A taste of the extraordinary
Extraordinary Bar is a 2012 surreal black-and-white commercial for The Drambuie Liqueur Company Limited. A barman with gravity-defying bartender tricks, a man carrying a human-sized egg in the desert, three men in a boat stranded in the same desert reciting the syllables of the product… It’s that kind of commercial.
- Anti-Gravity Clothing: The hair of one of the female patrons floats sideways.
- Dada Ad: Employing Mind Screw characters with Creepy Monotone voices and dreamlike visuals.
- German Expressionism: The cinematography of the advertisement is certainly inspired by this movement, be it the actors’ makeup, or the ominous and dim lighting of the bar.
- Gravity Screw: Pictured above, when the barman serves the product in a glass, he holds both upside down.
- Homage: Quite several. The chevron floor pattern, reminiscing of the Black Lodge from Twin Peaks, desert landscapes looking like Salvador Dalí paintings, a Slenderman Expy being a bar patron and a Visual Pun on the Guns N' Roses song “Stairway to Heaven”.
- Looks Like Cesare: The three men at the end shouting the syllables of the brand have pale faces and dark shading around their eyes.
- Madness Mantra: The man carrying the human-sized egg in the desert is heard repeating “Spices, spices, spices!”
- Scenery Porn: The desert landscape with the fluffy clouds that looks like a Salvador Dalí painting.
- What Were They Selling Again?: It might need a second viewing to realize that it’s a whiskey commercial. The product appears many times and it’s the only colored element in the black-and-white world, but the otherworldly visuals draw more of the viewer’s attention.
