Antiques and memorabilia have always been of interest to most people, whether they buy them or visit museums to look at them. For many people, the House On The Rock in Wisconsin has to be about the most famous American Picker-style museum imaginable.
For almost a decade now, North Americans have been enamoured with reality television and so when I first learned that someone had somehow managed to make a reality show from dumpster diving and barn sailing, I didn’t rush to see how that worked. I have to say that if it hadn’t been for Thomas suggesting I watch the commercial for this season’s segments, I probably wouldn’t have bothered with the show. But sometimes advertising and marketing can entice even the most reluctant audience to tune in and this was the case with the ad for American Pickers.
Now maybe it’s because I remember David Naughton being the face on all those Dr. Pepper commercials in the late 70s and into the early 80s, and maybe it’s because I enjoy seeing someone do a great parody of a well-loved and familiar point in time, but regardless of the reason, when Thomas shared the American Picker commercial with me, I was impressed with the attention to detail that had gone into parodying David Naughton. In some small measure, you could say that Mike Wolfe vaguely resembles David Naughton of days gone by.
For a parody to work well, it has to share many of the same elements as the original it parodies and so I thought I’d dig up the original that’s closest to the American Pickers commercial. I watched more than a few versions before settling on this one to share with readers. Listen to the lyrics to see what I mean.
And now let’s watch the American Pickers commercial.
When all is said and done, whoever created this parody knew what he was doing and he knew the market he was hoping to capture. How do I know that? Because after watching the commercial, I was intrigued by who these two guys were and although I’d be hard pressed to say that I’m a regular audience member, I can say that whenever I have the time to catch an episode of American Pickers, I’m there.
Maybe it’s time for you to find out if you’re an American Picker fan. At the very least, you might find out you’re an American Picker commercial fan. Ad truth be told, I’m looking forward to see what they’ll do to promote the show next season. Maybe they’ll consider doing something somewhat reminiscent of those Mr. Popeil or K-Tel Records commercials from the mid-70s. That would be interesting.
