A few days ago, I was watching TV with my husband. The Jimmy Dean sausage commercial came on the screen.
The Sun and his wife sitting at the breakfast table eating the fully
cooked Jimmy Dean sausage patties. When
there is only one patty left, they both jab it with their forks. As a test of
wills, they commence in a stare down contest. Of course, the wife conveniently
forgets she is married to the Sun. When he raises his eyebrows, she is blinded
by the implied rays. At the end, he
takes the last sausage patty and chastises her, “Didn't anyone ever tell you not to stare at the sun?”
At the end of the commercial, I turned to my husband and
declared I didn't think her husband was very nice. I suggested that they should
have added at the end, the Sun shares the sausage patty with her. Or better
yet, gives her the whole sausage patty since she probably has retinal damage!
My husband replied that the whole commercial was silly
because how can a person be married to the Sun? I concurred, mentioning wouldn't she vaporize
if she was that close to the Sun? My husband reminded me of another commercial
of theirs where all of the planets are in a conference room. How is that possible?
I remembered years ago (careful now, my age is showing!!)
that the spokesman for Jimmy Dean sausage was in fact Jimmy Dean—a singer and
actor. These commercials had a homespun
feel to them. It was as if Mr. Dean was inviting the viewers to step into his
kitchen for some breakfast.
Now, these modern day commercials had a different approach,
testing our imagination to buy into the fact that the Sun can be down on Earth
and have human-like relationships. What did that have to do with buying
sausage?
Suddenly, it occurred to me—here I was debating the merits
of the commercial, trying to make sense of it. However, by just thinking about
these commercials, their marketing people have accomplished their goal. How
clever is that?!
One thing I do know for sure is whatever I have for
breakfast tomorrow, I won’t have to go into a staring contest with my husband!
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