Tobacco Free California’s “Grim Reapers” spot. I can’t speak to the intent of this commercial as it concerns an issue I don’t really have feelings about either way, but its execution, while very obvious, is nicely creepy and ultimately haunting. Something about how the frame of reference feels Mid-Century despite being set in the present: The reapers floating amongst the carefree multitudes in the afternoon sunlight suggests a fragment from one of Nabokov’s nightmares about Middle America—and honeyhoney’s vocals sound like a Patsy Cline lullaby a butcher might play for a lamb that’s about to be slaughtered. It’s all unsettling in the right way.
