Tuesday, February 19, 2013

New Grey Poupon “Pardon Me” Ad

The AP reports today that there will be a new version of the old classic Grey Poupon ad where two upper-crust Brits in Rolls Royces share a jar of Grey Poupon Dijon mustard, and in this version, the man who borrows the jar absconds with the highbrow mustard and makes his escape, only to be chased down by the angry mustard owner in a slam-bang James Bondian car chase with secret weapon gadgets and the whole nine yards. Now this is really fun and everything, and I really like this idea. But if they want to go upscale and classic on the older crowd, I think I have an idea that might just work for the PBS set: Make a Downton Abbey tie-in ad for Grey Poupon!

I’m sure that all they’d have to do at Kraft Foods is to sponsor Downton Abbey, and then they could probably get Lord Grantham himself to stop and hand a jar to some other regional aristocrat while out in the country. I mean, for an ad, of course; not as product placement. But Lord Grantham would be the perfect guy to either ask for or be asked for Grey Poupon. And I think that since the Grey Poupon ad is such a well-known and well-loved classic, fans of Downton Abbey would probably find it quite amusing to be remade like the original but with the period cars and clothes and characters of Downton Abbey.

Actually, come to think of it, perhaps a Downton Abbey Grey Poupon ad could have Matthew Crawley driving recklessly towards the end of the Season III finale, and some other aristocrat on the road honks at him, gets him to pull over, asks for some Grey Poupon, takes the jar from our young hero, and in the background we see the truck that Matthew Crawley got into the fatal car accident with (well, he drove off the road to miss hitting it and died, anyway) drive by, showing us how Grey Poupon Dijon mustard has saved his life through a twist of fate! And if too many fans are angry about Matthew Crawley’s death, then Season IV of Downton Abbey could open with his death being his wife’s nightmare, and then we cut to what really happens, which is this “ad” for Grey Poupon. (So the product placement would be what saves a beloved character’s life: perhaps a first in TV history!)

Here’s the condiment car chase commercial:


And here’s the classic condiment commercial: