by Jon Lackman | 5 February 2008 | Baroque/Neoclassical
The Sacramento Bee writes on a recent TV ad for Orangina:
… This has got to be one of the weirdest spots to air in quite a while. With a soundtrack of pulsing dance pop, here are some of the images we see: A flamingo in a G-string, sliding down a vine as if it were a stripper pole; a panda with a wardrobe malfunction, and a lizard groping a grasshopper while dirty dancing. Still, the high level of animation expertise is impressive … The ad was originally meant for French TV. But it’s become a viral hit here in the United States, thanks to (repeat after me) YouTube. But, putting aside the truly bizarre image of sexy animals for a minute, let’s note the filmmaker’s, uh, vision. The opening scene in which the bear encounters the deer on the swing? Any art historian can tell you that’s an allusion to Jean-Honore Fragnard’s erotic art masterpiece “The Swing.”
