Lingua Mea Vita

So, I JUST saw something amazing on television that didn’t involve hoarding or Kim Kardashian:

It’s creative! It’s visually dazzling! It’s Willem Dafoe reading to you!

Don’t tell me you didn’t recognize the moody, rumbling voice of Gil the Fish (or the Green Goblin! Spider-mannnnn). What stands out to me about this commercial (outside of the fact that it seemingly has nothing to do with yogurt) is the poem:

Plain was the same as it ever was the same
plainly plain, samely same.
But then—
someone lit the flame!
Plain rode away on  lion’s mane
where plain met fruits with strangely names
such wonderful things did they did contain—
a shot of life to a hungry vein,
the captive beast who broke the chain.
And there upon that fruited plain became what plain became
So much more than more than plain.
Plain will never be the same.

Did they resurrect Lewis Carroll to write copy for this commercial? Who is the genius who did this? Believe it or not, the poet is Brian Tierney, a copywriter for Mullen (as far as I know). Not the Jabberwocky! Amazing, right?

Even if you aren’t a fan of poetry, Willem Dafoe reads slowly and with an inflection that makes you pay attention. And the poem isn’t really hard to decipher—it’s about something that is plain becoming not so plain at all.  It doesn’t sound overly cheesy and gives an ethereal quality to the commercial. Why yogurt needs to be ethereal is beyond me.

I guess the downside of this commercial is that doesn’t directly have much to do with yogurt at all. It may be too arty and some people may not get the point. But I can excuse it because it’s Fage, which isn’t…Dannon. AND I saw this commercial on Cooking Channel, which is like the Food Network gone through puberty living in a hipster, urban setting.

I’m already a big fan of Fage yogurt to begin with, and now, because of Paul Smecker and his fancy-dancy poem, I’m going to keep an eye out for their blueberry acai flavor.