Babies? Cute. Baby Skeletons? Not So Much..

Everybody knows babies are cute. Advertisers know it, too, which is why babies have been featured in commercials and the front windows of photography studios since the dawn of modern marketing.

You just have to know when to quit, um … milking the whole baby thing.

Especially if you’re doing an ad for the French dairy industry.

As reported by Behind the Buzz last week, the Evian baby commercial is taking the web by storm. In advertising, nothing succeeds like excess, so it was only natural that other marketing programs would be developed around CGI babies.

But the French dairy industry has gotten a little far afield (zing!) with their new ad promoting milk, yogurt, and for some unknown reason, toasters, in a recent commercial for the industry.

I suppose there is some connection between dairy products and strong bones but it’s a bit tenuous and more than a little creepy to use baby skeletons to make that point. Especially when the commercial’s set to a re-mixed version of Stayin’ Alive.

I was more than halfway through my French-English dictionary before I figured the giant cow wasn’t running an abortion clinic.

Somehow the same country which gave Jerry Lewis a medal and LaToya Jackson a career must think this commercial makes sense.

But for the rest of the world, the whole concept of baby skeletons gets lost in translation.