I've recently noticed a new trend within food commercials. Trivial? Yes. Worth investigating? Absolutely.
Maybe you've noticed it too. I call it the "Food Guru Ad Series." In each commercial, one guy tells another, younger guy about the wonders of a particular food item. This type of ad has recently become pretty popular. And it all started with Snickers.
The Snickers Song
Timeline: First Food Guru ad. Therefore, most creative.
Plot: A black man is sitting in an office eating a Snickers bar. A white, older male in a suit approaches with a guitar. "Can I help you enjoy that Snickers?" Then he sings, "Happy peanuts soar, over chocolate-covered mountain tops and waterfalls of caramel. Prancing nougat in the meadow sings a song of satisfaction to the world." Then the guy eating the candy bar looks at it in amazement and exclaims in a whisper, "The world!" The older gentleman pats him on the shoulder and says, "That's right."
Other template used: Previous Snickers commercial with same singer in same suit singing same song with same guitar, but without anybody on-screen to mentor.
The moral: Snickers is a global sensation, and you too can join in the fun.
Domino's Oreo Dessert Pizza Mustache
Timeline: A few weeks after Snickers.
Plot: A man and a teenager are sitting in a living room, eating the Oreo Pizza. A woman shows up. She mentions how the man has food all over his face. He corrects her, saying it's really a Domino's Pizza mustache. The teenage guy mentions how he has one too, but it's not as full and thick as his older buddy's. Cut back to the mentor, whose mustache has grown. He says, "Give it time, Kevin. It'll fill out." The teen says, "You really think so?" The man says, "I think so. I know so," this time with a full Oreo Pizza Beard.
Other template used: Burger King's "eat this burger, get a free mustache" series of ads.
Possible Spin-off: Oreo Pizza Toupee
The moral: Domino's Oreo Pizza is so good, it doesn't matter that you end up with half of it in orbit around your mouth.
Taco Bell's Rules To Live By
Timeline: Followed the Oreo Pizza trend.
Plot: An older brother gives his younger brother his "rules to live by," which include not owning a lap dog or dating a girl with a dragon tattoo, both of which the older brother's already done. Those were rules 1 and 2. Then came Rule C.
Rule C? Doesn't that remind you of this short snippet from "Home Alone?":
Megan McCallister: "You're not at all worried that something might happen to Kevin?"
Buzz McCallister: "No, for three reasons: A, I'm not that lucky. Two, we use smoke detectors and D, we live on the most boring street in the whole United States of America, where nothing even remotely dangerous will ever happen. Period."
There we have it, Buzz beat the older bro to the punch with a far-superior letter-number changeup that took place 17 years ago!
Back to Taco Bell. Rule C is to "always, always get Chili Cheese on your Nacho Bell Grande."
Hidden Mystery: Originally, the older brother used the word "Shyeah!" The longer version of the commercial dubbed over it with, "Yeah!" Aborted throwback to "Wayne's World?"
The moral: The use of Chili Cheese with Taco Bell's Nacho Bell Grande is as important in a young man's life as is the avoidance of certain types of pets, and certain types of women.
How To Eat Pizza Hut's Stuffed Crust
Timeline: Newest, and ongoing.
Plot: I just saw this one for the first time -- today. A father and son share a pre-pizza lesson on a couch somewhere in middle America. The father carefully instructs his boy to hold off on eating the cheese-stuffed crust until after he's taken the time to savor a bite of the rest of the pizza.
New Twist: Unlike all the other "students" in the Guru commercials, the kid ignores his father's advice, and goes straight for the crust. The most interesting part of this? The mentor in this commercial is the student's father, so he should have more say than any of the previous gurus, who ranged from older brothers to random strangers!
Other template used: Previous Stuffed Crust commercials from a few years back informing all kinds of people that the REAL correct way of eating a slice of Stuffed Crust is, in fact, crust-first. Looks like the father may have been one of those hippies, and now that he's done tripping on Mozzarella, he wants to save his son from the same horrible fate. Too bad his son just won't listen...
The moral: There's no wrong way to eat a Reese's, but there's no right way to eat Stuffed Crust. Anybody who says otherwise is a liar. Especially if he's older than you.
Well, there you have it. A new trend in advertising. I wonder who will come up with the next version of "the Food Guru?"
My best guess: SNL. If you enjoyed this post, please think about becoming a subscriber to my RSS feed.
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