I was transfixed by the Poo-Pourri ad

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I don’t know why humans had to be designed to defecate. Even if you think it’s smart design, from an engineering standpoint (food goes in, waste goes out), why couldn’t the whole issue of fuel consumption have been solved in some other way that is not totally disgusting? Anyway, I was aware of the Poo-Pourri ad but had not watched it and was hoping to avoid it for the rest of my life. But I recently clicked on a music video on YouTube, the ad started automatically, and I was helpless to stop it. It’s like I was passing a grisly accident on the freeway and could not look away. Why is this girl in a 1950s-style party outfit? Maybe because if they’d dressed her in casual contemporary attire, like jeans and a t-shirt, it’d be sort of grungy, and the topic of the ad is already grungy. Why is she sitting on a toilet in the middle of parties and stuff? Oh, right—to get across the vulnerability one feels when one has to relieve oneself not in the privacy of one’s home. Why can’t I tear myself away? Because of the weird combination of her being cheerful, having a posh accent, and talking about something gross and relatively taboo. AND she is staring unblinkingly at the camera—locking eyes with you, the viewer, as if she knows that breaking her gaze will give you a chance to escape. Most compelling of all is she’s offering a solution to unpleasantness and embarrassment.

I don’t know what else to say about the brilliance of this ad or the product. Oh, except that I want to buy a sh*tload of stock in whatever company makes it.

7 Replies to “I was transfixed by the Poo-Pourri ad”

  1. As a homeowner, my thoughts were…”Oil based product in your commode? That can’t be good for your plumbing or septic system.”

    1. Bummer. My first thought was, “Is it bad for the environment?” But I Googled it and supposedly it’s natural and safe. But I had not thought about ‘oils’ being bad for the plumbing. Hard to manufacture a perfect product, huh?

  2. WOW. I haven’t seen this down here in the OC. I’m sure The Housewives have something to do with it.

    The Beavis and butthead demographic is aging, but me thinks their marketing department still smokes a little gang.

  3. My neighbor gave me some Korean version of this (I swear I didn’t crap in his bathroom) but alas, it was powerless against the stink of my husband. Perhaps only an American company can truly understand the fetid colon of a white man.

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