Viewers of the Liverpool-Ludogorets match last night who chose to forego the obligatory half-time cup of tea were treated to the most sensationally awkward ad for Cadbury’s chocolate.
Cadbury, who are known for their eccentric advertisements, really broke the mould with this one. The ad begins with everyone’s favourite pundits (sorry, Joe Brolly) sitting in their familiar desk-side pose. Dunphy is mid-rant. Then Giles starts spewing off about how kids nowadays have too much ‘video games and twitter’ distracting them from what they should really be doing – outside kicking a ball around like he was.
The set-up is all pretty standard. The resemblance to their punditry is actually quite uncanny, and the two show good humour in their willingness to mock themselves. But then, out of nowhere, shit gets serious.
‘Brady Babe’ calls Dunphy, who is by now zoning out of Giles’s rant about his glory days at Leeds. Dunphy grabs a bite of seemingly innocuous Cadbury chocolate and breaks into what can only be described as a rain dance to Abba’s Yes Sir, I Can Boogie.
It’s all pretty charming, with Dunphy doing his best ‘drunken uncle at a wedding’ interpretive dance set. Either that, or there was something stronger in that chocolate. For me, the bit that makes the entire ad is Gilesy’s non-committal shuffle at the end. The man just can’t move like Dunphy.
The ad’s tagline is #FreeTheJoy, and it certainly does just that. I mean, who doesn’t like to see two men who make a living arguing over which football player is better making fun of themselves? It’s all pretty harmless fun. Watch it for yourself:
By Eoin Molloy