After These Messages Podcast

Among the grab bag of adcolades and admonishments this week, Andrew and Vieves look at a new bid for sonic branding by HBO, a Progressive campaign with questionable writing, and a FedEx campaign that has Genevieve concerned for the intellectual property of her favorite sport. Plus, it's parody songs and jingles galore from the Ad Council.

A Bud Light ad in heavy rotation sends Andrew on a quixotic hunt for commercials that take place *inside* appliances. Plus, a fan favorite from Progressive Insurance turns out to have real acting chops.

Usually, Andrew and Vieves have to muster up their own hot takes on the commercials they cover, but it turns on that on Twitter, they're just giving them away for free! It's a twitter takeover this week, plus, a diet shake ad makes everyone nostalgic.

With the season of spookiness upon us, Andrew and Vieves spend this week's show looking at ads that embrace the horror. Plus, a confused fast food chain leaves an equally confusing musical legacy.

With Snoop Dogg talking to Bad Bunny on a "shell phone", an office worker talking to someone on a coconut phone, and sports fans calling their moms on football phones, Andrew and Genevieve try to answer the biggest question of our day: What even IS a phone anymore? They also cop to a Very Big Whiff (TM).

Like a dog that chases a car, but wouldn't know what to do if he caught one, advertisers sometimes find themselves with a celebrity spokesperson that they can't make good use of. Andrew and Vieves look at commercials that are wasting some high-dollar stars. Plus, the universe is trying to tell Andrew something about an old friend via an ad for a shingles vaccine.

Fast food purveyors across the land are making the case for calorie bombs with extreme close-up shots and lots of slow-mo. It's food porn for the great unwashed. Plus, it's Jingle Time....almost.

Dogs may be the species most affected by the various dings, squeaks and buzzes emanating from commercials, but this week Andrew and Vieves look at all kinds of ads that manage to intrude on our real lives in all sorts of ways. Plus, a pickle jingle for the ages.

If commercials are any guide, literally NO ONE is #TooBlessedToBeStressed. This week, Andrew and Vieves (with an assist from the New York Times) look at ads that claim to offer a solution to the madness. Plus, listeners confess to the gross games lurking in their toy chests.

Andrew and Vieves are having a bowl this week -- from the cheeky new ads by Dole to the bewildering campaign for America's grimiest pastime. Plus, Mercedes Benz gives us all a valuable lesson in women's history.

Kids have always loved disgusting stuff, but Andrew and Vieves wonder if adults haven't taken it too far by marketing games that have kids getting sprayed by toilet water and scrambling after loose turds. Plus, in what can only be one more sign of the apocalypse, Pitbull has a cruise ship.

The continuing uncertainty of quarantine requirements have marketers taking wild swings and sending mixed messages about how people can safely consume their products. Plus, Andrew and Vieves are relieved to discover that bullying remains one of nature's most effective tactics.

Jack in the Box's new "Menutaur" mascot gets dragged this week, while comedians Fred Armisen and Amy Shumer surprise and delight. Also, the Mandy Patinkin story just gets weirder and weirder.

If the spirit does live on after we shuffle off our mortal coil, how grim to imagine that one could spend eternity shilling for Diet Coke and Ikea! Andrew and Vieves look at commercials that rely on the shades of the departed to make the sale. Plus, Diet Coke has another swing and a miss.

It's a real jinglepalooza this week! With the help of a musical listener stuck in quarantine, Vieves quizzes Andrew on some classic commercial jingles. Plus the Ad Council sings the classics of their childhoods.

Special guests Gus (who's ten and a half years old)and his mom Phyllis (we didn't ask her age)join Andrew and Vieves for a look at commercials through the eyes of a child. It turns out, the kids are alright...with some SUPER weird commercials. The darkness is real, ya'll.

Andrew and Vieves consider commercials built on flawed premises, failed leaps of logic, and shaky foundations. Or is it all just a lot of smoke and mirrors to disguise a rant about Gordon Ramsay? Plus, a cereal commercial featuring implied bestiality proves the 90s were a weird time to be alive.

A half-baked theory on the emotional range of commercial robots leads Andrew and Vieves to interrogate the true nature of the mechanical man as he endeavors to sell everything from toilet paper to cell phone plans. Plus, a musical legend leaves behind a diverse commercial legacy.

What happened to the car commercials of yore? Back in the day, carmakers didn't bother with drone footage of cars cruising along a coastline or navigating empty cityscapes. No, they offered us a vision of the fantastic: spandex-clad Romeos, 9-to-5 Tarzans, and women scientists! Andrew and Vieves marvel at car commercials as they once were.

"It." Everyone's doing it, getting it or thinking about it, but what is "it", and why does it sound so gosh dang dirty when it's used in commercials.? It's innuendo galore this week. Plus, thirsty Ja Rule is thirsty.