Just... eugh...

You know what else is disturbing?

THIS!

...

I don’t know how to imbed youtubes, so have an elegant and finely-crafted link instead. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck14LKBI9GM&NR=1

Okay, so apparently this is French.

I’m just going to dive right into this.

Starts off with an anthropmorphic deer of some sort on a swing. Simple enough.  Verdant field, lots of color (mostly green, but bright) relatively simple stuff for an add featuring apparently an animal. Then a bear shows up and goes to attack it… except no, he’s just here to steal the deer’s juice. He pours it on the ground, flowers appear… and then things start to go a bit wonky.

The flowers are apparently mandragora or something, since they’re shaped like women. The bear offers the flower, the deer gets a bit intimate, and swings back to land on a bed of the flowers (which have conveniently repositioned themselves)

Cut to… poledancing flamingos. Because, hey, why not?

Suddenly the forest is apparently a strip joint. The chairs are big oranges, there is some kind of hideous octopus lady in a bikini pouring drinks (orange juice, the product being sold). The deer gets jealous, and puts on a stipshow to prove she’s hotter, I guess. There are apparently hermaphroditic peacocks performing as background singers, since I’m pretty sure only male peacocks have the tails like that.

The bear gets up to do his only dance thing... he slides through a row of zebra’s legs…

Look, it’s a really weird commercial, okay?

And I feel dirty just having seen it. So lets analyze it. This is another example of sex sells. Pretty plain and simple. I suppose they could be trying to market to the furry crowd with this, but the way I figure it, having animals instead of real people just lets them get away with so much more due to cartoonishness. Ties into the theme of ‘natural’ness as well. Thank god they didn’t draw the link between natural and o’naturel.

But why did they go this path? What argument are they trying to construct with this… thing.

Everything in the clip screams adult. This isn’t normally something you would expect out of something with animals, but it pretty thouroughly does. What’s the association then? Well, if this is all adult, then clearly the beverage in question must be adult as well. That’s right! Orange juice isnt just for kids anymore, now its for… stripper… animal bear… people…

Well, now its for adults, anyway. They seem to use the orange juice as a standin for champaign too, so by linking it with an alcoholic beverage they further associate that its not something for kids. Though it is france, so that might not be culturally accurate.

Other ads in the campaign continue the theme of really creepily suggestive animal people using the juice as a stand in for something only adults would use, such as a mountain lion (I think), using it as aftershave. The ad ends with the lions gay lover/roommate/hilariously-naked-stranger stroking his chin seductively.

So whats the moral of the story?

Don’t drink orange juice in france.
You have no idea where it’s been.