Dumb is the new good

I'm a self-admitted avocado freak. In high school, I had a friend whose family lived in an avocado orchard and he used to give me bags of ripe avocados on a regular basis. The town I grew up in used to be all avocado and orange orchards (once upon a time) and it's not uncommon for people to still have one or two of those trees. I ate so much guacamole that my English grandmother (transplanted to Ohio) who was visiting one summer and thought avocados were the weirdest grossest thing she'd ever seen, remarked "better be careful or your face will turn green!" So although I have a soft spot for whatever the California Avocado Commission comes up with, I think this new campaign is hilarious.


Accompanied by the headline "Which is more irresistible?" I snorted despite myself and coined the term "dumb is the new good!" I'm taking some liberty with the word "dumb" to imply something that's simpler and less clever (rather than less sophisticated).

I could never get into the "dumb" frat boy humor - fart, dick and boob jokes (ala Wedding Crashers, etc) - that most ads are made of. Like those Bud Light challenges where the guy has to actually listen to his girlfriend? Maybe it's a difference between the advertising being dumb and calling the viewer dumb.

The marketing for this new campaign directs consumers to a very fun little site where you can upload your own irresistible images and enter a sweepstakes by accurately choosing the avocado as the most irresistible in a mock game show. It's just clever enough to be fun but dumb enough to be good.