Virtue becomes a velvety vice : YORK ON ADS

No 68: Muller Fruit Corner

THIS is a disturbing case of objectification and sexualisation. It marks a further stage in the process by which blameless refrigerator items are robbed of their innocence and eroticised by advertising men from W1. Yoghurt - for Fruit Corners is in fact a form of yoghurt with its own reservoir of what appears to be jam attached - was once promoted by reference to the benign bacillus that produced it. It was eaten, not so very long ago, almost exclusively by valetudinarian spinsters with an interest in Food Reform and men who wore mustard-coloured blunt-ended knitted woollen ties. Yoghurt was natural, sour-tasting and good for the tract. Later it became pink and flavoured, fun for kids and slimming, constantly reformulated to give a lighter, blander "mouth feel". References to the bacillus disappeared. Now, in a final round of degradation, it is to be made sexy.

The pack is the hero in this ad; everything is designed in the most insistent and literal-minded way to make you remember the distinctive squareness, its umlaut-branding, its jam reservoir and its square peel- off top.

And what of its other star, Naomi Campbell? She looks lovely and quite startlingly brown in slithery blue satin (the voice-over rattles on about "velvety" taste). In the initial shot, she sits in the corner of a square, grey-silk sofa, just like the jam reservoir in the corner of the yoghurt pot. She then performs a number of acts with the yoghurt involving nuzzling, licking and sticky residues, pushing her finger into its moist places and generally having her way with it.

You can positively see the brief here. It was: make my square pack and jam tank famous and recognisable; make it a desirable, modest, added- value, giggly everyday treat for women. 8 Video supplied by Tellex Commercials.