I'll get my goat

My flight back was cursed with repeated doses of this oddly offensive ad. I mean offensive in an Ignatius Reilly, hell in a handcart kind of way. Prolonged exposure to most ads tends to be to their detriment, but this one has really got into my brain. And what is the point of a blog if not for the passing on of noxious brainworms? I should say that the online version of the ad is in slightly better condition than the one I saw, which had the voices sounding slightly deeper, and less in sync. So the whole effect was even more 'Ambassador you are spoiling us'.

Ad makers, here's a tip: if you make something that sours after the first, say, three viewings, don't put it on a longhaul flight entertainment system. Especially one where the stupid control won't allow fast-forwarding without missing the vital first few minutes of the filmic treat the viewer is actually trying to watch. You can't do without the beginning of You, me and Dupree, after all, you'll be lost for the rest of the movie.

Anyway. Top annoying things about this are:

1] In the Churchill bit, the way the waiter demonstrates his understanding of the situation by just leaving the drink and thoughtfully withdrawing from the room. This is excruciating Tussauds history that leaves a very bad taste. The point being made seems to be that the Langham staff are sensitive to somewhat tense situations. Like, say, THE BLITZ.

2] Oscar Wilde's yawp of surprise at the butler's witticism has haunted me since seeing it. In casting someone with Wilde's lantern-jawed features, the makers have actually given the part to a Richard Kiel lookalike. It would take a very talented casting agent to do otherwise, perhaps, but this becomes a problem when they make the grave error of portraying Saint Oscar as some sort of buffoon. to my confused synapses, the Langham Wilde has something of Hugo the Abominable snowman about him.

3] Like many, I'm allergic to moments of inspiration on film - whether it is Beethoven struggling over that tricky fourth note for his Fifth (stumbling by chance on 'Dur' after 'Da, Da, Da'), or lakeland poets fighting over the exact nature of their lonely wandering ('as a... cow?' 'Nah'). I can't think of exact example, but you know the sort of thing. I seem to remember Backbeat, the Beatles in Germany film, had a few goodies. But in this case, the advert posits a revisionist view of literary history where, instead of being one of the greatest English speaking wits, Wilde was a porridge-brained posh boy, a bling-obsessed goon. The butler, here, is Blackadder to Wilde's Prince Regent. At the same time it insinuates that the qualities lauded by Wilde's aphorism are those of the hotel. Why all this makes me shiver with annoyance is not very clear. I don't mind that it is wrong. I don't mind that in its wrongness it rather distastefully does down a man who is rightfully venerated for his courage as well as his brains. I think it annoys me because it does these things with the tawdriest of motive. Just as in the WW2 scene the hotel seems to claim some credit for the bravery of Londoners and the statesmamlike qualites of Churchill, the portrayal of Wilde seems to suck out his style, wit and sardonic approach to life, and parcel it up as the property of a swanky hotel. And that ain't right.

4] At the end, when the mobile phone goes off in the butler's pocket, the Victorian crowd are irritated in exactly the way people are if such a thing happens now. The ungodly devil noise of the late 20th century just makes the crowd tut, as if to say 'some people...'. You almost expect him to answer and say 'Yep, can't talk, I'm in the 19th century'.

5] The basic idea for the ad is The Shining in reverse - the butler is an undead time-travelling spirit of the hotel, though presumably not the unspeakable evil manifested in The Overlook Hotel. This is irritating (especially when the brain has entered that scratchy inflight state of whirling, tired questioning), because the viewer can't work out whether the makers (or the hotel chain) are aware of this context. So the possible meanings of the ad are multiplied by the power of ignorance. What's for the next ad, an homage to the Bates Motel?

Anyway. I may be thinking too hard about it. Thanks for listening.