Stupid ad of the week: Orangina's creepy, sexy, cool animals

In the ad industry's constant flurry to be creative and original, boundaries are pushed -- and sadly, every once in a while an animal is creepily made to look and act like a human. While anthropomorphism is almost always a bad idea -- except in Japan, where there are more...

By Ben Dayton

December 7, 2010

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In the ad industry's constant flurry to be creative and original, boundaries are pushed -- and sadly, every once in a while an animal is creepily made to look and act like a human. While anthropomorphism is almost always a bad idea -- except in Japan, where there are more smiley-faced briefcases than there are people -- Orangina has really crossed a line with their recent TV spot.

Orangina has a history of egregious use of animated animals made to look like people and do people things like be handsome and/or sexy, which is just weird. In their latest blitz of creepiness, Orangina spoofs lots of other genres of ads, from laundry and cereal to acne medication and deodorant, which, to be fair, is sort of clever. But why the animals? They could do the same thing with people, and it would make a lot more sense and not be so unsettling, though of course, it would still be sexist, not to mention the fact that imagining Orangina as an acne medication or a a detergent doesn't exactly make it more appealing to ingest.

Orangina just can't seem to stop. They've become addicted to dressing zebras and octopi in lingerie. They no doubt think they are being hilarious, but in reality they are just being incredibly awkward. Finally, the ad ends with a playful nod to bestiality: a man and his goat, just what I want to be thinking about when I need to quench my thirst.

Ben Dayton

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