Lesbian Mayonnaise

As someone who still dabbles in pop culture commentary despite all too often feeling like a relic from the paleolithic era, I find the current trend of celebrity spokes-everything to be rather revealing. Today’s A, B, C, D and really every other letter of the alphabet celebrities (if you play any phone app games, you will be well familiar with those “every other letter” celebs from their incessant in-app ads…) are more than happy to hawk just about anything. Weird cell phone games, crypto, online betting, cell phone plans, cars, pharmaceuticals, coffee and, yes, mayonnaise. I have absolutely no quarrel with Kate McKinnon schilling for Hellmans (we call it Best Foods here on the West/Best Coast, thank you very much) in this upcoming Super Bowl ad. Plus, this ad is actually funny and helps perpetuate Lesbian Cat Lady stereotypes which I approve/relate to very much.

But in the 20 years since “Lost in Translation” was released, the entire premise of the movie has been eradicated from our popular culture. Big celebs used to think it was slumming to do commercials. There was a whole cottage industry of the biggest celebs going overseas so their selling out couldn’t be seen by American audiences. Sure, maybe they’d take a perfume ad around the holidays or some luxury brand endorsement. But to show up in ads for sandwich condiments and instant coffee and car insurance? Heck there are even celebrity cameos in celebrity commercials (hello, Pete Davidson.) In the end, capitalism seems to always win. But at least the cat is cute.