Faux butter faux pas

When they named their product I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, Unilever pretty much spelled out the main product benefit.  It is not butter, and yet it tastes like butter.  This is fairly straightforward, and up until now their advertising has focused on this mirage.  You may remember the long-running campaign where someone lifts the lid of the tub and the tub says, “Butter.”  It was simple and straight to the point.

Unfortunately, someone over at faux-butter headquarters decided that they could no longer depend on their namesake shock and awe campaign to bring in consumers.  Instead, they have jumped on the trans-fat bandwagon and somehow convinced Emmy award-winning actress Megan Mullally to come along for the ride.  The result is a contrived musical number outlining the nutritional benefits of laying off the butter, called Turn the Tub Around, that has only succeeded in getting me to turn the volume down every time it comes on.

In fact, lyrical idiocy aside, the video quality is so washed out (supposedly to imply a grocery store dream sequence) that I thought the commercial was shot in the late 80s and dragged out of the vault to save some money in these tight economic times.  It’s so bad it’s funny.  And I mean sad funny, not funny in that hip ironic way.

If you’re looking for a way to entertain guests at your next house party while simultaneously educating them on the positive attributes of your favorite butter substitute, the good people at I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter have also provided a karaoke version of the song.  I wish I were kidding. [Edit – The karaoke video is (luckily?) no longer available online]

They probably would have been better off just latching on the pop-culture status of their Asian counterpart…