I’ve made a special effort this year to sit back, relax and watch the winter olympics in Torino. It’s not often that you get to see people screaming down a track of ice on a small sled at 80 miles per hour. I have to admit that I even found myself watching a curling “match” (if that’s what you call it) the other day and I was unable to peel myself from the television to make dinner.

In the midst of these exciting competitive events have been a lot of olympic related ads. It seems that advertisers have gone out of their way to make olympic inspired ads, presumably under the assumption that those ads would appeal to people watching the olympics. My overall perception of a lot of these ads, however, is that they are ads for the olympics themselves. There are several ads for which I really, really have to think back to what the ad was for.

One example is the one where a husband and wife are watching an ice dancing competition on TV, and decide they’re going to go out to the old pond and give it a try themselves. They dance on the ice to “The Hustle”, and the clumsy husband slides into the flimsy skate rental shack, causing a large sheet of ice to “total” the family car. The first time, I saw the ad, I thought it was going to be for Viagra or some other ED medication. Then, I thought maybe it was an ad for a new NBC show - something along the lines of “The Wonder Years” or “Freaks and Geeks”. In actuality, the ad is for AllState insurance. You see, next time you bump into the old skate shack, it’s no problem because you’re in good hands. That was surprising to me, but not surprising enough to make me remember it was an AllState ad the next time I saw it.

Another example are the multitude of Visa commercials. Visa used to be “Everywhere you want to be”. Now, “Life takes Visa”. These ads are all about all the things that life takes. Life takes determination (for when you’re eating a Galapagos turtle sized hamburger), life takes risk (for using expired milk), life takes luck (while you’re bowling), life takes exploration (in the library), etc. The first time I saw this one, I wasn’t really sure what it was about. I thought it was going to be some motivational thing that ended in “life takes Jesus”. Jesus, however, does not give you the “freedom to live life the way you want”. Visa apparently does.

Although I was a bit confused by the Visa ads at first, I have to admit that like any good tagline, “Life takes Visa” has really grown on me. Although the start has been disappointing, I think it’s a solid campaign and I’m excited to see where they’ll take it next. It’s such a good play on the word “take”. After all, you might ask the clerk at the corner store whether they take Visa. Now, life takes Visa. For everything else, there’s Mastercard.