Hey, professional truth-benders. Here's a sweet mockumentary-style PSA about professional truth-bending. Extra bonus if you also happen to be a tree hugger.
In addition to fairly broad swipes at snake oil salesmen (you must have known the advertising industry was a popular punching bag when you got into it), the spot—funded by organic businesses—is aimed at illustrating how the use of the word "natural" on food labels is pretty much meaningless. It makes its point well, if a bit repetitively—at four-and-a-half minutes long, the script manages to work in enough sharp moments and little twists to keep it interesting. And in case you're wondering, the gist of its argument is true.
"From a food science perspective, it is difficult to define a food product that is 'natural' because the food has probably been processed and is no longer the product of the earth," says the FDA in its explanation of the subject, which goes on to declare what's more or less a nonposition.
The spot includes industry easter eggs like an art director hovering over a designer, telling him to make the natural logo BIGGER. But the real treat is the performance of Josh Childs in the lead, who's something like a cross between Dr. Leo Spaceman and Michael Scott if they ran an ad agency.