Watch out for Nivea’s “Lotion” Spewing Seagulls!

• 10, Jun, 2016
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Going to the beach was one of my favorite things to look forward to growing up. Every summer me and my family would take a road trip down to Nagshead, North Carolina and spend a week on the beach surfing and soaking up all those good summer rays. Unfortunately, Nivea in trying to be humorous and clever with their sunscreen spewing seagulls on unknowing children frolicking, is not a pleasant idea to associate summer trips to the beach with in the slightest.

Yes we all get it, children think pranks and jokes involving bodily functions are humorous but this just took a turn for the worse in getting across its child-like humor. First off, the idea has no actual real world usage even though the ad is described and shot as though it could be an actually solution to getting fussy children to put on their sunblock.  Furthermore as I was watching it, I began to ponder: How is this mechanical bird’s aim so accurate? Why do all these kids take off running when their parents try putting on their sunscreen? Why is it their first instinct to rub this “lotion” all over their bodies when they clearly don’t know that this bird is in fact from Nivea and not even real!? Finally, associating your product with unmentionable bodily functions is definitely not the attention anyone wants to be noticed for as it’s obviously off-putting to most people.

What makes the ad even more unfortunate is the fact that this was screened at the Cannes Film Festival. I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to promote this at one of the world’s premier cultural and film events, but I am sure whatever they got as punishment was just as bad as this ad. To see all of it in action watch below!