For my first post here I think I'll start out with an ad that intrigued me greatly and is still stuck in my mind (a testament to the skill of the person who conceived of it.)
The ad in question was for one of America's great corporate pillars, McDonald's. Perhaps you've heard of them? They sure spend enough money to make sure that's the case.
McDonald's is a company who's ads more often then not fall into the offensive category, sometimes I even find them absolutely unbearable. For instance, the chicken nugget R&B song.
I dare not even get into the absurd attempts at slang re-appropriation (see above image)
However rather then ranting about the boiling rage and/or sickness that ads of this nature cause me I'd like to reflect on one of their successes. An add for a breaded fish sandwich that causes me endless amusement, for lack of a better name I'll call it the Dadaist McD's fish ad.
Please, before reading on view the ad and take a moment to reflect on the thoughts and feelings it may have induced.
Upon first view of this add I was filled with anger (I know, I said I wouldn't go there, please bear with me) Not however for the usual reasons. At the end of the ad I was filled with rage for having been so well tricked! How could I live with myself after having enjoyed an ad for McDonalds? I've since come to terms with the fact that I had no choice, which led me to wonder why?
After some reflection I think I may have it figured out, so here is my go at explaining it.
I imagine a creative director at some hired ad agency, in full awareness of the lame nature of the majority of McD's ad portfolio contemplating how to catch someone similarly aware.
How do you cheat someone, like myself for instance, who changes the channel when faced with the same disgusting repeated attempts at marketing?
So they take a page from cigarette marketing strategy. Forced by media regulation cigarette companies can no longer show their product while trying to sell it, so instead they show a scene of pleasure, a party, a couple laughing, accompanied by the name of the brand in question. You learn nothing about the product other then the name, but in your mind you have the brand subtly intertwined with a desirable image, like the enduring Marlboro man.
Although McD's can legally display the health degrading items they sell they seem to have realized that it's not always in their best interest to do so right away.
In the ad in question, at four seconds we see in the corner of the screen a characteristic McDonald's bag, however it is very small, surely not the emphasis, for you only see it for a second before it cuts to a close up of a man eating the sandwich in question (at six seconds) The man seems to be in somewhat of a trance, not paying any attention to the odd singing fish on the wall, at which point (ten seconds) another man who one can assume is his friend walks in holding a power drill (perhaps man number one is taking a break from a project they are working on together?) he stops and looks at the still singing fish (twelve seconds) then moving nothing but his pupils he looks to man number one. The demeanor of man number two suggests something in between fear and disbelief at the apparent trance man number one seems to be in. man number one shrugs with his eyebrows as if to suggest something like 'what're you gona do? this is the world we live in and I'm okay with it.' after which (seventeen seconds) they cut to the sales pitch, close up on the sandwich, then some fries, followed by a refreshing view of soda cascading over ice into a paper cup.
The song of the fish, from what I could make out is something like "Give me that (something incomprehensible) fish, give me that fish! ohh! Give me that (something incomprehensible) fish, give me that fish! What if it were you hanging up on this wall? If it were you in that sandwich you wouldn't be laughing at all!" This song is up to interpretation, I would say the latter part is a nod to all of the movements that fight the corporate food system, mocking their minor results when fighting the buying power of companies like McD's, because everyone is laughing regardless of the poor fish.
I would say overall the ad is a commentary on the total power of the corporate machine that leaves us in a trance state of careless consumption that we just have to except. Looking in on it from an outsider perspective it seems to be utterly insane, but as a part of the system the easiest thing to do is just sit back and eat your sandwich.
This (I cringe at calling it) artistic composition lulls the critic and the anti-comercialist into a false sense of security, at which point the selling can start. Much like a cigarette add it relates something enjoyable to something undesirable, and it's all done in a span of thirty seconds.
