Sunday, October 23, 2011
Wouldn't a trip to The Olive Garden have been a lot cheaper?
Another "classic" ad-- courtesy of my taped-off-television Mystery Science Theater video collection...
Ok, as near as I can figure it, this commercial is about a woman who travels to Italy and makes eye contact with a male local, who turns out to be a chef at the restaurant she later goes to with people she just met or is traveling with but didn't happen to be with at the time she made eye contact with the cute guy who turned out to be a chef.
The local guy hasn't been able to get her out of her mind (maybe it's the blond hair, rather rare in Italy? Because she doesn't strike me as all that hot.) When he sees that Fate has brought her to his place of work, he insists on picking out the bag of bland, white flour-based pasta himself, expertly dropping it into a vat of boiling water, and serving it to her. Because this woman's plans in traveling halfway around the world certainly included an evening at a fancy restaurant eating crap she could have picked up at the corner grocery store back in Jersey. I'm sure she'll be hitting Starbucks on the way back to the hotel, because Italy doesn't do it's own coffee either, right?
And because this is a commercial, she's super-impressed by the plate of boiled pasta this dope has decided she wants to eat. I'm sure they end up together, happily ever after, secure in the knowledge that no matter where they decide to raise their kids (the United States or Italy,) Barilla Pasta will be easily obtainable. I'm very happy for them, really I am.
Barilla pasta is "the choice of Italy." Yeah, so is Silvio Berlusconi. Point, please?
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Current Barilla pasta ads, and ads for Kraft Mac' Cheese, both feature people stirring this crap in slow motion and gently setting it on the table as if it's made out of freaking china. I guess the theory is that if it's being handled delicately, it must be good. In fact, eating china might be healthier than shoveling down this junk.
ReplyDeleteBefore I join in on ripping this ad i must say that as both growing up in an italian family where everybody can cook and being a professional chef for 7 years (worked in some of the best restaurants in the world) Barilla pasta is by far the best dried pasta. It really is great stuff....
ReplyDeleteNow on to the ad. What self respecting restaurant in Italy uses store bought dried pasta? And what exactly does he make for her? Plain, dry boiled tortelloni? Not a very impressive meal, especially if your forcing it on someone who is required to pay for it. At the very least he could have tossed it with a little extra virgin olive oil and some parm. It still confuses me how regular people are so enamored with italian food. It doesnt even need to be any good.
O yeah. Nobody else noticed that the woman is Joelle Carter from Justified...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0141710/
She has come a long way since her Barilla pasta ad days.