Pop Culture Analysis

I wanted to comment a little on this. (which I first noted via firinel)

Furry visibility and suave movie references aside, the gender/sexuality subtext is disturbing on a number of levels. I originally saw the website, which raised some red flags in that there was only one "male" ah... pinup? In the commercial, what's really initially disturbing in the (literal) predatory masculine sexuality. The female protagonist is a deer, and the male bear protagonist is introduced as if he were going to charge and attack her - she looks clearly frightened at several points in this first sequence. Instead he snatches (!) her Orangina and uses it to produce a flower for her. In a momentary flicker of hope of some sort of subversive message, she becomes the aggressor, using the flower to *ahem* take him by surprise then forcefully grasp him around the waist with her legs. But then a moment later she is kicking away and into an American Beauty-esque dreamy fall into a pile of flowers.

Now the scene is something more akin to a go-go bar, the female protagonist continues to be in the active mode, but lest we truly upset the dichotomy, there is a clear shift to the male gaze - the male protagonist looks on comfortably from his chair while she performs. Eventually this seems to transform into a short attempt at one-upping the other, which she apparently wins with her Flashdance impression (although there's an obvious symbolic complication to the win there). However, there is another transition into a club dance scene, and he joins her on the center stand, where eventually she allows him to "take the lead." Cut to the final scene where they sip a shared Orangina.

Oh, but it gets better. Those characters portrayed as female in the actual commercial are flowers, birds (flamingos, peafowl), herbivorous mammals (the deer of course, also zebras, rabbits, giraffes, and a panda who loses her clothing) and, notably, an octopus. The male characters besides the bear are secondary at best, but you can pick out apparently carnivorous mammals (cats mostly?) and reptiles. A particularly telling example of the underlying logics here is the deer's ensemble dancers - four peacocks, and they are peacocks - they have beautiful male plumage. But they also have large breasts and are dressed as the other female characters. So either this reflects a subconscious idea that such adornment clearly belongs on females, or this is some sort of attempt at trans inclusion. Eat your heart out, John Levi Martin. (Curiously, the website is a little different. Although other male characters are totally missing, the females include a lion and hyena.)

But that's not all. Curiously, the bear is only adorned in a fig leaf over his crotch. The female characters are all wearing regular clothing - bikinis or skimpy one-pieces that cover the breasts and crotch. Again, the males are harder to make out but appear to be wearing thongs. Why is the bear the only character, symbolically at least, naked (except the panda, who enters the state unwillingly and is subsequently embarrassed)? Perhaps because the whole commercial reflects the theme of the middle scene - the male gaze. Orangina appears, in fact, to be masculine power and sexuality, or at least enjoyment. He takes the bottle. He drinks his glass while watching her. After downing it he decides to show off. At the end of his sequence, which involves interacting with the crotches of several zebras, Orangina spurts up all around him. Seriously. The Flashdance sequence involves the deer being covered in Orangina as it gushes down upon her. I don't think I need to spell that one out for you. In case we were left wondering, in the club dance scene the zebras are riding giant bottles of Orangina, which subsequently pop their tops and spray out - presumably on the whole crowd, but we only see it on the rabbit, who does a good "girls gone wild" impression. And finally the octopus squeezes her breasts oranges. Of course, what's kinda funny about this is that the bear pinup on the website is holding the bottle suggestively while licking his lips. Oh my.

One expects this of American beer commercials, but French citrus soda commercials? I expect better. I mean, really.