commercial that puzzles me

Do you remember those deodorant commercials from a few years back that started with a woman saying, "The last time I wore this dress..." and going on with her story about finding out that some other deodorant didn't keep her as dry as Secret, or whatever it was. Now, I know commmercials are supposed to get your attention and it doesn't much matter how they do it, but I've always wondered about this opening. There's no attempt to make it make sense in the context of the commercial, saying that she had to take her dress to the dry-cleaners, or something. The dress is simply used as a marker, a place in time. I have to believe that this was written by a man who thinks that women spend a great deal of time talking and thinking about their dresses, and bringing them up in conversation as often as they can. In his mind, if a woman comes to work in a new dress, she and a friend of hers spend at least five minutes at the beginning of the day talking about the dress, every little detail of it, how it feels to wear it, if she's wearing the right belt, the right high heels, every little thing. I'm pretty sure that women don't do his.

If you don't remember this commercial, this is how it went:

Let's say it was for Secret, since I don't remember the product. It's set in a hotel room. It starts with a woman in a red dress saying to the camera, referring to her dress, "The last time I wore this dress was when I discovered that Secret roll-on kept me drier than the leading roll-on." ( or something like that ) Then she's shown in flash-back, the dress is shown on a hanger, she's about to slip into it. She's visiting a friend, she's out of secret, her friend lends her another roll-on, she's shown at a party in her red dress, but "it didn't really keep me as dry as Secret roll-on." Then there's some more verbiage, and she's shown at the end, back in the present, posing in her red dress and obviously enjoying her dress very much, and saying, "That's why I use it." It's almost like the commercial is for the dress.

Then they did another similar one, with a woman at an airport saying, "The last time I wore this dress," again, posing as though she's presenting her dress for the camera. After all the verbiage she's back at the airport, and she says something truly odd. "Well, we're off again! Me, my dress, and Secret roll-on." And off she goes.

So you can see how I remembered these commercials as odd. Even for a commercial.

Do you remember this commercial?

- Alan Plessinger