Inside from the Inside

The ad is for Luxor Spas, developed by a Belgian ad agency and running only in Europe.

Gut reaction when I saw it:  Pretty funny and clever.  Love the afro, the shades, and the smile on that guy’s face. He is completely chill when he should be anything but.

Next thought (as a marketing guy):  While the ad does a nice job selling the concept of a hot tub in general, it does absolutely nothing to differentiate Luxor from other spa companies. (Unless you count hiring an “edgy” ad agency as product differentiation.)

Then: Is this actually funny? I mean, the Klan did some pretty atrocious things.  Is it something to be made light of?

Done well, humor can be a powerful tool to illuminate evil. Think of the Klan scene in Joel and Ethan Coen’s  ”O Brother Where Art Thou?”  Or “Springtime for Hitler” from Mel Brooks’ “The Producers.” In both cases, the artist uses humor to defang evil by portraying its perpetrators as ridiculous. This is harder than it looks, as evidenced by the Luxor ad.

Is the Klansman here shown to be ridiculous, or evil, or in any way harmful? Or is he just here as an opposite… so relaxed by the bubbles that a noose is the farthest thing from his mind?

I don’t particularly find the ad offensive, but a) I’m not sure it’s doing Luxor any good, and b) I’m not really the one to ask whether it offends.

What do you think?

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