Kay, I’ve heard Shrek 2 is pretty good, but I have no intention of seeing it because I didn’t like the first one, and totally didn’t understand why everyone thought it was the bees’ knees. It was my “Big Fat Greek Wedding” of that year.
But yet another reason why I’ll be avoiding it forever is that Shrek is in like, every other ad on TV. I can’t remember the last time a character was so over-exposed. I saw maybe two ads for the movie itself, then at least 10 others for other products — Sprite, Burger King, some cell phone…others I don’t recall. Some of the ads are clearly aimed at adults, not kids.
Is Shrek-mania really this prevalent? Is the world so hungry for Shrek that they’ll buy anything the stupid green ogre tells them to? Don’t the owners of all these companies think his persona is becoming washed out, as he shills for so many products?
I hear that Starbucks gets a pretty big plug in the movie itself, as well. I’m starting to wonder if Shrek 2 is a film or just one big advertisment.
TurtleHead 
just mentionned this post the other day, so I thought I’d clear things up.
All what you say might be true, but Shrek 2 doesn’t plug Starbucks, it takes a really funny stab at it. It’s a 2-second bit where a giant gingerbread man is moving through the village. The people are scared and are running about. You see the gingerbread man about to step on a Starbucks (it went by really fast, but I think it was actually called Farbucks). The people run out of the Starbucks screaming, and you see them run right across the road to another Starbucks. It was hilarious!
Well, I must admit that does sound pretty funny. But I’m still on my anti-Shrek rampage, having already seen him in THREE different commercials today, and I’ve only watched an hour of television! Seriously, I don’t get that at all.
Freaky side note, though — the day before yesterday I went to the video store to rent a movie, and I had Captain Jelly Belly with me, and he saw the Shrek DVD cover in the kid’s section and desperately wanted it. So I guess he knows something I don’t!
Maybe because it was bright and colourful? Or do you think all of that marketing has really been working on him?
I have no idea! It was freaky, he pointed right at it and started doing his sound that means “I want that.” I suspect he just liked the picture — usually he completely ignores the TV when it is on now.