The Night of the Ad Eaters
By Veronica Mendez
With the cheese bocadillo and the whistle lips given to me at the door, I entered the Sala Heineken into publicity spectacle of ” The Night of the Ad Eaters.”
The venue was packed with a young, laid back crowd; people sat on tables, on the floor, or stood on the terrace watching the mega-screen above the dance floor. It was like walking into an outdoor movie theater- the only difference was that we were watching commercials. Not just any adverts though, but rather the 400 funniest advertisements from all over the world.
The “Noche of the Ad Eaters” dates back to 1981 where 600 people attended Kinopanorama in France to watch five reels of advertisement. Since then, the “The Night of the Ad Eaters” has been to 40 countries and 160 cities. This past Thursday, the Mecca of advertisement made its way to Madrid for the first time.
To some the idea of watching non-stop commercials does not appealing. But you don’t feel like you are watching advertisements, instead it was more of an audio-visual projection of fun and corky ads. I watched as two kids engaged in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon combat—for a McNugget. And Cadbury eggs splattered the camera in caramel to a battle song. Even a group of guys scream like little girls when they walk into a refrigerator full of Heinekens.
With live bands coming on between the forty-minute “breaks”, the free donuts, and the cheering whenever there was a particularly great commercial, it was much more than commercials—it was a party.
By Veronica Mendez
Tags: commercial, Heineken, party