Who is the Ice Cream For?
So, my friend and I recently moved into our college apartment, and, to decorate it, we bought a Friends poster. It looks basically like this:
Anyway, we both really like Friends, so we were really excited about our poster. Especially because, weirdly, Friends is becoming like an old show and it's hard to find posters. Like, there's nothing to make you feel old like realizing that Friends has been off the air for almost 10 years!
But, anyway, that's not the point. We were really excited about the poster, until we looked at it. I mean, really, really looked at it. And we were all like "who is the ice cream for?". Because, no one is eating the ice cream. I mean, they're drinking milkshakes. Like, not to say that you can't have both ice cream and milkshake (although, you shouldn't). But, literally no one is eating the ice cream; they're completley ignoring it.
My roommate and I had a whole discussion about it. There are so many things visually wrong with the poster. Like, it's okay if they're going to have both milkshake and ice cream, but there isn't enough ice cream to go around. I mean, I suppose they could share, since they are sharing the milkshakes. But, if they were going to share, you would think that the ice cream would be a little more equally distributed throughout the picture.
My roommate did purpose the idea that perhaps the ice cream is for the guys. All the girls in Friends, especially Monica, are really thin, so I don't think any of them will be eating any ice cream any time soon. And, if you've ever seen Friends, you know that Joey really likes food. The problem with that theory is that there are four ice creams. At first, you can only see three, but there's like 1/2 of one next to Chandler's arm. So, maybe the girls are going to share that one. Weirdly, however, I've seen versions of this poster without the little half ice cream on the edge. So, it's like a ghost ice cream. Although, it does leave the chance that there is more ice cream for everybody else outside of the frame. But that all seems rather complicated to me.
Also, I don't see how they're going to eat their ice cream because there aren't any spoons. I guess they could try to eat if with the straw, but that would be really awkward and take a long time. And, I mean, if they don't start eating their ice cream soon, it's going to melt and get gross and stuff. And, they're taking an awful long time to drink their milkshakes. Like, Phoebe, Rachael, and Chandler aren't even actually drinking. Like, look at Phoebe's mouth. Her face is all slack. If she was actually drinking, it would be dribbling out of her mouth. When you drink from a straw, your cheeks are sort of sucked in. Like, Monica, Joey, and Ross are doing quite well with the whole pucker face thing.
So, my theory was that the ice cream was for the people who were taking the picture, but it doesn't take 4 people to take a picture. So, who is the ice cream for? These are the things that poster designers never take into consideration. Like, they were probably just like "well, it looks too plain with just the milkshakes we need some ice cream for decoration". I realize that they don't expect people to analyze the poster so fully, but, they can't just stick anything onto a poster and expect it to make sense. Like, you can't just stick a lobster in the middle of a picture of people drinking milkshakes and say "oh, it's just for decoration". It's quite frustrating.
Of course, it could be that the ice cream is intended to be for the viewer. In which case, I might forgive them.
Just sayin'
Anyway, we both really like Friends, so we were really excited about our poster. Especially because, weirdly, Friends is becoming like an old show and it's hard to find posters. Like, there's nothing to make you feel old like realizing that Friends has been off the air for almost 10 years!
But, anyway, that's not the point. We were really excited about the poster, until we looked at it. I mean, really, really looked at it. And we were all like "who is the ice cream for?". Because, no one is eating the ice cream. I mean, they're drinking milkshakes. Like, not to say that you can't have both ice cream and milkshake (although, you shouldn't). But, literally no one is eating the ice cream; they're completley ignoring it.
My roommate and I had a whole discussion about it. There are so many things visually wrong with the poster. Like, it's okay if they're going to have both milkshake and ice cream, but there isn't enough ice cream to go around. I mean, I suppose they could share, since they are sharing the milkshakes. But, if they were going to share, you would think that the ice cream would be a little more equally distributed throughout the picture.
My roommate did purpose the idea that perhaps the ice cream is for the guys. All the girls in Friends, especially Monica, are really thin, so I don't think any of them will be eating any ice cream any time soon. And, if you've ever seen Friends, you know that Joey really likes food. The problem with that theory is that there are four ice creams. At first, you can only see three, but there's like 1/2 of one next to Chandler's arm. So, maybe the girls are going to share that one. Weirdly, however, I've seen versions of this poster without the little half ice cream on the edge. So, it's like a ghost ice cream. Although, it does leave the chance that there is more ice cream for everybody else outside of the frame. But that all seems rather complicated to me.
Also, I don't see how they're going to eat their ice cream because there aren't any spoons. I guess they could try to eat if with the straw, but that would be really awkward and take a long time. And, I mean, if they don't start eating their ice cream soon, it's going to melt and get gross and stuff. And, they're taking an awful long time to drink their milkshakes. Like, Phoebe, Rachael, and Chandler aren't even actually drinking. Like, look at Phoebe's mouth. Her face is all slack. If she was actually drinking, it would be dribbling out of her mouth. When you drink from a straw, your cheeks are sort of sucked in. Like, Monica, Joey, and Ross are doing quite well with the whole pucker face thing.
So, my theory was that the ice cream was for the people who were taking the picture, but it doesn't take 4 people to take a picture. So, who is the ice cream for? These are the things that poster designers never take into consideration. Like, they were probably just like "well, it looks too plain with just the milkshakes we need some ice cream for decoration". I realize that they don't expect people to analyze the poster so fully, but, they can't just stick anything onto a poster and expect it to make sense. Like, you can't just stick a lobster in the middle of a picture of people drinking milkshakes and say "oh, it's just for decoration". It's quite frustrating.
Of course, it could be that the ice cream is intended to be for the viewer. In which case, I might forgive them.
Just sayin'
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