When you’ve got three minutes, watch this from end to end:
If you’re a bum and didn’t watch it, here’s the outline of this long-form commercial:
- Two women are driving in an arid environment, appearing to be distracted and quiet;
- They roll into what is evidently the hometown of one of them, and, more precisely, to the childhood home of one of the women;
- They are warmly greeted by the mom (who is black);
- They are tepidly greeted by the dad (a white guy);
- They women hang out at the house and get chilly vibes from the dad repeatedly;
- The two women (who are quite obviously lovers by this point in the commercial) enjoy some Oreos together, which perhaps has some magical pixie dust power over their bigoted dad;
- In the early morning hours, he decides to treat his neighbors to permanently painting his fence as a giant rainbow flag;
- The dad, his daughter, and her girlfriend, all share a warm embrace as the redemption arc is complete.
I object to absolutely none of this, although I must offer three brief points:
- Would a black and white couple, who by definition are probably going to be pretty damned progressive, be anything but utterly supportive of their daughter’s life choices? Why not cast the parents as more obviously traditional if one of them is going to give his daughter trouble?
- Say, Dad, yours isn’t the only house in town. You really want to paint your entire fence with a series of bright colors for every single person on the street to look at until the end of time? And I’m not just talking pride flag colors. It would be just as bad if it were pink and purple stripes with stars.
- Most of all, the blatant use of this sentiment to hawk billions of chemical-and-crap-concoctions that are nothing but carbs and sugar down people’s gaping throats seems to me depressingly cynical.
Just sayin’.
