Toronto Star, December 4, 1992, by Rose DeWolf
"How long can this go on?"
-----------------------------------------------------------

NEW YORK - Who is that strange man in her apartment? 

Her brother? 

An ex-husband? 

A colleague from work who has arranged to pick her up en 
route to a conference? 

Fans of Taster's Choice TV commercials want to know. But 
they will have towait until January to find out. At least 
they hope they'll find out in January. That's when a new 45-
second commercial for Nestle's Taster'sChoice instant coffee 
is scheduled to appear. 

These mini-soap opera commercials have attracted so large a 
following that sales of Taster's Choice (both regular and 
decaffeinated) have increased by 10 per cent since the first 
commercial aired two years ago, said Susan Irwin, spokeswoman 
for McCann-Erickson, Nestle's advertising agency. 

The current commercial is set in the woman's apartment. 

"I'm going to get changed. The coffee is right there," she 
tells a goodlooking man. Vivaldi's Four Seasons concerto is 
heard playing in the background. The doorbell rings. It's the 
neighbor, of course. He is taken aback when the door is 
opened by a male. 

"Hi, you want the lady of the house?" the Mystery Man asks. 
"Well, she's getting changed." 

When our heroine comes out of the bedroom, dressed in a 
business suit, she asks: "Who was at the door?" The MM 
replies: "The neighbor. I said you were in the bedroom." 

"And did you tell him who you are?" she asks. 

"He didn't ask," says the MM, looking quite pleased with 
himself. She, however, looks annoyed. 

That's the story so far. How long will it go on? 

McCann-Erickson's Irwin says the ad's creative director 
claims "they'll be chasing each other around the nursing 
home." 

Could be. A similar ad campaign, featuring the same actor 
and actress -Tony Head and Sharon Maughan - has been 
unfolding on British TV for four years. "In the U.K. version, 
they have (actually) kissed," confides Irwin. 

But that took 10 commercials - and we're only up to five. 

Even soap-opera fans used to slow-moving plots would get 
impatient at a story that repeats the same episode for a 
minimum of three month sbefore introducing a new situation. 
But Irwin says the public is intrigued enough to wait. 



-----------------------------------------------------------
                     Bentley's Bedlam
            http://www.BetsyDa.com/bedlam.html

This website is for information and entertainment purposes only 
and is not intended to infringe on copyrights held by others.