Best TV Commercial of 2016 ?

[sheepherder]

It's been pretty slow here lately, so here's a bit of miscellany...

There's been a TV commercial playing in WNY lately, it's probably been playing elsewhere for some time. (we're about 3 months behind SoCal). It's a Geico commercial without Flo, or the duck, or the gecko. It starts on a warm sunny Summer day, two kids sitting at a table on the front lawn. One black kid, one white. There's a black guy sitting a short way behind them. There's a sign on the table: "Lemonade", and a pitcher of yellow liquid and some cups on the table. The black guy is reading a newspaper or something.

(That's the 'setup'. I've watched at least three different versions of this commercial. One is only 30 seconds; the other two are the full 60 seconds.)

A woman walks up and says "Is that ice tea?". The two kids jump up and point at the 'lemonade' sign. (In one version, they just point at the sign). The black guys says "It's lemonade, lady. Read the sign!". She walks away and next a guy leading a dog walks up and says "Is that iced tea?". The black guy says "Read the sign. It's lemonade." The guy and dog walk away. Now a blond woman walks up smiling and says "Iced tea?". The black guy says "Read the sign lady! It's lemonade! Read! Delicious!". She walks away. The screen goes to a voiceover "Iced tea at a lemonade stand? Surprising! What's not surprising is Geico blah blah blah..."

In one version there's a post-script scene: a car driving by honks and a guy yells "Iced tea?. The black dude yells back "Lemonade! Read the sign, man!".

When I first saw this commercial I didn't 'get it'. I don't watch a lot of TV but I do enjoy watching Law & Order [the original series, ran 20 years, some 456 episodes] re-runs. I couldn't figure out the humor in the commercial - all Geico's commercials are humorous. Some pretty funny.

The second time it came on I watched the table. Maybe the pitcher had iced tea in it? No, that's not it - iced tea is brown, not yellow.

Spoiler alert!

The third time it came on I watched the black dude in the background. Maybe the newspaper? He looks kind of familiar...I suddenly realize he's a detective in the TV series "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"...His stage name is 'Ice-T'.

Now I'm laughing my ass off! Great commercial! A bit over my head (I'm a moron), but I finally 'got it'!

Ice-T at a lemonade stand!

The commercial seems to be evolving - maybe because of viewer reaction (or lack, in my case). The two kids no longer jump up. And the Ice-T dialog may have changed slightly.

But it's still funny! It gets my vote for Best Commercial of 2016!

It must be on YouTube by now. Google Images has a lot of cutscenes that are new to me, must be more versions of the ad coming. I don't watch the SuperBowl - was it a halftime commercial? Check it out if you haven't seen it!