After seeing this advertisement on the subway, i got to thinking as to message it sends and also how and why should one react to it. The commercial is provided on the left. The Remy Martin is a Champagne Cognac, meaning that the eaux-de-vie selected come from the two best growth areas of the Cognac region, the Grande Champagne and the Petite Champagne (the word "Champagne" defines a type of soil that is extremely chalky). Anyways, it is supposed to be a good Cognac. So what does the commercial imply? There are three people from three different ethnic backgrounds: Latin-American, African-American, and Asian. So the idea is: your life is pretty boring until you try Remy Martin Cognac. Once you start drinking it, the "things will start getting interesting", meaning, the socio-cultural boundaries and rules will start to dissolve, and the threesome, that is very slightly implied by the advertisement, can proceed. I just love that the threesome covers three nationalities. That is just great how diverse and tolerant we all are. There is, however, another slogan on the bottom of the page that is not seen on this shot. It says: "stay interesting", which implies that you should keep drinking if you want to be interesting and others to like you. That is just great of course. So after analyzing the commercial, it seems to send quiet disturbing messages. But why is it quiet disturbing? Is it disturbing because we are taught through a religious lens that one man should be with one woman? Who introduced this idea in the first place? Is our notion of love dictated by religion? So the advertisement is introducing an idea of a threesome through inebriation, which sounds very shocking, but at the same time sounds very dangerous. And human beings are attracted by dangerous and seductive situations. It is just very interesting how one simple alcohol advertisement can bring up so so many different questions about socially accepted norms, religion, love, boundaries, and many other interesting topics.
