Take A Third Option / Advertising

• In the early 90s, Miller Light had a television campaign based around this. For example in one 1993 commercial, a couple is arguing over whether to watch a dog show or drag racing. They then put Miller Light on top of the television, which apparently allows them to watch both. The result is more absurd than you'd expect. The other combinations were Sumo wresting with high diving, ice hockey with a beauty pageant, a football game with an art gallery, a golf game with a full-contact football game, a cooking show with a wrestling match, a ski jump with a recliner advert, baseball with bass fishing, a lawyer show with calf roping, and ten pin bowling with luge.
• One of the early Play Station Vita ads addresses the dilemma of gaming vs. leaving for work with the cross-play option:
  "It's a problem as old as gaming itself. Stay home and just keep playing, or get to work on time so your coffee-breathed boss doesn't ride like you like a rented scooter."
  (person stops playing on PS3, continues his game on his Vita while leaving for work) "Who says you have to choose?"
• One Pepsi commercial in the Philippines has one of these. A guy travels down a road and encounters two stalled vehicles. One is owned by a couple of cute cheerleaders. The other belongs to a band, who offer an ice box with the titular product. There comes a dilemma on who will hitch a ride with the guy? The commercial shows three different options. All of them involve the guy getting the Pepsi.
  • One has the guy offer the band his car, then use the cold water of the ice box to get the cheerleaders' van to run again.
  • Another is for the cheerleaders to ride inside the car while the band set themselves on top of the roof (a dangerous choice especially once they encounter a sign bend low enough)
  • The third is that all of them lay down on the road and form HELP with their bodies while sharing Pepsi with one another. Near the end of the commercial, a helicopter can be seen.
• An Old El Paso commercial has taken this to Memetic Mutation levels: A family is trying to decide whether to have hard or soft tacos. Cue the little girl saying "¿Por que no los dos?" ("Why not both?")
• In one Nestea ad, a young man on vacation spins an iced tea bottle to decide between two activities: a jungle canopy tour with some good-looking women, or kayaking with the guys. The bottle stops halfway in between, pointing at a wild-looking jungle man. So he heads off with the jungle man.
  • In another, a young man can't decide between two women sitting at different tables, so he spins the bottle and it ends up pointing at an old woman. So he spends the day with her.
  • A third one depicts a guy having to decide between two paths. This time, the bottle spin leads him off-road, where he meets a female cyclops and hangs out with her.
  • Similar to the second advert, a woman can't decide between two men, so she spins the bottle...and ends up with a giant of a man.
• In a commercial for the Xfinity X1 Voice Remote featuring the Minions, Stuart and Kevin argue over whether to watch soccer or Top Chef. After both minions summon their supporters and prepare for a fight, Bob shows up and changes the channel to disco, which makes everyone happy.
• A series of commercials from Wendy's in The '80s had a man issuing a series of taste tests between Wendy's burgers and a competitor's (implied to be McDonald's). In one of them, the man issues the test to a police officer who, instead of choosing a burger, arrests the man for selling burgers without a license.
• In 1996, Trix ran an ad campaign encouraging kids to vote for the next color in the cereal, the options being Wildcherry Red and Blueberry Blue. At the end of the campaign, the winning flavor was revealed to be... both colors. Hence, Wildberry Blue.
• This commercial for Maoam, a brand of chewy candy, is almost memetic in Germany (at least to the older generation):
  Soccer referee: Do you want extra time?
  Crowd: NOOOO!
  Soccer referee: Do you want penalty shout out?
  Crowd: NOOOO!
  Soccer referee: Then what do you want???
  Crowd: MA-O-AM! MA-O-AM!^note The spot is notable enough to have made it to the Wiki entry on Maoam.
• In a 2008 Coca-Cola commercial, parade balloons of Stewie Griffin and Underdog happen upon a Coke bottle balloon and give chase. Who winds up getting the bottle? A balloon of Charlie Brown.

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