The other day while watching a local Mexican TV show to improve my Spanish (yeah, right), this unsettling TV commercial was shown. Several teenagers, carrying their bottles of pop (the advertised product), wanted to go swimming at a public pool. Unfortunately, it was closed. They decided to break into the place. They were clever in committing their criminal act. One girl took an instamatic picture of the undisturbed pool and taped it to the video security camera so the napping doofus security guard would see only the before-the-breaking-and-entering-scene on his monitors. Then over the wall they all went--chortling, frolicking and having all sorts of fun after they had just broken the law. Soon the photo of the undisturbed pool scene blows off the security camera and the jig is up. The guard comes unglued and rushes into the pool area only to be overcome by a scene of fun-filled excitement. The next thing you know, he is drinking the advertised pop with the little law-breaking hooligans and starts having a gay old time. I wonder what is going on here? Now, before you jump to any conclusions, let me tell you this. A well-known American soft drink company manufactures the soft drink advertised in this Mexican TV commercial" ?one you would immediately recognize if I had the guts to tell you the brand. You know this commercial had to be produced in the United States (there wasn't a Mexican among any of the actors) and approved by an American advertising executive who probably would say he or she thought the commercial was "cute"?. What is the message this TV commercial is sending to its ever-so-obvious target audience--teenagers? 1. If the object you are seeking is denied you then you should use whatever means necessary to get it. 2. Adults are stupid idiots that can be easily hoodwinked. But, if they catch you doing something wrong, you can still win them over with your youthful exuberance. 3. You can escape the consequences of wrongdoing by tricking or fooling adults. Will someone tell me what this commercial has to do with the refreshing taste of a soft drink? No one in the ad ever talked about the drink. Remember what ads used to be like? "Yummy...This sure tastes good. It is so much better than that other icky soft drink. Won't you run out to the store and buy some?"? Whatever happened to TV commercials where someone talks about the product and compares it to the other brand with a sneering grimace on his or her face? I realize that companies have to push their product somehow to make their stockholders happy campers. I am all for that. However, just how does a bunch of kids breaking into a closed swimming pool and seeking to deceive the security guard have anything to do with drinking the soft drink? And then, to show the adult in the commercial as incapable of thinking, "Oh! Perhaps I should call the cops and then detain these little varmints until the authorities can arrest their little butts and take them away." This is, I fear, NAFTA's contribution to the Americanizing of Mexico. The Mexican airways are now full of senseless American advertising. The TV stations play commercials that show criminal acts or parental disobedience that are supposed to somehow make you want to run out and buy their wonderful products. This makes me so mad that I think I shall switch to drinking something non-cola. Oops! |
