Do I remind you more of Gingy, or Marshie?
September 4, 2005, 9:44 PM
A customer today at work said that I reminded her of Gingy, the little gingerbread man from Shrek that Wal-Mart turned into their little mascot when they dressed him in a blue vest for a few commercials. May I remind you for a moment:
And they said that I reminded them of Gingy. Mental reaction: Now I’ve heard it all. Outward reaction: “Oh, really?”
Still, I admit that Gingy has a special place in my heart, because his first commercial, the one where he’s driving through the store in his little Jeep, driving past all kinds of toys and stuff, is the spot that Wal-Mart was running when I first got the job, so I was looking at him in that vest and wondering if I would wear it myself one day.
Now of the two Gingy spots, however, I like the second one, where he’s sitting in a Radio Grill talking to Albert, whom I presume, based on the commercial, is a people greeter. I just love the line, “Do you think my size is a problem?” to which Albert replies, “You’re as big as you think you are.”
Although I don’t think I would exactly compare myself to Gingy as much as I would compare myself to Marshie, the mascot for Fluffy Puff Marshmallows, found on homestarrunner.com. This is Marshie:
Marshie is really over-the-top cheerful, which I can be sometimes when I’m having a good day and just really going. Marshie seems to be a very over-caffeinated little marshmallow, which is how I seem to be sometimes. But it’s all good. I just think I’m a little closer to Marshie than to Gingy. Either way, both are very happy little characters.
Also, it’s funny… when I was looking up some Gingy information to get the screen shots for this Journal entry, I actually found Quicktime clips of both of the aforementioned spots that Gingy was in. And in rewatching the clip with Gingy running through the toy department after a year and some change of time under my belt with Wal-Mart, I just have to say one thing: As someone who is on our store’s Risk Control Team (safety team), I would be stopping Gingy in his tracks.
Seriously. Instead of complimenting him on his energy, I’d bend over and pick up Gingy’s little Jeep and ask him what on Earth he was doing. He’s swerving through the aisles at high speed, cutting customers off, and becoming airborne by running over merchandise. How unsafe can you get? And let’s not forget some Ninja Turtles toys on the floor in one aisle saying hello to Gingy. Some poor customer could slip and fall on those. However, the rest of the department was neatly zoned.
All I have to say is, I hope Gingy got coached for that (“coaching” is Wal-Mart speak for getting written up). And if he got coached, he learned his lesson, because he was a lot safer in the second commercial where he was going to be a greeter, except for that sitting-on-the-table thing.
Still, I thought that was amusing that the customer compared me to Gingy, though I think that I resemble Marshie more than Gingy. Plus I got to watch the commercials over again, to realize how much of a hazard Gingy really is.
Web site: Page with the Gingy spots on it
Song: "Forever Young" from the second Care Bears movie
Quote: From a Cheat Commandos Os commercial:
Marshie: Sergeant Marshie reporting for duty, sir!
Gunhaver: Would somebody get this flying cotton ball outta my face?
Categories: Advertising, Homestar Runner, Walmart