Attempted Bloggery: Did an Alcon Commercial Borrow from a New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest?

Sunday, September 16, 2018

Did an Alcon Commercial Borrow from a New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest?

Last year, cartoonist Christopher Weyant created this cartoon for The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest:

Christopher Weyant
The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #589 for October 23, 2017

https://attemptedbloggery.blogspot.com/2017/10/my-entry-in-new-yorker-cartoon-caption_23.html

This year, the following TV commercial appeared for Dailies Total1 contact lenses by Alcon. The video was uploaded to YouTube on May 15, a likely approximation of when it first aired. Could the Caption Contest cartoon and the commercial be somehow related, or is this just one of those inevitable coincidences? You decide!

"Lose Your Readers"

Alcon Dailies Total1 Ad

Uploaded May 15, 2018
Embed playback disabled. Watch it here.

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/dkm_/novartis-dailies-total1-menus?fb_comment_id=1781176138609281_1835618133165081#f1b1c5d397823d

Of course, no one has a monopoly on sight gags featuring oversized menus, but the creative people who make TV commercials certainly could be readers of the New Yorker.

The one thing we do know for certain is who won the contest. And the winning caption is...

Note: We've been down a similar road before. Two years ago I inquired whether a GEICO commercial might have borrowed from a New Yorker cartoon by Rich Sparks? Again, you decide.

Have you observed other ways in which New Yorker cartoons possibly have influenced pop culture? Do tell!

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Christopher Weyant

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