The ads aired in the United States and Canada primarily, with a few being aired in Mexico and at least one being made for the Philippines as well.
The commercials featuring the Dairy Queen Lips contain the following tropes:
- Abandoned Mascot: The character lasted from the mid-2000's to the early 2010's before falling out of use.
- Alien Episode: To prove that a deal on DQ's soft drinks is the "galaxy's greatest", the Lips bring along an alien named Phil to taste-test one of the drinks.
- An Alien Named "Bob": One of the ads features an alien named Phil.
- Animate Body Parts: A floating mouth, in this case. The fact that they don't have eyes, nostrils, a face in general, or a brain is lampshaded on separate occasions.
- Animated Outtakes: The ad featuring the Girl Scout has a blooper reel. The first three bloopers are simple mess-ups (the girl forgets her line, forgets her box of cookies, and then trips while talking to the Lips), while the fourth has the Lips seemingly cracking under pressure and yanking the cookies from the girl.
- Camera Abuse:
- When the Lips hear that the Chicken Strip Basket is only $3.99, they try to make a rush for DQ, but they hit the screen and crack it by accident, in the process also chipping one of their teeth.DQ Lips: Right after I go to the dentist...
- The Lips sing the classic Kit-Kat jingle ("Give me a break, give me a break, break me off a piece of that Kit-Kat bar!") and hold the last note for long enough and at a high enough pitch that it cracks the screen.
- In the outtakes for the Girl Scouts Blizzard ads, the Lips violently yank the box of cookies from the girls' hands and then make a run for it, hitting and cracking the screen as they do so.
- When the Lips hear that the Chicken Strip Basket is only $3.99, they try to make a rush for DQ, but they hit the screen and crack it by accident, in the process also chipping one of their teeth.
- Covered in Gunge: An ad for Dairy Queen's Biscuits and Gravy meal has the Lips saying "You can never have too much gravy!" only to get a heaping helping of gravy poured on them.
- Dramatic Thunder: The Lips compare the deals from DQ's value menu to being "all powerful" and do an Evil Laugh before almost being struck by lightning.
- Embarrassing Tattoo: In a Mother's Day ad, the Lips show off a tattoo they got on their tongue, a heart that's supposed to say "mom" but reads "mim" instead. They immediately remark "Who the heck is Mim?"
- Eye on a Stalk: Phil the alien has two eyeballs on stalks.
- Fire-Breathing Diner: The DQ Lips demonstrate that they can breathe fire after having eaten a Chicken Flamethrower. Unfortunately, the flames hit someone off-screen.
- Floating Clocks: Well, one clock, anyway. It appears when the Lips travel back in time to the Stone Age.
- Glass-Shattering Sound: The DQ Lips sing the Kit-Kat jingle and hit a high note that causes the screen to crack. The cracks remain visible for the rest of the ad.
- Gonna Need More X: When the Lips realize the DQ value menu provides over 20,000 possible meal combinations, they say "I'm gonna need a bigger tray."
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: In one commercial, the Lips consider the 2.99 deal to be so good that it almost feels like stealing. Cue the good and bad angels appearing right next to them and subsequently telling them to go right ahead.
- Handy Mouth: The Lips use their mouth to pull a veil off a DQ value menu and write with chalk.
- Head Desk: After their human friends fail to guess the answer to their picture charade, the Lips repeatedly bang themselves on the door in frustration.
- Motor Mouth: The Lips speak noticeably faster after having six Moolatte coffees.
- No Name Given: The Lips were never given a proper name.
- Pixellation: One ad has the Lips being given an interview on the news. The pixellation doesn't do much to cover a floating pair of lips. The Lips may not mind the pixellation, as they wholly admit they're there just to hear their voice being distorted.
- Roger Rabbit Effect: In one of the commercials, the CGI-animated Lips play a game of picture charades with a family of live-action actors, hoping that the family will guess the correct answer of "Blizzard" (as in, the DQ ice cream treat).
- Shout-Out:
- The Lips wonder how the Peanut Buster Parfait can have such a low price and muse "If I only had a brain..."
- One commercial shows The Lips in a Pac-Man-esque maze eating hot dogs in place of Pac-Dots.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: The picture charades ad reveals the Lips have a girlfriend, who is pink in color and wears a flower.
- This Song Goes Out to TV Tropes: The Lips precede their songs about the Dairy Queen bacon cheeseburger by saying "This one's for the carnivores".
- Time Travel Episode: The DQ Lips are taken to the past when they think the Double Cheeseburger Meal being $4.99 is the "greatest deal of all time". In the past, a caveman trades his burning torch with another caveman's rock and promptly throws said rock at the other caveman. The Lips still thinks the Double Cheeseburger Meal's price is still a better deal, and less painful.
- Tongue Twister: In one ad, the Lips say "Brownie Batter Blizzard" four times fast, only for their tongue to literally become tied the fourth time.DQ Lips: ...Huh. Delicious and a tongue twister.
- Translation: "Yes": In the ad with Phil the alien, the Dairy Queen Lips ask Phil if he thinks the milkshake he just drank is the "galaxy's greatest". Phil responds with a lengthy growl followed by disintegrating into gloop. The Lips say that's Phil's way of saying "yes".
- Trrrilling Rrrs: One ad has the Lips practicing saying "tortilla" with a rolling R, then advertising a wrap (there are variants of the ad with different wraps) and referring to a tortilla on the wrap with the rolling R.DQ Lips: Nailed it!
- Twinkle Smile: The Lips blow out a candle on a Blizzard, meant to celebrate the treat's 25th anniversary, and the room becomes so dark that the Lips decide to use their shiny, toothy smile to illuminate it. Thank goodness they've been whitening.
- DQ
Something Different
www.DQ.com
At participating DQ® Restaurants.
