The Wet Dreams of Dish Soap

The Sex Appeal of the Inorganic

Sex sells everything from cars to toilets. It’s a compulsive standard in media advertising. However, not every product-concept is compatible with sex, and it’s a compulsive standard of my own to unmask irony. I’m always drawn to the unconscious intentions rather than the conscious ones.

Anthropomorphism in advertising also has a long history. And, I know what you’re thinking, “a cigar is sometimes just a cigar”, that’s true, and I agree that a skeptic shouldn’t always assume that an artist’s conscious aims are covering for their unconscious ones…

But an animator should!

This Technicolor Chiquita Banana Commercial produced by the United Fruit Company in the 1940’s is by no means engaged in innuendo. It’s as straight as they come, right?

In this drive-in theater intermission commercial for theater snacks, the reluctant-yet-obedient hot dog is food for thought (innuendo at 2:10 mins). “Innuendo-and-out-the-other” is how references like this get their culturally unconscious anchor. This commercial is still being shown at the 88-Drive-In Denver between features.

What’s my contribution to this salacious-cultural-cartoon-tradition, you ask? This anthropomorphism is something I call “Wet Dream Of The Dish Soap”, I channeled it from my recognition of the sexual innuendo in advertising. I’ve always thought that dish soap bottles look like a hybrid between a circumcised penis and a curvy woman.

DISHSOAP STORYBOARDS (click thumbs to magnify)