Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Cotton Joke Ad

The recent ad campaign for cotton is pretty good. It shows people in clothes they love, and they tell you why they love them. It’s a good ad. But it’s also really easy to make fun of. (I couldn’t help reflexively making fun of it.) Here one example:

A young man walks into a laundry room and says: “I love my clothes because they shrink down three sizes in the dryer,” and then we see him take out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that look like they are toddler-size. Then a young woman says: “I love this dress because when I sit down on it, the wrinkles look like crumpled aluminum foil all day on my butt,” and then she stands up, turns around, and accurately demonstrates the truth of that statement. Then we see some tween wearing torn jeans say: “I love these jeans because I can tear holes in them so easily,” and then we see their mother looking angrily at them, saying: “You’re not going out in those, young (man/lady)!” And next we see a man dancing at an outdoor party in a thick cotton t-shirt soaked through with sweat, and he says: “I love this shirt because when I sweat, it absorbs it and gets all heavy rather than allowing it to evaporate,” and then we see him spin around, flinging sweat from his soaked shirt, disgusting the people around him. Then the announcer says it’s because they’re made of cotton, the fabric of failure.

(Actually, I like cotton, but not for any of the reasons listed above. The original ad is right: it’s comfortable. But it also has its issues.)

Here’s the reasonable favorite cotton commercial: