A neighbour sent me THIS VIDEO saying it reminded him of VR and me. I'm not at all flattered by this association (haven't asked VR) but it does have a certain gruesome appeal.
The best thing is it's short. The action will mystify you and I'm afraid this is intentional. It's just possible it may be intended to make you laugh, in which case it fails.
Those with a keen ear will notice it's in French. Yes, I'd noticed that too.
But such French! The actors are probably of that nation but they're worried someone might think they were Romanian or born on the wrong side of Donald Trump's blanket. A bit like the Cockneys who appeared in that dreadful British TV series Allo! Allo! Keener to suggest they came from East London than the Rhone Valley.
Make what you can of it. Never forgetting: it's short.
NOTE: This the first video I've ever embedded. At 1 min 16 sec switch it off. Otherwise unwanted junk will follow.
Maybe your neighbor thinks you (collective) are pretentious, too chi-chi, or something else insulting?
ReplyDeleteThe bit was a little over the top in my unsophisticated American opinion.
Crow: Hard-hitting words. Your privilege. I had thought that your suggestions here referred to the comment I left behind at your blog a couple of days ago. But whatever its failings is being pissed-off at the prospect of death either chi-chi or pretentious?
ReplyDeleteSo it was my reaction to a 10-year-old French TV commercial that was guilty of being OTT. Maybe. The ad itself is OTT, no doubt. But then most French commercials are. The TV at our French house only received the French channels and I became familiar with the curiously outdated style of what the French call "pub".
What isn't in doubt (At least I hope this is the case) are the sentiments of the neighbour who sent me this clip. We've known him for 15 years, had him over for drinks, discussed various local matters; he's the sort of neighbour one hopes for but rarely gets. During The Plague we've become closer. He volunteered to shop at the local supermarket for us since I have - or might have - what is referred to discreetly these days as "an underlying condition". This he subsequently did. He has been generous with books. And yesterday he set up at my suggestion a Skype link so we could chat over cyberspace instead of over a ten-yard gap on our driveway.
The commercial is definitely OTT and that's the joke. But technically speaking, I don't understand how the robinet gadget works. The ad says that "vous puvez télécharger" your chosen wine straight into a bottle. What?? Does the wine magically appear through the tap after you've ordered it online? Of course that's impossible. But what does the gadget do then?
ReplyDeleteNatalie: The commercial is at least ten years old, almost certainly a lot more. It belongs to an era when people were still getting used to various applications the computer could facilitate; ironically France was way behind because - previously - the country had been way ahead. They had Minitel, a crude decades old, wired-up information system, which they hung on to for far too long in the face of the Internet's superiority. This particular system allows you to access information covering a wide range of wines and order direct. Interestingly there's a monthly fee for a service that is now free on the Internet.
DeleteThe commercial seeks to demonstrate how easy the system is to use. In this it goes too far and could well attract the attentions of the ASA for suggesting you could be drinking the wine within seconds of learning about its existence. Truly incroyable.
Oh okay. So the robinet is a joke and not something you buy in order to'download" the wine. Disappointing!
Delete