Brazil shills the pill
So I'm watching TV and this pharmaceutical ad comes on that I've seen a million times but suddenly something about it looks oddly familiar.
Sure enough, the "There She Goes" spot for Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo (a "lite" version of the birth control pill) was shot in Rio. On repeated viewing I don't see how I ever missed it -- there's Sugarloaf plain as day, along with a bunch of footage from the Jardim Botânico (even Tom Jobim's tree) and the underside of Oscar Neimeyer's UFO-like museum in Niteroi. Not to mention buckets of pretty Brazilian models. But I never noticed until I happened to catch the pedras portuguesas in the initial three seconds.
So is someone outsourcing the production of TV-commercial eye candy to Brazil? Seems like a natural thing to do.
Update: The fascinating Advertising Age Agency Preview site says the ad was produced by Alchemy and its country of production is the US. Looking through some of Alchemy's other ads I see this one for the calcium supplement Viactiv (free registration required) which doesn't have any obvious Rio landmarks but does have -- bingo! -- pedras portuguesas. I wonder how many other Alchemy ads were also shot there, with or without clues?
Trivia like this aside, the Agency Preview site gives some fascinating insights into the ad world. Each ad lists its "philosophy". The philosophy of a Motrin ad, for instance, is "To become the badge of honor for aggressive medicating women everywhere."