I'm Just About "Shreked" Out

The release of the third movie in the Shrek series is serious cause to celebrate... if you're Dreamwork's accounting department. The rest of us will see it as yet another sequel that may or may not be enjoyable. But judging by the amount of exposure the Shrek characters are getting by appearing in commercials for other products unrelated to the movie, you'd think that someone, somewhere somehow hasn't gotten enough of these computer animated screwballs.

Studies conclude that the average American watches 28 hours of television a week. Of those 28 hours, approximately 18% (5.04 hours) of that time, you'll see a commercial featuring a character from the beloved Shrek series. Furthermore, of those 5 odd hours, only 22 minutes of those Shrek commercials will actually be for the movie itself.*

*SOURCE: My ass

Shrek and friends can be seen hawking goods for Hewlett Packard, M&M's and, of course, McDonald's with the routine Happy Meal toy and collector's glasses. The latter seems a tad hypocritical seeing as they've also been featured in a public service commercial that attempts to get kids to go outside more and get some exercise. Perhaps the message should have been, "Hey kids go outside and while you're there, waddle you're thunder thighs over to McDonald's to get cool new Shrek the Third toys!" And now I'm being a tad hypocritical since I just had McDonald's for lunch. But in my defense, I went inside blindfolded so I didn't suffer any of that "Shrek Optical Overload" that's been plaguing the county.

There are already plans for at least two more Shrek movies before we all band together and fire up a petition calling for an immediate cease to any further Scottish accent by Mike Myers - whether it be for an animated family film or to entertain his in-laws in the privacy of his own home. Maybe by then he'll go back to making more increasingly disappointing sequels for the Austin Powers series and perhaps see if he can't beat Eddie Murphy's record for most roles played in a single movie.