[Our man in washington]

With all due respect, I didn't think so. The whole thing struck me as distasteful. First of all, why the big bars of soap that looked distinctly uncomfortable? Couldn't they just have the kids blowing soap bubbles or something? That strikes me as suggesting sadism toward children, which is in very bad taste.

I'm not suggesting anything should be banned, but it's something a prudent adult just shouldn't produce.

Also, the ad suggests that all children use bad language. That's also the wrong message to send children.

When I was a kid, there was an excellent ad where a child offers Mean Joe Greene a coke when he's hurt during a game. Greene tosses the child a jersey in response, and the child thanks him. The child is shown as caring, polite, and gracious. That's the kind of ad that will make me think highly of a company.

[discostu]

The big bars of soap were an obvious homage to A Christmas Story, it should be uncomfortable soap is nasty. It was great how they set it all up with all those kids leaving you wondering just what was being advertised, then they show the hardtop retracting which was a "holy sh--" thing. It was funny, caught your attention and did a good job of featuring the product (which many SB commercials fail to do, quick what was being advertised by the cat herding, I don't know either).

The ad didn't suggest that all children use bad language. All it suggested was the car was so cool it would cause momentary lapses of decorum.

And Mean Joe puked his guts out all over the place multiple times filming that commercial.