Cooking With Richard

I caught this advert on a US news site:

We may speak the same language, but what on earth is going on in this advert? Let’s start with the facts: Rozerem is a type of sleeping pill. The guy in the hat is a poor Abraham (”Abe”) Lincoln impersonator (although not as bad a lookalike as this guy). Abe Lincoln was 16th President of the United States. As far as my researches go, he did not suffer from insomnia.

Abe is holding something in his hand. At first glance I assumed he was holding a couple of sleeping pills. He has that kind of mad look in his eye that indicates he might not have had a good night sleep for a while (assassination can have that effect on a man). Then I realised that he seems to be holding his pocket watch. Is that a clue?

Then there are the baffling words: “they miss you”. Who misses you? Dead Presidents miss me?

I’ve got a few theories about those words … In England we are supposed to dream of sheep. Perhaps in the US they dream of Presidents? Then the advert would make perfect sense: the Presidents are missing you! Drop a sleeping pill and come back to them!

The watch must be some sort of a clue — I’m wondering if in fact it isn’t Abe Lincoln but some sort of Amish train conductor waiting for your sleepy head to get on a train.

Update

Yes, by the power of viral marketing, it’s a viral ad for sleeping pills! More here and especially here.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007 at 3:10 pm and is filed under craziness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.