Newland on ... Super Noodles.(television advertising has evolved with reality programming)(Brief Article)

Television used to be a form of escapism. Slump into the sofa, put your feet up and forget about the world and its woes. But this hasn't really been the case for some time now. The heady 80s when Champagne-filled dreams came true were succeeded by the cautious 90s, where real life was central to, well, real life. Think EastEnders and Animal Hospital rather than Dynasty or Dallas.

This movement is perhaps most clearly demonstrated by the rise of fly-on-the-wall documentaries. Whatever filled the airwaves before the likes of Airport, 999, The Cruise, Children's Hospital and Temptation Island? These programmes were, and still are, popular because they make good viewing. It's fascinating nosing into other people's privacy. But they've become so commonplace they've lost their edge. Good programmers are coming up with new genres to move things forward--take Big Brother, for example.

The best ads are undergoing the same makeover. Reality scripts are all over the place. There are fewer rosy cheeks, fewer size-eight figures, and next to no perfect smiles. Instead we have ordinary folk going about their ordinary lives eating Maltesers, drinking Coca-Cola and washing their hair with Organics. The Gold Blend couple has been replaced with the bickering, young married couple cast in the AA's online insurance campaign. And as with fly-on-the-wall documentaries, the reason there are so many of these realistic commercials is they are good. People like them, people respond to them. But the really savvy advertisers and agencies are moving on. Real life has become a generic and, in order to stand out, a new kind of reality is needed.

Mother's West Side Story spoof for Super Noodles attempts this. Instead of being a straightforward real-life observation of what goes on between a product and a consumer, it says the consumer is the product. "You are what you eat" is the strapline and it's also the strategy. Fat, ...