History Main / ThePowerOfCheese

** The latest series of ads has the Crunchy Nut eater getting himself/others around him ''killed'' as a result of his addiction to Crunchy Nut. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uErrdP9JpuY One ad]] features an Australian-accented Steve Irwin type guy urging his camera crew and a homeowner not to make a noise as he catches a "female red rattler"... until one of them starts noisily crunching on cereal. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thd6sBJUjkE Another]] parodies the kitchen scene from ''Film/JurassicPark''. In both cases, Crunchy Nut is directly responsible for at least one death. "The trouble is, it just tastes too good" indeed.

[Not to be confused with Sean Cullen's claim that the greatest things in the universe are wood, cheese, and children.]

* The German "Fritz Kola" ([[CatchPhrase muchmuch caffeine]]) evidently turns you into a horse-headed monster...[[BestialityIsDepraved and your girlfriend LOVES it.]] (A bit of NSFW, so Google is your friend.)

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank%27s_RedHot Frank's RedHot]] commercials usually feature a little old lady attributing an astonishing feat, like growing giant pumpkins, to Frank's Red Hot sauce: "[[CatchPhrase I put that]] [[PrecisionFStrike shit]] [[CatchPhrase on everything!]]"

In the context of a commercial, SeriousBusiness can make people in the ads come off as just being way TooDumbToLive. They will ignore their families, forgo basic necessities, and go to extreme lengths of self-abuse, all for a hamburger, a bottle of beer, and other such things. They'll barge into a hospital and try giving a person brain surgery because a new tax office made figuring out their income tax so easy, they decided that everything must be that easy. In short, people in commercials will often act at least twice as stupid as Network executives think their audience is. Sometimes "justified" because the products really do have [[MagicallyDelicious Magic Powers.]] Which is just as telling to the audience.

[[quoteright:175:[[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Cheese_Stands_Alone_7593.png]]]]
[-[[caption-width-right:175:The cheese stands alone.\\
The meat, on the other hand, has frequent visitors.]]-]

** The concept would be recycled not long after by Sears Canada, who would pose the same question about their in-house [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n14P43y40bA clothing]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuSxM-FdU84 lines]]. Sears Canada's use of this approach was less successful; the company folded in 2018.

-->'''Calvin''': "Tigers will do anything for a tuna sandwich!"
-->'''Hobbes''' (CaughtInASnare and munching a tuna sandwich): "We're kind of stupid that way."

-->Calvin: "Tigers will do anything for a tuna sandwich!"
-->Hobbes, CaughtInASnare and munching a tuna sandwich: "We're kind of stupid that way."

Compare ThePowerOfLove, ThePowerOfFriendship, and ThePowerOfRock, each of which can overlap with this trope, depending on the product, and CerealInducedSuperpowers in which the product in question causes ridiculously amazing things to happen to the consumer. Contrast WhatWereTheySellingAgain, which is when the ad barely touches on its product at all. See also MenBuyFromMarsWomenBuyFromVenus to get a more gender-oriented look at stupidity in advertising. If the advertisement has to include a disclaimer about the product's potentially ''bad'' effects, as for pharmaceuticals, that's SideEffectsInclude. If the product is advertised as making you sexually attractive, it's SexForProduct.

%% * WebAnimation/YouTubePoop of commercials can sometimes stray into this territory.

Compare ThePowerOfLove, ThePowerOfFriendship, and ThePowerOfRock, each of which can overlap with this trope, depending on the product, and CerealInducedSuperpowers in which the product in question causes ridiculously amazing things to happen to the consumer. Contrast WhatWereTheySellingAgain, which is when the ad barely touches on its product at all. See also MenBuyFromMarsWomenBuyFromVenus to get a more gender-oriented look at stupidity in advertising. If the advertisement has to include a disclaimer about the product's potentially ''bad'' effects, as for pharmaceuticals, that's SideEffectsInclude. If the product is advertised as making you sexually attractive, it's SexForProduct. See also Advertising/HostessFruitPies.

* Invoked in the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Chocolate With Nuts," in which [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick become chocolate salesmen. When they fail to sell the candy, they start making outlandish claims about how chocolate can benefit the buyer: it grants immortality, it cures baldness, it brings world piece, it makes you fall in love, it lets you rule the world, etc.

** Parodied in ''WebComic/KidRadd'' during the break the forth wall week, where Radd [[http://www.bgreco.net/kidradd/comic220.htm#title destroys the world with the power of cheese]]. It includes an admonition that a certain number of universes are destroyed every day by people misusing this power, so be careful.

* The "Drop the Chalupa!" ads from TacoBell.

* Sprite did a series of commercials in the 90's specifically subverting this trope. Wimpy looking young guys would drink a Sprite, then try to play basketball against NBA players, or fight against pro-wrestlers, then get [[RealityEnsues both beaten and badly injured.]] The tagline was "Image is nothing. Thirst is everything".

Compare ThePowerOfLove, ThePowerOfFriendship, and ThePowerOfRock, each of which can overlap with this trope, depending on the product, and CerealInducedSuperpowers in which the product in question causes ridiculously amazing things to happen to the consumer. Contrast WhatWereTheySellingAgain, which is when the ad barely touches on its product at all. See also MenBuyFromMarsWomenBuyFromVenus to get a more gender-oriented look at stupidity in advertising. If the advertisement has to include a disclaimer about the product's potentially ''bad'' effects, as for pharmaceuticals, that's SideEffectsInclude. If the product is advertised as making you sexually attractive, it's SexForProduct. See also NeurosisCommercialis, Advertising/HostessFruitPies.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru6p5NLXxvY Brawndo]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxieMOdo6IU&feature=related the]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbxq0IDqD04&feature=related Thirst]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy73RruvpVg&feature=related Mutilator]]. Without a doubt a parody, but by far a hilarious usage of this trope.
** It's got electrolytes.
** Brawndo is, frighteningly enough, a real product. They hired the parodists who [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRuNxHqwazs created]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-3qncy5Qfk Powerthirst]] (which ''is'' fake) to make their commercials, though.
** It actually started out as a parody before it became [[{{Defictionalization}} a real product]]. According to legend, Gatorade wasn't too happy with the way it was going to be mocked in Film/{{Idiocracy}} and canceled the ProductPlacement deal, so they used "Brawndo" instead.
** [[http://www.powerthirst.ca Allegedly, Powerthirst is now real, too.]]
* WebAnimation/YouTubePoop of commercials can sometimes stray into this territory.

* Tim Hortons' initial commercial advertising their new [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW-bomqZ3Lw 'steeped' tea]] went beyond any Commercial Idiocy we've ever heard of. To elaborate, the apparently young, hip and trendy son (note: foot-and-a-half-high [[strike:mo]]faux hawk, band t-shirt and baggy jeans with more chains than a dungeon. egad. he must be "hip"!) brings home two cups of tea for his forty-something year old mother. When she remarks that the tea is good, he says "Yeah, it's steeped". Somehow, despite the fact that the word '''steeped''' has been a part of the English language since '''tea''' was a part of being English, the mother comes to the logical conclusion that her [[strike:emo-goth]]wannabe punk of a son has just uttered some hip, new, trendy word. And so she goes on to use steeped throughout the rest of the commercial. Her young daughter models a mini-skirt, and all her mother says is "steeped outfit, honey", instead of "take that off now!". Later, when admiring her elderly neighbour's garden, the mother adopts a hip-hip pose and tells Mrs. Chen that her "garden's looking steeped!". [[MemeticMutation "Garden's looking steeped!" became a minor meme in Canada after this ad.]]

* Volkswagen's ad campaign for their car, the Routan, is just...baffling. Apparently, according to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDZSxFLcMVg this mockumentary by Brooke Shields]], women everywhere are having babies--sometimes with men they barely even know--''just'' to get the new Volkswagen Routan, and any of them that say otherwise ("No I'm not! And this is my husband!") are merely in denial.

* A UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} one: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQYaekYPmZU Dale Earnhardt, Jr. will barter his racecar away if that's what it takes to get the last Diet Mountain Dew on the shelf at your convenience store]].

Compare ThePowerOfLove, ThePowerOfFriendship, and ThePowerOfRock, each of which can overlap with this trope, depending on the product, and CerealInducedSuperpowers in which the product in question causes ridiculously amazing things to happen to the consumer. Contrast WhatWereTheySellingAgain, which is when the ad barely touches on its product at all. See also MenBuyFromMarsWomenBuyFromVenus to get a more gender-oriented look at stupidity in advertising. If the advertisement has to include a disclaimer about the product's potentially ''bad'' effects, as for pharmaceuticals, that's SideEffectsInclude. If the product is advertised as making you sexually attractive, it's SexForProduct. See also NeurosisCommercialis, Advertising/HostessFruitPies
.

Compare ThePowerOfLove, ThePowerOfFriendship, and ThePowerOfRock, each of which can overlap with this trope, depending on the product, and CerealInducedSuperpowers in which the product in question causes ridiculously amazing things to happen to the consumer. Contrast WhatWereTheySellingAgain, which is when the ad barely touches on its product at all. See also MenBuyFromMarsWomenBuyFromVenus to get a more gender-oriented look at stupidity in advertising. If the advertisement has to include a disclaimer about the product's potentially ''bad'' effects, as for pharmaceuticals, that's SideEffectsInclude. If the product is advertised as making you sexually attractive, it's SexForProduct. See also NeurosisCommercialis.

* "[[EarWorm What would you do-o-o, for a Klondike bar?]]" The whole ad campaign is based on people doing such things for a Klondike bar, even doing things that would make you enough money to buy thousands.

Compare ThePowerOfLove, ThePowerOfFriendship, and ThePowerOfRock, each of which can overlap with this trope, depending on the product, and CerealInducedSuperpowers in which the product in question causes ridiculously amazing things to happen to the consumer. Contrast WhatWereTheySellingAgain, which is when the ad barely touches on its product at all. See also MenBuyFromMarsWomenBuyFromVenus to get a more gender-oriented look at stupidity in advertising, and DeliciousFruitPies, when established characters get in on the act. If the advertisement has to include a disclaimer about the product's potentially ''bad'' effects, as for pharmaceuticals, that's SideEffectsInclude. If the product is advertised as making you sexually attractive, it's SexForProduct. See also NeurosisCommercialis.

* In a ProductPlacement example: Hostess Fruit Pies used to run [[DeliciousFruitPies comic strip ads in comic books]] in which heroes like Batman could stop the bad guy by tempting him with a fruit pie.

* In the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'', Granddad lectures Huey and Riely on "The New White Man," who's bigotry and privilege can be overcome with gourmet cheese. He later [[BrickJoke tries this out]] on their new landlord, Ed Wuncler. [[CrazyEnoughToWork The two immediately become best friends]].

* Another Pepsi example is from 1992, when they decided to phase out their "Generation Pepsi" slogan in favor of a new one. They filmed an elaborated series of commercials to be broadcasted during first quarter of that year's Super Bowl, which started with trucker crushing into a Pepsi billboard, clipping off old slogan from it. Naturally the crash place soon becomes a festival, and new Pepsi slogan becomes a piece of everyone's mind, with celebrities and television personalities all weighting in. Their new slogan? ''Gotta have it''. Don't be surprised if you don't remember it, cause it barely lasted a year, and safe to say [[Main/HypeBacklash it didn't live up to Generation Pepsi]].

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6rE0EakhG8 This]] NutriGrain ad.

Compare ThePowerOfLove, ThePowerOfFriendship, and ThePowerOfRock, each of which can overlap with this trope, depending on the product, and CerealInducedSuperpowers in which the product in question causes ridiculously amazing things to happen to the consumer. Contrast WhatWereTheySellingAgain, which is when the ad barely touches on its product at all. See also MenBuyFromMarsWomenBuyFromVenus to get a more gender-oriented look at stupidity in advertising, and DeliciousFruitPies, when established characters get in on the act. If the advertisement has to include a disclaimer about the product's potentially ''bad'' effects, as for pharmaceuticals, that's SideEffectsInclude. See also NeurosisCommercialis, which is usually less extreme.

** ''Series/TheColbertReport'' made an [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome awesome]] and [[CrowningMomentOfFunny funny]] parody: the German UN ambassador made an appearance on the show, acts like a stereotypically dour German, and dismisses the concept of cupcakes for failing to soothe his existential angst, only to end the interview with, "But the unspeakable things I would do... that I '''have done'''... for a Klondike Bar," which he produces and bites into, to thunderous audience applause. You can watch the segment [[http://www.cc.com/video-clips/l0qwni/the-colbert-report-thought-for-food---mentally-ill-advertisers---german-cupcakes here]]. The relevant part - about Germany - starts at 3:40, but the entire segment is worth watching for the humor and other messages.