One of the joys of being an uncle is that you get to baby-sit kids. Why is that so great? Well, it gives you a chance to watch children’s programming! And of course, that means you get to see advertising aimed at children all day long. Sounding good now? No?
Well without it, I would have missed this spot for Kraft Foods Lunchables, where a kid with no front teeth uses an orange rind for his school picture.* Okay, this is pretty weak. The orange smile is funny and all, but in the context of the ad, it’s pretty dumb. (Plus, they would never let you do this in your school picture anyway.) You see, they brag in the ad about how the packaged lunch now has mandarin orange sections, but then the kid still has to ask someone else for an orange peel to use for the school picture. So if he had just brought a sandwich and an orange to school, he would have been more prepared for his brilliant idea. (Yes, they have the temerity to suggest that eating their pre-packaged crap will inspire brilliant ideas.)
So I suppose the hidden message in this ad is that their food will inspire great ideas, but leave you at the mercy of the charity of others to be able to implement them. (So you’ll always be unprepared!) So if nobody had brought an orange, he would have been screwed; or even worse: if the only person with an actual whole orange had been the class bully, it would have gotten him beaten up before his class picture so he’d look back at that black eye in the school photo and relive that humiliating and painful beating for the rest of his life; and it’s all the fault of Lunchables! (Maybe they’ll pay for his therapy.) But seriously, wouldn’t you have thought of the orange-rind smile better if you had an actual real, fresh orange with you? (At least you wouldn’t have gotten that black eye and wedgie!)
* It looks like this (This page should have a girl with an orange peel smile; if not, please disregard.):
Here’s the ad (It’s cute, but really, this is false advertising.):
