Skewered: How advertising works - and how it doesn't

You're right. The commercial has been running since November 2011, but I still have to do it again. It's about the fish movie: You know, the commercial with the fish and the ring that plops into the water on a jetty during the marriage proposal and then reappears at the candlelight dinner in the stomach of the pangolin and in the mouth of the bride - who sucks the rock off, puts it on her finger and says "I do. In tears, of course. I thought the commercial was funny. Well, I admit that I wished I could experience a romantic stroke of luck like that. So I thought the commercial was top class. Then I didn't see the commercial for a while and pushed it to the back of my mind. After all, life is romantic enough, who needs solitaires and fish by candlelight? Or happy coincidences?

One piano, one piano

Now there's a song playing on the radio a lot at the moment that I really like: "Me, myself and my piano" by the Augsburg band Nova International featuring Lauren Talbot. Some people sort the song into the pigeonhole of mainstream wallflower pop. That doesn't bother me. I like the tootling. And it's great for pimping your eyelashes. The other day I was watching TV again and heard "my" song about the girl who clings to herself and her piano far away from home (just imagine that). The song backed that commercial number by the pond where the dubbel drops the solitaire into the water and then - luck is with the mentally poor - buys the fish that ate his love-bling.

In summary: I liked the spot once very much, and I like the song very much. But they don't go together: What does a fish have to do with a piano? The fact that the love song stirs up romantic feelings can't be enough to suit a commercial that revolves around a pair of lovers, can it?! The fact that the song was written especially for the commercial only makes it worse. I wonder what the briefing was like: "Write a song for a commercial with a ring and a fish. It can also have a piano in it." Who on earth came up with the piano? And which came first, fish or piano, spot or song? At least they could have included a Steinway somewhere in the film so that there was a connection between image and sound. Yeah, sure, it's flat. But does a TV-night-starved brain want challenges or total harmony and relaxation?

The morning disaster

The consequence of the careless combination of image and sound is that whenever "Me, myself and my piano" plays on the radio (and it does almost every morning at the moment), I have to think of fish. At half past seven in the morning, of fish, while styling. An imposition! Also totally unromantic, spoils my mood. And who do I have to thank for that? Exactly. Who actually?

Even when I thought hard, I couldn't think of what the commercial was advertising. And yet I've seen it x number of times. It's only since I had to find out more for this column that I've realized that the fish film is a commercial for Coop. Oh, that's why they dig it up again after two years. A simple diversionary tactic: Who will still think of horse meat with a fish and a piano? The chickens are laughing!