Friday, September 18, 2015

Trident Fifth Dentist Ad

For as long as I can remember understanding spoken language, I have been aware of the Trident Gum ad claim that: “four out of five dentists surveyed recommend sugarless gum to their patients who chew gum.” This ad strategy has worked for years, and apparently is plenty memorable on its own. But the recent ad for Trident Gum showing what may have happened to the fifth dentist to cause them to say no not only drives the claim/slogan even further into my memory, it provides a wonderfully funny payoff to this advertising strategy that’s been rattling around in my head for so many years.

So, as we all know, the survey of the five dentists takes place, and they all say: “Yes!” (Presumably to the question of whether or not they recommend sugarless gum to their patients who chew gum, but as we don’t actually see the question posed, it could have been about anything. But I trust ad claims, don’t you?), except for the fifth dentist, who I’m guessing would have said yes as well, but you see, a funny thing happened: a squirrel ran through the window and across the room and then ran up the fifth dentist’s leg inside his pants leg, and then presumably chomped down upon his gonads, as an in joke because squirrels like nuts. (Actually, the “nuts” joke is a bit much for me in a gum commercial, but I love the idea of the fifth dentist having something painful or catastrophic happen, causing him to say no, rather than actually opposing the recommendation of sugarless gum to his patients who chew gum.)

Here’s the silly sugarless squirrel spot:


And here’s an earlier version of the same ad from a few years ago: