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steepholmWhen I was finishing my PhD I tried to get a job with the marketing department of Rowntree's chocolate factory in York, where I was then living. It's lucky I failed, because had I known it they were about to be bought up by the evil Nestlé corporation, and I'd have had to resign almost immediately.
In those days I was a great admirer of Rowntree's advertising (the Kit Kat panda ad is perhaps the most famous). But the Rowntree crown was soon to be stolen by Marmite, who took the old "love it or hate it" adage about their product and ran with it in a way that makes Pheidippides look like a sprinter. Here's an early effort on that theme, from some time in the early 2000s:
Simple, yes, but ground-breaking in that the entire advert is based around someone hating the product.
After that, they became far more sophisticated, and developed a brilliant line in spoofs on TV genres. Here they are riffing on the animal rescue programmes:
For a long time, I thought they wouldn't top that. But now, along comes the DNA test reveal advert. This, in my opinion, is simply genius. Here is modern Britain in a nutshell (not that Marmite contains nuts):
In those days I was a great admirer of Rowntree's advertising (the Kit Kat panda ad is perhaps the most famous). But the Rowntree crown was soon to be stolen by Marmite, who took the old "love it or hate it" adage about their product and ran with it in a way that makes Pheidippides look like a sprinter. Here's an early effort on that theme, from some time in the early 2000s:
Simple, yes, but ground-breaking in that the entire advert is based around someone hating the product.
After that, they became far more sophisticated, and developed a brilliant line in spoofs on TV genres. Here they are riffing on the animal rescue programmes:
For a long time, I thought they wouldn't top that. But now, along comes the DNA test reveal advert. This, in my opinion, is simply genius. Here is modern Britain in a nutshell (not that Marmite contains nuts):
(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-11 01:03 pm (UTC)And the DNA rescue ad: several of the scenarios I don't follow. Just one example: the middle-aged couple where the wife is asking the husband, "Have you ever done it here, in this house? On this table?" What is she asking him if he's done? Eating Marmite behind her back? But there's a jar of Marmite on the table as they talk. Or is his crime eating something else in its place? That wouldn't have the same punch, and if he hates Marmite how has he disguised his hate all this time, or is it merely a mild dispreference, which would really lack punch?
By the way, for an extremely vintage - like 1950s - American equivalent, of commercials based on people hating the product, see these unashamedly violent coffee ads by Jim Henson featuring proto-Muppets.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-11 01:48 pm (UTC)Wny do people have pets and then neglect them? But the taking for granted that they would have Marmite - what self-respecting household wouldn't? - is part of the joke, I think.
The DNA ad contains variants on several different kinds of family revelation: "You're father's not who you think", "Dad, I'm gay", "I've been having an affair", etc. If you watch again you will see that the husband admits (with an attempt at dignity, that hesitation as he musters the courage cracks me up), "I prefer jam". It's the jam eating that his wife quizzes him about and sees as unconscionable. How he managed to disguise his hatred of Marmite all this time we'll never know, but desperation can make deceivers very ingenious. ("I am so stupid," says the wife, like so many before her.)
(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-11 02:24 pm (UTC)"But the taking for granted that they would have Marmite - what self-respecting household wouldn't? - is part of the joke, I think." Then the commercial's joke should have been forcing jars of Marmite on people whether they want it or not.
"The DNA ad contains variants on several different kinds of family revelation" I got that. The problem was that the individual revelations didn't parse when you put the Marmite template on.
"If you watch again" I did, after writing, and it seems to me that one shouldn't be expected to do that kind of close reading on a 90-second TV commercial. There were so many intercut storylines I couldn't follow them all. I had to rewatch while looking just for this one.
"It's the jam eating that his wife quizzes him about and sees as unconscionable." OK, that answers that, but it gives the sequence the less coherent reading. It totally lacks any punch, or even sense, the way it's given. He didn't say he hated Marmite, only that he prefers jam, which could explain how he could eat it - the presmise of these commercials is that people who hate Marmite find it utterly repugnant (see the first ad of the man on the park bench) - but which lacks the shock of the intended revelation. And while I could read one as being shocked that a spouse secretly liked Marmite if the household rule were against it, I can't see a shock at ever having something else. The wife's language (the "I am so stupid") is that of marital betrayal, and in that case I could see her being shocked that he ever had jam. But that doesn't work in this context for two reasons, one being that adultery is an entirely different parallel premise from the DNA testing of this ad, and the other that "I prefer jam" is not the equivalent of the language of a man confessing adultery or even asking for a divorce, at least not in the kind of movies being used as a template here.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-11 03:43 pm (UTC)The general answer to your other points is that the very variety of genres and situations it alludes to and its lightness of touch in doing so, which you see as inconsistency, is precisely what I like about it.
Oh, and "He didn't say he hated Marmite, only that he prefers jam"? But that's how he said he hated Marmite! I refer you to the drunken national stereotyping of a previous entry:
If an American thinks it's a bad idea, they'll say, "That's a bad idea."
If an English person thinks it's a bad idea, they'll say, "That's a very brave suggestion."
If a Japanese person thinks it's a bad idea, they'll say, "The weather's been hot, recently, hasn't it?"
(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-11 04:03 pm (UTC)If those are the reasons for having Marmite despite not using it, the rescue service parallel reads as offensively totalitarian rather than humanitarian.
Oh, I get that the other ad has a variety of genres and situations, but they don't consistently read coherently within the DNA testing template. The one I mentioned would read better in an adultery template.
Ah, but if that's the national stereotype, then the man in the park bench ad would be far too reserved to react with violent revulsion to the offered sandwich. I myself, though an outspoken American and not British at all, have quietly and calmly eaten foods I dislike when they were served to me, even by other Americans, to be polite.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-12 06:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-12 06:19 pm (UTC)