What indeed was Bloomingdaleโs thinking?
As usual, I interpreted the ad completely differently than everyone else, apparently.
I thought it was clear from the womanโs head being turned away as if laughing at a joke only she has knowledge of and the manโs vaguely confused/dazed look that the woman was implied to be the one having done the spiking. It never occurred to me that anyone in this particular ad would think the man had been the one slipping a mickey.
That doesnโt make it any better, though.
But everyone is talking about the ad so it worked, right?
Well, it says “spike when they are not looking.” And she’s the one not looking.
What a silly ad, seriously.
I also thought the implication was that she had spiked the egg nog and laughing while he was confused (or just not very clever).
“sheโs the one not looking”
But there’s no egg nog either (I thought another possible implication was that he was watching her spike her best friend’s egg nog). Her right arm is in possible spiking position.
My takeaway – dumb ad, dumber people to get their drawers in a bundle over it.
๏ปฟ๏ปฟIn something so ambiguous, people are going to see what they are expecting to see most of the time.
The rape angle didn’t occur to me at first, either, since it’s a long tradition of spiking punch and eggnog at parties that has nothing to do with sexual assault.
The ad is like a Rorschach inkblot test — a lot of nothing, also signifying nothing.
Forget the text. What’s really inexplicable is the point of eggnog.
Eggnog: I have alcohol and eggs. I don’t want to operate an oven and a frying pan is completely beyond me but I can handle a blender and measuring ingredients. Also drinking hard liquor in a glass by itself is too much for me to handle right now. This is what I do when I don’t get enough sunlight; it’s festive!