Commercial

Rakish globetrotter Joel, in his waning days here in Buenos Aires, has taken a final shot at appearing on the blog. While I would normally resist such transparent attempts at manipulation, I have to say, his is an admirable bid.

He asked me the other day what they were saying in a Ford commercial and I had to point out that my go-go schedule of blogging, drinking coffee and taking pictures of meat did not allow me a lot of time to watch television.

Fortunately, thanks to the Internet, we can all watch commercials whenever we want!

The short monologue at the end is as follows:

Una flor que se marchita,
una paloma con cuello ortopédico

y un tema franela
te pueden hacer replantear

un montón de cosas,
pero ¡que no te confundan!*

You may have to rewatch the beginning of the commercial to make sense of the first three lines.** I am not in love with the idea of posting commercials here, but since I already have, I should note that it rewards repeat viewing. This is a deeply weird spot.

For example, those socks he tosses on the fire . . . where did those come from? Exactly.


*A withering flower, a dove with an orthopedic collar, and an overwrought love song can make you rethink a lot of things. But don't let yourself get confused.

**UPDATE: Thanks, Juan. I have one question regarding tema franela. I am aware of the literal definition of franela ("flannel") but my lunfardo (Buenos Aires slang) dictionary says it can also mean someone who goes to a whorehouse and is too cheap to pay for a prostitute. So is this referring to a warm, comfortable song or a cheap love song?