"...that funky s%it going down in the city" --Steve Miller Band

I was on the metro Saturday and spotted this ad:


Take a quick look. Cute child. Stack of pancakes. What did you think of?

If you said "fertilizer", ding! ding! ding!, you win the prize. Because, when you said "life is full of s%it", you were practically voicing this company's motto:


I can just imagine the meeting that went on to come up with this ad campaign.

C. B.: People have a negative view of fertilizer. We need them to connect it with something more positive.

Johnson: More positive than rotting manure?

C. B. : Seriously, Johnson.

Johnson: Okay... How about apple pie?

C. B.: Been done to death. Besides the latest numbers say blueberry is the new apple. Come on people, think! How about you, Flerdner?

Flerdner: Hm, positive... positive... what makes people happy...

Johnson: Vodka?

C. B. : *glowers at Johnson*

Flerdner: ...Pancakes make me happy. Pancakes make everybody happy!

C. B.: Keep going...

Johnson: I don't know... all that messy maple syrup...

Flerdner: Okay, we'll put a very neat, adorable child in front of a hardly syruped stack of pancakes. Fertilizer equals neat adorable children with pancakes!

C. B.: Can we tie in blueberries?

Flerdner: I don't see why not! We'll put a few on top!

C. B.: By jove, you've got it!

Johnson: So, wait, you're British now?

So, in conclusion... I wasn't a big fertilizer fan before this but now... I don't know what's changed... I can't put my finger on it... but there's something so gosh, darn wholesome and special about fertilizer... I just can't get enough of it.

Fertilizer. For when you really need to spread it around.