CNN cut away from live coverage of Ukraine's air-raid sirens following Russia's invasion for an Applebee's commercial - and the transition was jarring.
On Thursday, the news outlet aired footage of buildings in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv as air sirens can be heard in the background.
Then in a matter of seconds, the Ukrainian coverage cuts to an in-picture Applebee's commercial advertising "A little bit of chicken fried" and "cold beer on Friday nights".
This is just brutal timingpic.twitter.com/n4MeLZZ3Xt— whitesoxdave (@whitesoxdave) 1645717129
People were quite taken aback by the transition and had many things to say, from jokes to the state of society.
"If they all just waited to have a cold beer on a Friday night at Applebee's, maybe they would have reconsidered!" one wrote.
"Man, if that doesn't sum up the stat of society these days, I don't know what does," another added.
A third wrote: "I think we could all use a beer right now, the entire planet. I don't even like beer, but I'll have one."
Check out some other responses below:
pic.twitter.com/D2BjNHfLEf— Aaron Yorke (@Aaron Yorke) 1645720936
The almighty dollar\u2026 why the fuck are they running ads during this coverage? @CNN— FrankY in DFW (@FrankY in DFW) 1645717556
pic.twitter.com/3g5gDCx9re— Eugene AJ Freeman (@Eugene AJ Freeman) 1645719206
crying that they put the live war coverage picture-in-picture to give you an important update on chicken nuggets— ayo tautology (@ayo tautology) 1645719476
Imagine Russian state TV running a Appleborscht ad in the middle of that shit?— frank (@frank) 1645718072
This isn't the first time Applebee's commercials had less than perfect timing on networks.
In August 2020, CNN's Brianna Keilar was covering broadway star Nick Cordero's passing from Covid-19 and introducing her upcoming interview with another person battling symptoms before the screen faded to a family walking to Applebee's.
This transition entirely fucked me uppic.twitter.com/9cmfU4hc8x— Ryan Masri (@Ryan Masri) 1594057406
And in 2017, as FX networks showed the 2012 film Prometheus, particularly a scene where someone was getting torched with a fire hose, it cut to a commercial break of an Applebee's burger with bacon, fried onion and barbeque sauce.
This has to be the best-timed commercial break I've ever seen.pic.twitter.com/CrDK1UArYr— Kris Pigna (@Kris Pigna) 1505789845
Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.