I'm so pretty, I'm so pretty

We saw the pandas at the zoo this weekend and it brought back memories of my favorite commercial of all time: “The pretty, pretty panda” by Snickers: Now through the miraculous invention of YouTube, you can also enjoy the ad (in case you forgot about it, in which case, I’m not sure I have a lot of respect for you).

And if you don’t think it’s funny, well, I’m not sure we can be friends. Or even fries.

Back in the year 2000, we really wore out this panda routine at my office. In fact, I think we referenced it every day until we replaced it with “WASSUP??”

Several times a day would we sing, “I’m so pretty, I’m so pretty…” and imitate the panda guy’s voice: “I bet they WOULD” was a favorite.

We’d take print ads that we were working on and turn them into panda commercials. We had one that featured Jacques Schlumberger, the wine-maker:

I’d be at my cube and suddenly, Jacques Schlumberger’s picture would appear around the wall, dancing around with a voice saying,
“You know what Jacques Schlumberger has for lunch? He has wine!”

Wait. I think I was the one holding Jacques and doing the voice.

And if it was a special occasion, like a birthday, well, the person of honor would get to be the panda, like this one that I created for Alicia:

“Hey, Alicia, what do you want more than anything else in the world?”
“I’d like to go to lunch!”
“Me too. I bet some co-workers of mine would like to have lunch with you.”
“I bet they WOULD. I’m so pretty, I’m so pretty…watch this: Pretty Pretty Alicia.”
“You know what Alicia has for lunch? She has the turkey combo at Chili’s!”

Okay, now I’m starting to think that we never really did any work around there. And it’s becoming clearer why I was laid off. Oh, well. I bet they’re not having nearly as much fun anymore. WASSSUP??