Maybe it's the result of budget cuts, maybe there's some new synergistic advertising model that has escaped my attention, but has anyone else noticed the recent rash of commercials that are very nearly identical? And I'm not talking about the endless cycle of extreme-soda lifestyle ads.

The most evident of these is the Red Stripe-New York Lottery Simulacra. Red Stripe's “Hooray Beer!' campaign (which must be offensive to someone) features a few Rasta's plugging the beer through thick Jamaican accents. Compare with New York Lottery's “Winner Wonderland' campaign, similarly Rasta-inflected (I haven't been able to find any of these online). Both work the same lo-fi look, their respective scripts are indistinguishable, and casual study suggests they were both shot on the same set.

And then there are the “Raised by Wolves' Simulacra. Spots for both Honda Pilot and Quizno's feature pasty, middle-aged men who were raised by the aforementioned wolves. Has this idea been floating around in the ether? Is this like Tesla and Marconi inventing the radio within days of each other? What in the hell is going on here?

Indeed, these correspondences raise many questions, most significantly, why am I watching so much TV? Ad Report Card has already tackled the Quizno's spot, but where's Rob Walker when you need him? In the meanwhile, we can only pray that Old Navy's Fran Drescher-Lil' Kim ads don't find a second life.