While many brands are hoping to reel in the romantics with love stories and pink brand makeovers this Valentine’s Day, Visa has opted to deliver some unpleasant truths about popular gifts.
First up is the classic gift of flowers, which the voiceover immediately strips of any pretty and romantic association by describing them as “a plant’s reproductive organ”. While a flower’s role in a plant’s reproduction and growth of fruit is often learned in school, Visa’s delivery of the facts still serves as a shock—possibly because teachers didn’t refer to flowers as “genitals” and “dead reproductive organs”.
Putting it bluntly, the voiceover describes the giving of flowers as “curious”.
“To celebrate special occasions, humans often cut off this organ—making it a dead reproductive organ—and give it to other humans who then proceed to smell it,” he says, before going onto explain how Visa’s gift card is a better choice of gift.
But it’s not just flowers we’ve been ignorant about, as perfume came under criticism for being made of animal excrement. Whale vomit, baby poo and deer discharge are listed in the video as base ingredients of the scents we spray over our bodies.
