Gotta Love Those Bolls
The Cotton Club ,
produced by Rhea & Kaiser Marketing Communications for Rhone-Poulenc.
Guess what takes center
stage in The Cotton Club . A ... er ... plant. A cotton plant, to
be precise, and a sassy one at that. No moldy bolls sprouting wispy white
nothings here: This plant is lissome. It is lush. And it will go to great
lengths to convince its target market--the rural South--to buy "Finish." A
"defoliant, re-growth inhibitor, and boll opener," Finish is produced by
Rhone-Poulenc. It speeds up the harvest by accelerating the growth cycle of the
cotton plant, causing it to age, lose its leaves, and open bolls ahead of
schedule. The Cotton Club dramatizes that compressed cycle via the
sashaying, shimmying plant, which sheds its inhibitions--and its leaves--in its
commitment to commerce, and bares all.
Not that The Cotton
Club is in poor taste, you understand. It is true that it is set to David
Rose's famous "Stripper," which urges one to "take it off, take it all
off"--but the spot's producers, Chicago firm Rhea & Kaiser, were sharply
aware of the Cotton Belt-Bible Belt overlap. "This plant is a dancer, not a
stripper," one of its makers insists.
The setting, however,
strikes a coyly sultry note. Red curtains and exaggerated underlighting
transform an old German opera house in Brooklyn, N.Y., into "The Cotton Club,"
where "a new act" is being staged. "First," says the voice-over, as the camera
curves around a gyrating graphic, "it takes off those leaves. Then, it keeps
them from coming back." We aren't sure what "it" is, but clearly, this product
aids aging. Leaves wither and fall as the plant continues to dance--the
combination of potent chemicals and strip clubs isn't likely to endear itself
to the PC police; and there are those who would be hard pressed to distinguish
between Finish and Agent Orange. But all's well, etc., because the stuff in the
white bottle opens those bolls--"Man , does it open up those bolls."
To put it another way, the
plant takes it all off, then sprouts bolls. Hmm.
A bottle of Finish waits in
the wings as chyron and narrator describe its "virtues." Not only does it
defoliate, inhibit re-growth, and open bolls, but it is also "faster and more
consistent than any other harvest aid." As the curtain closes and applause
spills across the footlights, the message is reiterated: "Cotton has never
moved like this"--as swiftly to harvest, or across a stage.
--Robert
Shrum
