Italian advert's brutal twist ending is really dividing people
At first sight, this TV commercial for popular Italian snack Motta's Buondì is just like any other.
A cheeky, smiling girl joins her flawless mother as she adorns a table in the garden with flowers in bloom. Just another perfect Italian family basking in the summertime sun.
The girl wants a "light but inviting breakfast" which can combine "my desire for lightness and delicacy." The language is pure advertising jargon, cliched and trite to the point of parody.
And parody it is, as shockingly revealed in the next scene.
"That kind of breakfast doesn't exist," the mum says. "Might an asteroid hit me if it does!"
Guess what happens next? An asteroid literally crushes the beautiful mother to death.
In an interview with Corriere della Sera, Alessandro Orlandi, creative director at Saatchi&Saatchi, said Motta wanted to "rail against the idea of family that's been shown on TV so far."
"It made sense for us to break the stereotype of Italian family in advertising, where everyone is so exact and perfect," he said. "We used the same kind of irony used on the internet. TV has become old, and it's also our fault as advertisers."
If the ad's purpose was to shake Italy's traditional idea of the perfect family to the core, it really worked just fine.
The Facebook video attracted thousands of mixed comments, from concerned mums to moralising fathers:
"It's horrible," says Irene GMarotta. "It's unreal to let the girl speak with such a constructed phrasing. And nobody, not even someone with a great sense of irony, could smile at the mother burned down by the asteroid."
In the response, Motta remarks the ad "plays on the irony, lightness and absurdity of the characters and situations."
Giulio Ortina is not entertained. "Let me understand: killing a mother, in front of her daughter -- is that a suitable ad for children who have to watch this 'matricide' in the break between cartoons? BAH"
Motta said: "We can assure you no mothers have been sacrificed, mistreated, or hurt during the realisation of this ad."
Francesca is just confused. "Good morning, I love this snack but I didn't like this advert at all considering what's going on in the world...blasting a mother?"
Raffaele Vergotti wants you to think of all the children whose mother died after an asteroid took them out.
"When you conceived this advert, why didn't you think that those girls who tragically lost their mothers might feel bad watching these images?
Motta: "Of course, she's indeed the ad's boss."
Fortunately, some people got the irony.
"Finally a commercial that made me want to take a good breakfast every day," said Angelo.
"Wonderful. A suggestion. Next advert, why don't you make the asteroid hit the commentators of this video?" said Frensis.
"This video makes me want to get a light but explosive breakfast," said Mary.
Motta recently released the second part of the ad, with the dad this time taken out by the asteroid. Here it is for your own (ironic) enjoyment.
