Okay, here we have some guy with the flu prepare some Theraflu Max D and drink it. Once he’s swallowed that last gulp, he gets beaten to a pulp by some unseen entity, and then they try to play it off like it’s the medicine “fighting the flu”. Yeah, right! That guy’s got a poltergeist, and this company is exploiting his misery to cash in on selling their product! It's like the movie The Entity, and they're making light of it! Well, shame on them!
Unless, maybe they mean something else instead? Could they really mean that if you’re already sick, and then you take their medicine, that you’ll get beaten up by the medicine? It says it fights the flu symptoms, but it’s definitely that guy who’s getting beaten up. Is when you’re already sick really the time you also want to get your ass kicked? I wouldn’t think so!
Maybe if they personified the flu inside of him, like the Mucinex commercials do with the mucus, and they take us for a CGI thrill-ride into his body, where the Theraflu goes in to beat up the flu, then it would work. But seeing this guy get beaten up doesn’t make me want to buy their product. The flu kicks my ass enough as it is, thank you very much!
BTW: This version of the ad I’m attaching isn’t the version I keep seeing on TV: here we see him well, and feeling well after the beat-down. But on TV, he just gets beaten up, and then they show him for a split-second feeling better, but that’s missing the part where he’s feeling healed right after the punches. And even so, he’s still the one getting beaten up, and it’s not helping me want to buy their product right there.
Here’s the abusive ad assault:
