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Maybe it's just a UK thing?

Saturday January 14, 2006

There is an ad on British TV at the moment by a well known cosmetics company, it’s a very American ad, and the strapline floors me every time I hear it. I am not going to explain it, you’ll either get it or you won’t, but it left me wondering if it’s just a British thing.

So, the ad starts with three unaturally beautiful young ladies with unfeasibly white teeth, all glowing, radiating youth, shallow beauty and plastic loveliness and then the American voice over chips in with “Join the mousse revolution”... Fucking brilliant! I bet the PR company in the UK are having a long hard giggle about that one!

  1. Nik Steffen

    1267 days ago

    Yep, I know that one, and it is probably the most beautiful thing I have heard in Ads in quite some time.

    I have noticed more and more American Voices on British TV Ads recently. Whats up with that? Are the multi-billion-making cosmetic companies to lazy to resynchronize the Ad for theyre newest product to make it a bit more local?
  2. Dave

    1267 days ago

    That’s excellent!
    Makes a great 600th post, too – congratulations!
  3. Andy Higgs

    1267 days ago

    I couldn’t help thinking “That’s not right. No, that really isn’t right” when I saw this in Tesco’s over Christmas. It later became apparent that one or two other people had spotted it too…

    http://www.thegoth.force9.co.uk/malcsimg/tescomum.JPG
  4. Neil Munn

    1267 days ago

    I had to stop what I was doing when I saw that advert. You just seem to find yourself thinking “they did say mousse didn’t they…”

    It’s almost as good as the new hair colouring advert, which features that women with should length grey hair. Why would you want to dye your hair more grey?

    Crazy women…
  5. jordan

    1267 days ago

    I don’t get the joke I’m afraid. Normally I understand British humour, but this one just goes past me.
  6. Charles

    1267 days ago

    To those that don’t understand the real meaning of mousse, here’s the slang definition
  7. Martin Smith

    1267 days ago

    A Public Relations company deliberatly coining an esoteric strapline? I think not!

    P.R. people are the smarmy, polished fuckwits of the media industry, they simply exist to convince clients to spend money. They then spend the rest of a project gloriously fucking up communication whilst maintaining a deluded air of authority. Fortunately the media industry is also populated by hard working, knowledgeable and fantastically under-paid professionals who, when the shit hits the fan, generally manage to pull the much needed rabbit out of the hat allowing P.R. bastard fuckwit to come out of the project smelling of roses – AGAIN!

    >I bet the PR company in the UK are having a long hard giggle about that one!

    Nah… but I bet some folks in a studio sweatshop somewhere are amazed the piss-take strapline was the one that got through!

    I hate P.R. people! Bunch of bleedin’ work dodgers!
  8. Martin

    1266 days ago

    Ah… I thought it was “Moose!”. Phonetically identical though eh.
  9. Adam Hopkinson

    1266 days ago

    Did you ever see the inferia advert? I think it was for hair colouring. It always seemed to sound like the voice at the end says “Because we’re inferior”.
  10. Oscar Duignan

    1266 days ago

    im british and i didn’t get that, is it an old slang term, or am i out of date…
  11. Nathan Pitman

    1265 days ago

    Funny, my experience of the word ‘moose’ from school days is that it’s used to describe an unattractive girl, as in: She’s a bit of a moose…’. Obviously we’re talking about ‘mouse’ not ‘moose’ but yes pronounciation is the same.
  12. Mats Lindblad

    1265 days ago

    At least it’s better than the Claudia Schiffer advert when she says “Let surgery wait …”, I just want to hit her when she says that …

    I think it’s a UK thing … ‘cause when I hear mousse I think elk, but then i’m swedish. ;)
  13. Matt

    1265 days ago

    I think you’ll find it’s this definition, not the surrealist.co.uk one someone posted earlier:

    http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mousse
  14. cat

    1264 days ago

    “resembling of the ever-popular KFC desert” is the explanation I originally took it to be.

    The slang term had me believing my brit 101 instructor is uninformed.

    It also had my mind going all over the place trying to fill in graphic details.
  15. Mark Hadley

    1264 days ago

    What the mousse are all you mousses moussing on about, moussing mousse… m mousse mousse mousse…