Banana brand a-peels to solar eclipse watchers
Commentary: One fear you might have had about the eclipse is that brands would try to piggyback. Begin trembling.
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
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Brands can never get enough publicity.
They crave it because they believe they will die without it.
So as we prepare for August 21 and the solar eclipse, we know -- we fear, even -- that brands will try to make it their own. Or, at least, to claim intimate participation.
Here, then, is an appetizer. Presented by banana brand Chiquita, this ad claims that just before and just after the full eclipse, what is actually being created is "an enormous, fiery, yellow banana in the sky."
This is the so-called -- actually, never-before-called -- banana sun.
Chiquita claims you'll still need protective glasses to look at it. Unlike the eclipse, however, everyone in America will be able to see this banana sun.
As Chiquita quaintly puts it on YouTube: "For a fleeting moment before and after the totally overrated total solar eclipse, the sun will appear to be an enormous fiery banana."
You must decide whether you find this pleasantly playful, or whether you wish these brands would just stop already.
Chiquita is, I fear, aware of the potential downside.
In its last third, the ad devolves into a parallel universe of absurdity, in order to leave you in no doubt that it's just being very silly.
Brands do enjoy embracing scientific events. Earlier this year, KFC thought it a good idea to send a chicken sandwich into space.
Now that was just bananas.
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