[1]
This ad for Best Maid pickles [2] makes me dislike kids, animation and, by extension, pickles. It tries hard to be cute. Too hard. The little girl, drowning in ringlets, who plays hide-and-seek with “Smiley,” the company’s logo, squeals like nails on a blackboard. What’s she saying, anyway? Something pickle-related, most likely, but all the words sound like squeals. Then Mom arrives with the same squeaky voice and forced exuberance. The spot exudes a kind of 1950s family aesthetic gone wrong. It’s cornball and creepy, calling to mind pre-Jamie Lee Curtis Activia commercials [3] in which apparently average people in everyday situations act so oddly, the spots take on sinister overtones. Dig deeper in that fridge, high-pitched moppet, and you’ll come across some Bifidus Regularis, way in back. (And check out that other kid [4] on Best Maid’s site [5]. He really likes that hamburger. Scary.)
—Posted by David Gianatasio