Snuffy the seal! (Warning: black humor)

[dendawg]

Snuffy the seal gets returned to the sea.

Spoiler (Highlight below to read)

***It's a commercial for Shark Week***

[hinakiba777]

OH Discovery channel! You make such heartwarming ads for your channel.

[Aethian]

First time I saw that I was channel surfing and thought I hit a real news spot and quickly changed away. Second time I was watching something on discovery and had the nervous laugh.... After that I cheered for the shark since I knew they didn't use a real news article for the seal release.

[lordlundar]

Yeah, first time I saw that pretty much had on my face. It's one of my favorite ads now.

[Zellie Crescent]

Is it bad that the first time I saw that I laughed?

[bhskittykatt]

Is it bad that the first time I saw that I laughed?

If it is bad, then I'm a very bad girl.

[Eevie]

Yeah, first time I saw that pretty much had on my face. It's one of my favorite ads now.

That was me, too. I spewed the water I was drinking...

[wolfie]

I wonder if the name was chosen deliberately, because the seal gets "snuffed".

A couple things that grate on me about this one:
1) Sharks home in on their prey mainly by scent, and partly by sight. Attacks on surfers frequently break off after one "taste" - the shadow of the surfboard looks somewhat seal-like with the "flippers" paddling, but it tastes wrong. A seal being lowered in a sling wouldn't look like "normal" prey, and there would be no scent (out of the water), so a shark wouldn't go for it.

2) Clearly staged - the hardest part to make look good would be the shark actually chowing down on Snuffy. When the shark breaks out of the water, someone gets in the way of the camera to point it out (faster than human reaction time would allow), and when he gets out of the way all that's left is the shredded sling. I realize they have to fake some stuff, but don't make it obvious.

[lordlundar]

I don't dispute any of that wolfie but it was a commercial made for "silly shock value" so I give it a free pass.

Besides, it's only roughly 30 seconds. There's worse movies than that commercial.

[Ree]

2) Clearly staged

Well, yeah!
I would have thought that was obvious. LOL

[wolfie]

I realize that sometimes it's necessary to "enhance" reality for entertainment purposes, but what gets to me are the cheesy, obvious BAD fakes. Well-done SFX is still good TV.

[Ree]

Meh...it was a commercial.
It was meant to be silly and cheesy, I think.

I'd be more concerned with the reality of the SFX if it was an actual show or feature film.

[taxguykarl]

I wonder if the name was chosen deliberately, because the seal gets "snuffed".

That was my guess