good look. There's sort of ceramics or plastics. There's all kinds of stuff that it is, and uh so when you're lusting for that hamburger and you're actually lusting for something else.
SPEAKER_00I want to talk about uh about the drugs because it seems to be more drug ads on T T V these days, but first I want to talk a little bit about some of the ads from when we were growing up that were sort of innuendo or double entendre. Uh I don't I think you remember the Not Zima ad. It was a Swedish model who said take it off. Who was that? Who was that girl from? Canela Hutton. Uh-huh. Wasn't she on Hee-Haw too? K-N-U-T-S-O-N, Nutt Nutzen. She's a Swedish supermodel. Oh, okay. It's not the same girl. Oh, okay. Our parents were watching Hee-Haw, so by extension, we've worked at it. But anyway, uh the all those ads like that had some little bit of double entendre uh to appeal to uh sex. It was all Uendo and double entendre. And and uh I won't see how many times I can say double entendre because I've said it about six times in a row. Uh but but those ads were at least somewhat interesting in a way. Joan Nangmouth was in one of those groups, if you remember. Oh yeah. And yeah, and it was kind of fun and kind of interesting because take it off, take it off, take it off, take it all off. Yes. But but and particularly for kids our age or teenager, we're thinking, we know what they're we're talking about, and this is what they're talking about. So we're sort of in on the journey. And the and the girl that was shaving him was you remember who the girl was that.
SPEAKER_01It wasn't She Adams, was it? Nope. Who was it? Farrell Fawcett. That's right. That's right.
SPEAKER_00That's right.
SPEAKER_01We bring it back to the Farrell Fawcett poster, I guess. Yeah, that's the first time I saw her. Yeah. And uh you're you're right. I mean, uh, I can't think of any examples right now of uh of the devil entendre, but they try to get that stuff in as much as they can. Even with car ads and stuff, some of the photography, things they show, it it's all you know, sexual.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's appealing visually now more than it is um by you know entendre or or or duendo. So it's visual appealing. And what the inter the other interesting thing they do is the color somehow has increased in all these ads. Have you do you? Oh, yeah. It's really more, way more vibrant than anything else that you'll see on TV. And it's also louder. We know we've known this for a long time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the louder you are, the more you're uh influenced that moves. Why? Tell me some of the the drugs though that that you have you see some you see. Well I see all kinds of I say all kinds of drugs, but uh I I actually wrote a little fable about the drugs. And I actually about uh I wanted to get to Peronis
Drug Commercials And Asking Your Doctor
SPEAKER_01disease when they well you know that's just that's a side effect maybe because possibility.
SPEAKER_00And uh yeah, we we'll get we'll definitely get to that.
SPEAKER_01But I mean, what what is it a disease? Peronis, is that a disease?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm not gonna really say what I think the world. It's hard to say. Yeah, but but I can tell you that all those ads like Peronis and you know uh deodorant for for women that go in all places, uh, you know, and and you think, what's what's the advertising come to? Because it's it's really uh insensitive in some ways. And I know that we that we talk about these things these these days. I I get that. But to have it in your face all the time with these ads is just it's just crazy. I think and and again it's a little embarrassing. And it seems like I'm approved by saying that, but it isn't.
SPEAKER_01I don't think it sounds like that, but I I uh I believe that things like the car ads make sense to me. Food ads make sense, even if it's McDonald's, uh Chipotle, uh, you know, those things. They make a little bit of sense to me. Uh the drug thing doesn't make any sense to me because I can't imagine anything where I go in and tell my doctor, uh, hey doc, what about? I mean, have they not thought of everything? Uh did they not go to medical school?
SPEAKER_00They went to medical school.
SPEAKER_01We didn't. We didn't. And but then I think about the girl that robbed me that uh believed the earth was flat and all that kind of stuff. So I don't know. She always said she did her own research. Of course she did. And uh so that may play a part of that. She did her own research. If she believed the earth was flat, I don't have much to go from there. No, that's that stops the conversation. She also said we'd never been to the moon and you know, all those normal things. I didn't try to argue with her. She did her own research, God bless her. Right. And she knew way better than I did. But so I don't I don't get the medical stuff. I really don't get the insurance.
SPEAKER_00Um Do you do you think it you feel I I think I I feel insulted by it? Do you feel insulted by it at all?
SPEAKER_01Yes, I do.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think that's the key part of it, maybe. You feel insulted.
SPEAKER_01And they had how many times does fan duel have to come on? I mean, they they let you know now that they the fan duel will uh take a bet on everything about a game, or not even about the game. They take bets on the coin tosses, they take bets on a pitch in baseball, and they and here's the thing about anybody, and you know Mark was on here talking about the the racing stuff. Mark Klein, yeah. Yeah, Mark Klein. And he was talking about the racing, but he's right about that. That was always entertainment. It was at the entertainment level. It wasn't, I mean, for most people, it wasn't serious gambling. It was going to the track and then coming back ahead of the game for that day. It's not about that anymore. People have less money, and so what do they do? They spend that money gambling on more money. And it is anybody knows something about gambling, and I do, because I don't really do it, but I know about it, is you're gonna lose. Yeah. If you're a guy who's watching a baseball game and you're betting on every pitch and all that, uh each bet, uh I don't know the baseball percentages. I do know in racing you get a decent break, but there you lose uh
Sports Betting Ads And The Odds
SPEAKER_01your chances of winning coming out ahead are about 20% in racing. That's not good. Yep, those aren't good. That's not good. And it's worse. Kentucky lottery and places like that. Oh my God, read the percentages. And they said, well, somebody's gotta win. Yeah. Somebody, somebody, somebody's gotta win. And it's a good chance that somebody's so stupid they're gonna give back all that money anyway.
SPEAKER_00That's right, in short order.
SPEAKER_01But uh, I didn't really aim to get that sidetracked about gambling, but it bugs me. And the ads, they just keep pounding you with the ads. And they do that even preparing for the game. They tell you what, you know, what things, what's a good bet, what's a good parlay, and all that they got all their announcers doing that. I'm afraid I would never get a job because I'd go, I'm not doing that. I'm just not doing it.
SPEAKER_00Again, I think it's insulting to the public for one thing. Not long ago, I heard this and the side, but they were comparing two things. I can't remember what it was one drug against the field or whatever it was, but it was their drug. Let's say it was their drug. Um the the field drugs, meaning all the rest of the drugs, do only these four things, and they name those four things. They didn't name them specifically, they said that all these drugs together, they only do these four things. Our drug does these six things, and six is more than four. That that six is more than four. Can I write that down? And I thought, what have we come to where you have to tell someone that six is more than four? It's like 600% more.
SPEAKER_01That's right. Uh but yeah, and then they, you know, they give you all these drugs, the weird name drugs and stuff. And then uh and then they go through it, it's like an auctioneer talking. It's all the side effects.
SPEAKER_00There are a few side effects. Some of them are kind of, you know, m more or less benign, in my opinion. A little bit of insomnia, uh, you know, or you've sick nausea. But they have to uh they have to warn you. They have to tell you about it, and and they they do, they'll they'll tell you on the ads, maybe even on the side side of the persp of the bottle that it came in. But uh, you know, we all know that you can get sick, you can have nausea, you can have diarrhoea, you can have vomiting from some of these drugs, you can have dry mouth, you got your dizziness, you've got your headaches, and you've got your insomnia. But you've also got a few other things. You get your infection, which is worse. You've got your organ failure, which is even worse than that, you've got your stroke, and a lot of the others that people don't really think about when they're um taking these drugs. You've got your jock itch, of course, you've got your scurvy, you've got your berry berry leprosy, you've got your bubonic plague, you've got your typhoid, you've got your syphilis chlamydia and grown tongails. A little bit of pink eye comes with this, swollen testicles, you need to be aware of that, large nipples, plantar fasciitis, cholera, erectile dysfunction, uh, gonorrhea, scabies, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, crabs, just to name a few, and then the the the bill the big one at the end, which I find might not be as bad as some of these other things, frankly, is death. Yeah. But I you know you might take death in place of some of these things.
SPEAKER_01I love the way they they phrased it, and may cause your death. But but but you when you take some of these other things. Yeah, yeah. I didn't hear blue balls in there.
SPEAKER_00You take the uh typhoid uh fever or uh
Side Effects Lists Go Off The Rails
SPEAKER_00maybe you get uh you know you some time think of the thing you don't want to have.
SPEAKER_01Did you mention cancer in there? I didn't.
SPEAKER_00I it's uh uh or leukemia. I left those two.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, those are hard hitters. Yeah. Uh but you're right. Uh it just gets so ridiculous. And I'll tell you something I did, Ed. I decided to write a fable. Maybe can we end the fable? Your Aesop. I'm Aesop, yes. Uh I'm calling it uh the walk. And it's gonna represent all the uh drug names and maybe a disease or two in there. All right, but it's but it's a fable, it's kind of like uh uh you know some of uh Aesop's stuff. Yeah. Or fairy tales, even it's not a three. So this grim? Yeah. Three little pig, three little pigs. I I put it right there with three little pigs. Okay, good. And you know why? I have no idea. There's no wolf in the world that can blow down a straw house. Oh, you say. Oh yeah, you say. Well, okay, isn't if he if you're gonna go that far, if you're gonna say he's got enough lung power to blow down uh a straw house, he ain't blowing down any kind of stick house.
SPEAKER_00So we're being lied to in every way, but not only by the media, advertising, but even in literature.
SPEAKER_01We're being lied to being lied to. Yeah, you know, the great thing about that story is uh people forget there's a murderer involved. That's right. This is great for the kids. Here's a little story, the three little paves. Guess what? The wolf dies by being boiled in a pot of hot water. Uh yeah, let's let's Disney five, that for sure. But yeah, here's mine. Are you ready for mine? Yeah, let's hear it. It's called the walk. Uh the Repatha the Mangiardo. Ah, a little bit of Latin. Yeah. Uh once upon a time, and that's always a great way to start a fable, don't you think? Yep. That's the way to go. It's a bit fine-like. But it's yeah, but it's tried and true.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it works.
SPEAKER_01Uh once upon a time, there was a pair of conjoined twins. They were named Rexalti and Kevin Uva Peroni. They were fine guys, even fun guys, but a little bent. They were obviously limited in what they could do. You see, they were connected to each other by the Johnson and Johnson. Despite the handicap, both managed to find girlfriends. Lily and Abby. For a while, Rex had dated Januvia, but over time found her to be a pain in the AstraZeneca. The boys also managed to find jobs
A Fable Built From Drug Names
SPEAKER_01in the circus. Probably not what you think. Rex was a high wire walker. And Kevinova was well, he hung around a lot. He was Rex's biggest supporter. The key truth of their success was their determination. Over time, they found the circus life to be a little solitary. They wanted to travel, not like you do. Yeah. Yeah. And maybe one day just take a hike to Mongiardo. Eventually they decided to quit their jobs and train for that impressive climb. They got themselves a GoFundMe page because of course they did. Who doesn't? That's the way you do things anymore. Donations trickled in, but soon they had enough to begin hiking. They already passed that uh Mongiardo. The weather was great that day. Bright blue sky riszy. And at night they planned to look deep into the sky riszy to see if they could find AstraZeneca. Rex decided to lead and face forwards with putt Cavan and a bind, and it was hard on both Peronis. Rex insisted on that position because one of them had to see where they were going. They'd have to see where they were going. They would be in real big trouble if they tramped over anything. Something and knocked them off the repaths of Montgiardo. But the positions they took were not viable for a long time. Rex was getting tired of pulling and Kevin didn't have the ability to maintain his odd position. A short time later, uh fatigued as they were, Rex encountered an obstacle that would prevent Jim had prevented Jim from them going on. It looked like a large jellyfish, but Rex's memory was suddenly enhanced, and he remembered that jellyfish didn't live halfway up the Briepath of the Montjarda. No, this was something else. This was a Latuda. A huge, steamy, hot latuta that someone didn't even take the time to clean up. Luckily, Kevin had brought in his front pack because he obviously had to have a pack in the front. He brought himself a huge Jardiance. And he took the latuda and pried it and pushed it and cleaned it up into by placing it in the Jardians. He then turned at Rex and said, Look, I've had enough. I'm tired, I'm exhausted. Plus, I'm only halfway up the repath of Mongiardo, and now I'm carrying the Jardiance of someone else's Latuda. To quote the great uh world's greatest comedian, genius, and all around great person, Joe Flush, this is not for me. Rex reluctantly agreed. They started to return to the circus. They had built all their families and friendships, and they had forged them down in the circus where they were born. They started moving slowly down the repath, little by little, realizing that the plans change in life, Eddie. They would set new goals, realistic goals, and one day, maybe even meet Quinn Howard. They knew that even though this plan didn't work out, the Sky Razi would still come up in the morning. And they all live happily ever at. Okay, why don't you get us out of here?
