Hasta La Creative!

This ad for Best Maid pickles makes me dislike kids, animation and, by extension, pickles. It tries hard to be cute. Too hard. The little girl, drowning in ringlets, who plays hide-and-seek with “Smiley,” the company’s logo, squeals like nails on a blackboard. What’s she saying, anyway? Something pickle-related, most likely, but all the words sound like squeals. Then Mom arrives with the same squeaky voice and forced exuberance. The spot exudes a kind of 1950s family aesthetic gone wrong. It’s cornball and creepy, calling to mind pre-Jamie Lee Curtis Activia commercials in which apparently average people in everyday situations act so oddly, the spots take on sinister overtones. Dig deeper in that fridge, high-pitched moppet, and you’ll come across some Bifidus Regularis, way in back. (And check out that other kid on Best Maid’s site. He really likes that hamburger. Scary.)

—Posted by David Gianatasio