When you're smiling

   McCain foods has a television commercial currently airing for their Fun Spuds Smiles which shows cute children running around, playing, laughing, and joyfully eating McCain processed food products. In the background, a classic song plays, first popularised by Louis Armstrong in 1929:

When you're smiling, when you're smiling
The whole world smiles with you
When you're laughing, when you're laughing
The sun comes shining through

   Also sung throughout the years by such notables as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Billie Holiday, it's a pleasing little ditty that perfectly reflects the emotion McCain wants you to feel while thinking about their products. Except...
   Being a Canadian of a certain age, I cannot hear that song without thinking of beer. As far back as I can remember, the song When You're Smiling was used in television commercials for Labatt Blue. Many in the industry consider it to have been the single most successful advertising campaign in Canadian television history. So, when I see the commercial for McCain Smiles, I think of Labatt Blue. I can't help it. 
   Perhaps McCain thought that enough time had passed. It is possible they thought nobody would make the connection. Maybe whoever is in charge of their advertising is too darn young to remember. I just cannot bring myself to believe that they would have used that song if they knew the immediate associations it would produce in virtually any Canadian over the age of 35, or so.

Click here to hear Louis Armstrong perform When You're Smiling.