During the 100th Rose Bowl, I saw an ad for Lay's Potato Chips using Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. I guess this is supposed to show how delicious the potato chips are, because Mrs. Potato Head is willing to engage in cannibalism (*Gasp!*) to enjoy their savory goodness. And that's suitably atrocity-y for a junk food commercial, what with all the trans-fats and carbs and the obesity epidemic and everything. (That's obviously the ad strategy here: show they're delicious, but remind us that it's an abomination to eat junk food, because they feel guilty marketing such unhealthy snacks, right? What else could it mean?) But the fact is, it's not really the heinous act it appears to be, because Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head are not, strictly speaking, actually potatoes: they're plastic. (It's like when someone is named Green: they're not actually green, it's just their name. It's a moniker, not a defining or descriptive term.) So Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head are merely pretenders, or poseurs if you like: they're just trying to fool us into thinking they're potatoes, but they're really plastic toys; so eating potato chips, or any kind of potatoes: baked, mashed, french fries, home fries, etc., really, is fine for them. It's not like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre or some backwoods serial killer cannibal movie or anything for them to eat potato chips. So it's just the fact that as junk food, potato chips are unhealthy that's the issue here horrifying poor Mr. Potato Head: he's trying to lead a healthy lifestyle, and he just caught his wife cheating on their diet.
Here's the crunchy cannibalistic con commercial:
http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7fqJ/lays-the-potatoheads
Oh, and at the end of the spot, as the tag, Mr. Potato Head tries a chip with the understanding that it's their little secret, but he's being filmed for a television commercial, and she must have known, so his wife has betrayed him! How can he ever trust her again? In fact, how does he know she won't make potato chips out of him while he's sleeping? (Because he's plastic. Plastic chips aren't that yummy. Unless she really is a cannibal...!)
(BTW: I'm just being a smartass jokester above; but this is a fun, creative ad. Nice job!)
