unknown filmmaker | Icelandic Glacial Water / 2016 [commercial advertisement]

the view

by Douglas Messerli

 

Director unknown Icelandic Glacial Water / 2016 [1.04 minutes] [commercial advertisement]

 

Taking its cue from the famed 1994 Diet Coke commercial wherein hunky construction worker Lucky Vanous sent dozens of female office workers to their windows at the same time every day while he took his Coke break, Icelandic Glacial Water has repeated the trope.

    This time the office building evidently fronts the ocean from which every day at precisely 10:30 a long-haired surfer (model Brock O’Hurn) rises like Poseidon to briefly return to land. On the beach, as the office women watch with noses pressed against the windows, he strips off the top half of his wet suit, pulls out a bottle of Icelandic Glacial Water and swallows down several gulps.

    The only difference from the Coke ad is that among the women watching this muscled god is a gay man who promises his office mate to meet up the same time next day with a most definite gay-inflected “Hm-hmm.”

      No sooner has the ad flashed its logo than we return to the staring women and single gay boy, only to now see the surfer standing behind them, who calmly inquires: “What are you looking at girls?” They all scream, while our gay boy simply keels over in a faint.

    The question arises, accordingly, whether this Poseidon has been noticing their voyeuristic activities for some time now, and we can only wonder that, if so, does that make him a sort of exhibitionist?

 

Los Angeles, May 10, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (May 2024).