Monday, October 3, 2011

The chew that hints at another world...

  I don't find many commercials very memorable, mainly because they are usually so commonplace and lacking humanity. Even the more unusual and expressive ones are so seamless and well executed that they become banal. There's no room for me, a breathing, imperfect person. I am alienated from myself because I am too organic.            
  Sometimes, however, there airs a commercial which manages a space for me to enter, and the portal can be created from its' poor quality, an awkward moment, bizarre dialogue, or a strange image. In a new commercial from Long John Silver's Restaurants, it's the final image of a man chewing, which invites me in and says, welcome to another world. In the fifteen second spot, two employees of the chain restaurant (with the Pepsi logo proudly displayed behind them) inform us that they make their chicken with their "world famous batter", whereas "the other guys" (presumably, their competition) make chicken with breading. The counter is stainless steel and spotless, and the restaurant appears without customers, or more correctly, emptied. It is antiseptic and cold. The scene then cuts to show two pieces of chicken, batter being poured into a bowl, and a basket of chicken and french fries on a table. 
  Suddenly, we are treated to a flurry of activity as we see a busy restaurant with our man putting his fork to his mouth, and beginning the enjoyable process of chewing his food. He chews with self assurance, but looks like he has nothing in his mouth, even though we've seen him put a piece in it. His chewing is so, well, chewy, and his mouth is so closed, that it almost looks like he trying to tell us something with the shapes his mouth form. Front-to-side he chews, as if imitating a machine, when suddenly, the commercial is over, but not before leaving us with the image of that final chew, a motion that looks like the one before it, yet is cut too short and abbreviated to really register as a human being masticating their food. It's more like something else. What is it like? I'm not really sure, and it's there where I can enter.

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