I was watching Heroes on Hulu last night when I caught these two utterly-bananas PSAs by Americans for the Arts.
Each ad spoofs prototypical cereal and junkfood ads in a fresh, over-the-top way. And they are hilarious, even after 80 watches (which you’ll inevitably endure if you’re watching any streaming TV on a network-owned site).
In “Raisin Brahms,” Johannes Brahms bursts into a family’s breakfast nook, Kool-Aid Man-style, and offers the kids Raisin Brahms — “fortified with increased test scores and creative problem-solving skills!”
Pan to Dad. “Bobby? Susie?!” he whispers, aghast, when Brahmsy beards appear on his kids’ faces.
“Don’t worry, that’s just the POWER of the ARTS!” Brahms explodes.
“Van Goghgurt” runs in the same weird vein. Both leave you slightly off-balance, but more inclined to listen to the message — if only to understand what Van Gogh has to do with Go-Gurt.
“Feed your kids the arts!” a voiceover concludes. “For 10 simple ways to learn how, visit AmericansfortheArts.org.”
When the laughter died down, I actually wanted to visit the Americans for the Arts site after this. That part was kind of a buzzkill, though; there’s no integration at all, the “10 simple ways” weren’t prominent enough (I had to do some serious eyeball-roving), and the colour scheme looks like Gymboree threw up on it.
