is when they introduced it to the US

"There's no juice in there...it says so on the can

Can't taste the juice....can't taste the juice"

The ad is just psychotic. It reminded me of some of the Hieronymus Bosch's paintings. Equally dark and disturbing melee of various creatures engaging in bizarre activities that might be sexual or not.

I'll stick to tapwater, too.

You never saw "The Garden of Earthly Delights" and never heard of Hieronymus Bosch.

Yeah, you probably never go to Landmark theatres either.

Americans - soooo jejune.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/GardenED_edit1.jpg

Get yourselves all riled up and offended.

Joan really should start hiring some adults.

"The high degree of artifice also destroys the message that the product is "natural." For example, it's male peacocks that have the plumage, so we're looking at a chorus of drag queen birds."

So, gay men are unnatural?

The ad isn't nearly as offensive as Mr. Hannaham and all the Salon staff who permitted, by their silence and indifference, such an assertion.

Self-coaching here: "Calm yourself, Bigguns, calm yourself. The bad man knows not what he said."

The ad was too plush and in all that plushness, there was very little that was fresh. So, it was a smorgasbord of stale bread and moldy fruit. I know that there are people who find strippers and chorus girls and all that jazz to be sexy. I just find such images hoary, overused, and ho-hum.

Don't tell me Broadsheet has finally stooped to zoophilia?

Just watch the first few seconds. The bear rips the doe's drink from her hands, spills it on the ground, grows a flower, grabs the doe nonconsensually and presses her to him, gives her the flower and suddenly she's all "violate me baby".

He's a macho bear, he's forceful, women want him even if they don't know it yet.

Now pull the broom out your ass and fly home.

Leave it to Hannaham and the Broadsheeters to get their collective tighty-whities & panties twisted into an uber-prudish bunch over this...

Might this ad freak out kids? Sure...but the world needs more things that don't slavishly cater to children and their fawning parents.

This commercial is, to me as positive and clear-cut a definition of the word "surreal" as one can find.

Moreover, as a previous poster mentioned: it is an example of Old World unconventional thinking that - judging from the reactions here from American Salon writers - exposes the Evangelical-styled prudishness and taboos/discomfort with sexuality which continue to remain stuck up American arses.

When I lived in London in 1990, my Australian squatmates drank that stuff like it was beer.

Disclaimer: Globalization for good or ill has not yet created a homogenized world culture. You can't look at something like this Orangina add through the lens of our own American standards. Standards which have endowed all of us with at least a subtle prudishness no matter how liberal or sexually mature we think we are.

I am ambivalent regarding the Orangina add specifically. I was not personally offended by the commercial. I found it more strange and silly than disturbing. However, using talking animals and a tasty fruit flavored beverage does target children; even if that was not the intent. In that respect the add is disturbing. I may not approve of prudes, but I oppose the current trend of marketing sexuality to children no matter what culture or nation.

There's the conundrum. No matter how offensive we find this advertisement, it was made--and will be broadcast--in a culture and nation not our own. To whom should we log our protests? To which congressman should we write? How is Salon going to make an impact about this issue or is this post just an opinion poll? It is incumbent upon the TV viewers in Britain and France (I'm sure some read Salon) and do something IF THEY are offended. It seems like there are some in the UK that have already spoken out.

Finally, let's be honest. As questionable as the Orangina promotion is, it is NOT the raciest add to come out of France. It's not even the raciest add to come out of the UK; and it's on YouTube! That means, thanks to links at various websites, your kids have already seen it (and not just the ones in the UK).

I can't wait for the "Orangina Monologues" to tour the States!

You're months behind the times. This is "Olds". So far the sky hasn't fallen.

And I'll take your disgust and outrage seriously. Salon readers being pissed off at television is becoming the ubiquitous angry screaming Muslim guy of teh interblogs.

Well, can tell you all aren't furry fans :D

I think the ad would be charming and beautiful if not for the disturbing sexual images, but then again I'm American.

What really caught my attention was all the new names, are these people going to be writing for Broadsheet now?

"Oh, will this hurt the children??"

Sweet Christ am I sick of bloody fucking everything having to be sanitized for these creatures/investments/science projects we refer to as "the children".

The commercial is wrong, but that's what I love about it. I also loved the Quizno's singing squashed hamsters from a couple of years ago which people found "disturbing".

In closing: Lighten the fuck up, already!

Hey, I'm a decadent European.

And even as such, I think that the ad is crazy and that in my taste, it's too sexualized. I'm not French, though, and I have different aesthetic preferences.

awesome! but has its drawbacks. I really think they need to air this on american TV over in lubbock, texas, or wichita, KS; just to piss off all the narrow-minded fundamentalist " christian" parents of " young, impressionable, children"! when it first saw this ad, I laughed like the ficticious former pagan god named " satan" in christian hell! I mean, like how creative and totally killer, something that shows how much more open minded the europeans are.

but then, did I see why this may offend feminists, as well as LGBT's. feminist perspective: those female human zebras featured in the ad are all what " traditional heterosexual women should strive to look like". and yes, the male bear is strong and totally buff to the max! big and strong, of course reinforcing the macho male stereotypes, and yes, first the fucking flower like the traditional[ heterosexual] " romeo man" on a first date with a [ hetero.]woman!

and then they come together and fuck, all the zebra girls dancing aound and quick-fucking " mr. bear" just like in those fucking totally sexist hip hop videos where some thug-gangsta asshole like slim thug is surrounded by all those skinny-assed[ read: starved to death for looks]black and white girls that MTV censors slightly!

goes to show that " sex sells and [nearly] everybody's buying"; this from calvin klein high femme fashion clothing; to cars, boats and beer!