Commercial CRitic: Hanes Are on Who?

Maybe I have been watching too much Jon & Kate Plus 8 or maybe the Commercial CRitic is getting to the adverting industry, but it seems there has been a serious drop off of athletes in commercials. However, since the guys who write the nonexistent checks will soon show up at my door with socks filled with lemons, I better write about something.

The Hanes commercials with Michael Jordan have irked me for some time now. The latest one features Hollywood banter between His Airness and Charlie Sheen. This is quite the marketing ploy by the Hanes Corporation. It seems Hanes is seeking the 40-50 year old male cheating divorcee demographic.

The commercial is obviously geared toward showing the casual male or family side of the actors. For instance, the commercial begins with MJ on the phone asking if his mother received the flowers. Why mom?

Enter Charlie Sheen who is now more famous for his bitter divorce to wild thing Denise Richards than his brilliant acting in Hot Shot Part Deux. Teamed up with R. Kelly inspiring Jordan who Forbes recently ranked as having the most costly celebrity divorce, you have the Ace & Gary Dynamic Duo of family life.

The lifestyles of these two may be inspiration to some (prolific gambler, prostitute connoisseur), but I would guess that many of us would prefer to play basketball or have the work ethic of Michael Jordan rather than his family life. (I am still trying to think of a reason to be like Charlie Sheen). Hanes may want to rethink its use of MJ, although 7.6 percent of the population is a male 40 -50 years old, approximately 15.3 percent are divorced, 80 percent wear undershirts and .8 percent of males have a favorable opinion of Charlie Sheen, that could total up to a lot of t-shirts.

Personally, having apple children like the Fruit of Loom guys seems like a better future to me than being in the tabloids for harassing my ex-wife.