Entertainment

Why Is Marilyn Rubbing Sunblock On Tupac?

by Lia Beck

There have been a couple of commercials released recently that show dead celebrities reanimated to sell products. There's the Dior ad with Marilyn Monroe and Grace Kelly preparing for a runway show and the newer ad with Audrey Hepburn promoting Galaxy chocolate. These commercials are pretty distasteful — Audrey Hepburn didn't agree to sell your chocolate! — so I've gotta give props to the new Bavaria Radler commercial featuring Kurt Cobain, Tupac, and John Lennon, among others, for using actors (actors that are really obviously not the real people) instead of bizarre special effects.

That's not to say that this commercial isn't strange on its own. It starts with a very old Elvis on an island accepting a beer from a bikini clad woman and then quickly moves onto an equally old Marilyn Monroe rubbing sunblock on Tupac's "Thug Life" tattoo. Tupac doesn't appear to have aged, but I'm thinking the idea here is that all of these celebrities moved to this island rather than dying, so it makes sense that Tupac looks much younger than Monroe. The ad goes on to show John Lennon and Kurt Cobain chilling ocean-side when suddenly Bruce Lee warns everyone that a ship is approaching. Everyone helps fold up the collapsible beach cabana and move the palm trees so that they can go undetected. The ship passes by and the beach party starts back up.

Throughout all of this, Cobain voms in his mouth when Monroe's dress blows up (weirdly, Bruce Lee seems to like it) and Lennon says "Hey Jude" to the bartender because... that is a phrase that Dutch people know? I have no idea. All I know is that while this commercial is totally crazy it's a million times better than having all these people be reanimated. Impersonators selling grapefruit flavored beer is bad enough.

The commercial, through all of its weirdness, is pretty straightforward but one question remains: Who's the bartender and how did she get this job?

Image: Bavaria Radler