Raul Julia. That's what this Virgin Mobile ad makes me think of. I'll explain that later. First, the facts. If you're a T-Mobile customer, Virgin Mobile wants your business. So much so that it's willing to give you a $100 credit if you port your number over before May 31st. Straightforward, right? Cool. Now, here: Have an octopus.
[EMBED_YT]https://youtu.be/xjZ0rXSXeBA
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Did you ever watch Mystery Science Theater 3000? If not, you should. You can start with the episode where they watch Overdrawn at the Memory Bank. A made-for-TV movie starring Raul Julia. A man you may know better as Gomez from the Addams Family. He's a fantastic actor. And when you see him in the MST3K episode, you're overwhelmed with a surreal feeling of unease. Then they download his brain into a cube and suddenly they're ripping off Casanova while Raul Julia talks to himself. That's what this ad is like.
A psychic trio of women. A dude cuddling a shark. An endless pot of coffee. These are things that mean something. For some reason. In fact, the symbolism is very obvious. The coffee is data, you see? No, it's not figuring out what the ad is supposed to mean that's the problem. It's why. Why, you plead to the heavens, why in the world is a man in a giant brain chair trying to convince me to play on a giant ball of yarn as a cat videotapes me?
Because advertising. That's why.