Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Hidden Meanings

I've been watching (not by choice mind you) this Yoplait commercial a lot online. I didn't notice it the first few times, but whoever directed it made some really weird choices.
It starts out pretty commonplace: two women go into a coffee shop to make a purchase. Then it gets weird. And no, I don't mean the way they refer to the items for sale by caloric value. What I mean is that all the characters appear to be having some weird internal strife with every decision and question they make.
Look at the woman in the blue dress, the way she's distracted by everything around her. That's not just a normal "I can't decide" sort of look on her face. She's having some serious difficulty in making a decision, she's internally conflicted with the possibility of having coffee at this shop. Assuming that in this weird 'calorie count' universe everyone's used to referring to all food items by their nutritional value, her distraction seems out of place for the context of the events. What's her story? What's going on? Why is she so anguished by her choices?
Now look at the guy behind the register. Notice how oddly he takes the order. What's his deal? Is he confused by the way they're ordering by calorie count? If so, why isn't anyone else noticing it? Is he a visitor to this parallel universe and he's only now noticing the strange differences in this world? What's with that expression on his face? There's something going on with this guy and no one is providing answers!
This guy's co-worker is no better by the way. When he asks if the woman in blue would like "You want the 40 whipped calories on that?", he looks back at his coworker with an expression that says ... what? I don't know! What's going on with these two? Are they secret lovers? Is he indicating to his coworker that 40 whipped calories will be in play later this evening? I can't tell!
Finally, the woman in purple and brown. At the end of the commercial she looks at her friend (is she her friend? They must be, they ordered together, presumably they only paid one transaction), and looks on a bit in disgust and a bit confused. Why? Her expression seems to say "I don't even know who you are anymore."
This commercial is driving me crazy. Someone needs to let me know what's going on. And I mean what's REALLY going on.

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