How about a nice glass of cultural hegemony?
March 18, 2010 3:05 PM   Subscribe

Tropicana is running a TV ad here in Canada wherein a crew flies up to a remote community in the north, launches a weather balloon with a bunch of bright lights in it and distributes free orange juice to the locals. A lot of people seem to think this ad is really charming. Wade Davis probably wouldn't agree. (previously)
posted by Bartonius (20 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Uh, you were arguing about this on Tropicana's facebook page and then made a post around it here including a link to that page? This feels a little too much like using mefi as a personal soapbox under the cirumstances. -- cortex



 
I like ads like this. I accept it if that makes me a bad person.
posted by ColdChef at 3:13 PM on March 18, 2010


Wade thinks that they celebrate the fucking darkness north of the Arctic Circle? They don't.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 3:15 PM on March 18, 2010 [2 favorites]


Yeah, seems pretty cool. Free OJ for everyone and then left a bunch of cash to local charities? Not too shabby, I'd say.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 3:16 PM on March 18, 2010


There's a special level of hell for marketers who make sentimental commercials about shitty products.
posted by cloeburner at 3:17 PM on March 18, 2010 [1 favorite]


A regular carton of juice costs a fortune up north so I doubt anyone would turn down a free 500 ml bottle of juice AKA about $10.
posted by GuyZero at 3:18 PM on March 18, 2010


I've seen this ad more than a few times, and it always creeps me out. It's representative of a lot of the problems and challenges the human race is facing: unnatural weather (there's *not* supposed to be sunlight at this time of year), especially in the high Arctic; disruptive technological change that affects people's (traditional) lifestyles; wasteful use of energy for a meaningless and unsustainable stunt; the sheer waste (in terms of energy) of filming a commercial in the high Arctic; the amount of energy it takes to ship in processed foods like orange juice, not only to the Arctic, but also anywhere in the world; the surreal orange colours are just plain discordant with what ought to be.

Just weird.
posted by KokuRyu at 3:19 PM on March 18, 2010 [5 favorites]




There's *not* supposed to be light in my house at night. Creepy.
posted by found missing at 3:28 PM on March 18, 2010


They do have artificial lights in Inuvik, and have had for a while now. Your concern for the disruption of traditional lifestyles is unwarranted.
posted by rocket88 at 3:30 PM on March 18, 2010 [3 favorites]


I don't know about the balloon but free orange juice is always a good thing in my book. On the contrary, listening to this Wade Davis fellow saying "aprophical" over and over again was not such a good thing.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 3:31 PM on March 18, 2010 [4 favorites]


Here is a page that is about diarrhea.

Sadly, it is about diarrhea.

Happily, it contains no advertising.
posted by gum at 3:32 PM on March 18, 2010


There's *not* supposed to be light in my house at night. Creepy.

You don't have to find it creepy. You also don't have to be passive-aggressively or snarky.
posted by KokuRyu at 3:32 PM on March 18, 2010


I've seen this ad more than a few times

You're *not* supposed to see things that aren't actually happening in your house.
posted by longsleeves at 3:34 PM on March 18, 2010


You haven't even watched the commercial, have you?
posted by KokuRyu at 3:36 PM on March 18, 2010


I think you could be pissed off at a lot worse things than this. Pissin' in the wind, fellas.
posted by Malice at 3:37 PM on March 18, 2010


I like the song they used. To the commercial itself, I say meh.
posted by Go Banana at 3:38 PM on March 18, 2010


Why not send balloon boy over the place in his balloon?
posted by Postroad at 3:39 PM on March 18, 2010


I saw this commercial on TV the other day and thought it was kind of neat, mostly for the visual effect of a little portable "sun".

Oh, and happy first FPP Bartonius!
posted by FishBike at 3:43 PM on March 18, 2010 [1 favorite]


It's March Madness and I'm in a gambling mood. What's the over/under on how soon that Bill Hicks routine is posted?
posted by Ian A.T. at 3:48 PM on March 18, 2010


It's March Madness and I'm in a gambling mood. What's the over/under on how soon that Bill Hicks routine is posted?

cloeburner's comment doesn't count?
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 3:50 PM on March 18, 2010


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