Advertising often amps up during the holidays, with companies shelling out plenty of money to get people to spend, spend, spend. RadioShack is not immune to holiday commercials, but on the bright side they smoothly hired comedic singer Weird Al Yankovic for a strange but excellent holiday ad. Check it out below.
In the commercial, a woman stops in to RadioShack to ask the friendly salesmen about drone heliquads. She seems a bit out of her element in the store, but luckily, Weird Al is behind the counter and he’s about to tell her all about the robot toys available during the holidays. There’s fake snow and plenty of forced energy! Then Weird Al walks the customer through the store, showing her a variety of pretty electronics including toys and camera equipment for her kids and other, stranger, family members (like Bob, who lives at home even though he is in his forties). The man even has a glove for the Parrot Drone to land on. He’s thought of everything!
The song sounds like it is a bit of a spoof of composer Victor Herbert’s famous “Toyland” song composed for the operetta Babes in Toyland, but it’s actually the perfect tune for RadioShack’s big advertisement, which boasts an equally kitschy tagline.
“The holidays are getting weird at RadioShack. And by weird we mean awesome. And by awesome we mean get up to 50% off all smart gifts.”
I’m not sure if the ad will help RadioShack with its sagging sales and sad employment outlook, but at least it gives its audience a little holiday cheer.
Honestly, it was extremely smart to hire Weird Al for the gig. The veteran funny singer has been up to some crazy shenanigans lately. His 14th and possibly final album, Mandatory Fun, came out back in July of this year, and immediately started crushing. It’s the man’s first #1 studio album in the US during his career, and “Word Crimes,” based on the Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams song “Blurred Lines,” became his first #1 hit in years. People like the album, and it’s put Weird Al back in the spotlight, leading him into some weird enterprise—like creating spoof songs for this year’s Emmy Awards and now singing about RadioShack.
More holiday ads should take a note from RadioShack and employ Weird Al. We’d certainly be paying attention.
