I know I should have grown up once I picked up on the whole ‘there is no Santa’ bit, but for some reason, I still find these deeply disturbing.

I haven’t made a secret of my Disney obsession; although perhaps I should have clarified that it extends to all animated elements of my history. I don’t deny it, after all, (and I acknowledge the irony,) there’s something refreshing about the past, and all of its innocence.

And so, it definitely says something about this ad that I still think it’s brilliantly executed, even if it does show Barney reading porn and a Teletubby (I don’t want to admit that I know it’s Dipsy – oops!) in the john.

Now I don’t quite understand the connection with these slightly-grotesque, intricately detailed images, and an energy drink called Basic. I’m going to put it down to a translation issue – I presume that the energy drink is claiming that it honestly tastes great whilst having no sugar or additives, which is – 0% Fantasy?

And hence, the ad agency decided to kill our reminiscent notions of fantasy at the same time.

In a way, this is continuing the process that adulthood started. Waking up to realise that the childhood dreams that were once cherished were nothing more than pipe dreams was hard enough on its own. Furthermore, discovering that the many values and ideals that I learnt from a wealth of childhood literature had far more insidious motives (see the Christianity line of the Narnia stories, the racism in Enid Blyton or the suspected paedophilia of Lewis Carroll) was another shock to the system.

I guess this is the final nail in the coffin – not that I’m young enough to have been a Teletubby devotee, but all the same, that glowering head with manic eyes sitting in a pool of who-knows-what on a grubby bathroom floor is an image I won’t forget for a while.

So is this success? Perhaps in creating some awesome art direction, and grabbing some attention as well. Devastating/confusing a whole lot of children and ruining my last vestiges of idealism is just collateral damage.

Advertising Agency: La Familia, Santiago, Chile
Executive Creative Director: Miguel Ángel Barahona
Art Director: Rodrigo Portales
Copywriter: Claurio Ramírez
Illustrator: TheJoe

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