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Best TV Commercial

Bad Boys Bail Bonds

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Published on May 15, 2002

A main staple between episodes of Jerry Springer and Divorce Court is an amazing series of commercials targeting today's career criminals. The ads have a delicious offensiveness (although we're still not sure if it's on purpose) packed into every second of airtime. Their main character is a linebacker-size man in a woman's housedress, curlers, and fuzzy slippers, who, from behind an ironing board, pleads in falsetto for viewers to seek help from their local bail bondsmen. He/she has made the tag line "Baby, 'cause your mama wants you home!" the latest catch phrase. The commercials' sheer gall and tactlessness have shaped them into the epitome of New Millennium Camp, and it's impossible not to laugh at the ads' overt mockery of the very people they are targeting. We couldn't help but wonder just how much business "Mama" was pulling in. So we called Bad Boys and asked. "Let's just say it pays for itself," said Bad Boys' owner, Jeff Stanley. We weren't at all shocked when he excitedly told us of Mama's popularity and growing fan base. Apparently that old saying is wrong: Crime does pay, like a mother--.