Commercial Entry!



This is a remarkable achievement in commercial-dom. What's so novel about this commercial you ask? Like the wave of serial television which has been permeating the airwaves in the last 7 years or so (led by shows like Lost and 24), it's taken the serial aspect to commercials. What I mean is this. If someone who was locked in solitary confinement for the last five years saw this commercial it would make no sense to him. At a Cal Ripken Jr. book signing, a man faints - and a man working at the book signing asks for someone who stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night. When a man offers to help, explaining that he is a doctor, the employee scoffs, and repeats his insistence on finding someone who stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Without context this makes absolutely no sense. Why would you prefer someone who stayed at a Holiday Inn Express over a doctor?

Holiday Inn Express in relying on the fact that you have seen their previous commercials, which show regular people doing things they're clearly untrained to do, explaining their abilities away, with "but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night." This commercial does this all without the benefit of a "previously on" that might accompany Lost or 24. I applaud this development.