It amuses me when fictional characters “talk” about their genealogy. McDonald’s has included a lemon in their current advertising campaign that wants to tell people all about his family tree. This is a lot more entertaining than the taxonomy, or “family tree” of an actual lemon.
The McDonald’s commercial that includes the talking lemon is for their new McCafe Frozen Strawberry Lemonade drink. If you go to the McDonald’s website, in search of more information about the new drink, or to get a coupon for it, you cannot avoid coming across an animated lemon.
The lemon, whose name is never mentioned, starts out by saying that he is “finally getting the respect I deserve”, thanks to the lemonade drink from McDonald’s. He mentions the unfortunate association with lemons and broken down used cars from the 1970’s. Perhaps this is a form of prejudice towards lemons that the unnamed lemon wants to clarify for people?
Later, the unnamed lemon says, “I’m proud of my lemon tree roots”. He rolls over to an animated lemon tree, which he calls his “official family portrait”. The tree is filled with lemons, and you can click on some of them, to learn more about that particular ancestor or relative of the unnamed lemon.
Genealogists will quickly realize that although the lemon tree in some ways resembles a family tree, it isn’t correctly laid out as it should be. Instead, it’s more of a fancy, stylized, “family portrait”. It has a very simplified family crest-like decoration at the base of the tree, that says “Citrus” on one side and “Limón” on the other.
The first relative that the unnamed lemon tells you about is his Uncle Meyer, who was zested into a tartlet. Unnamed lemon calls him “poor guy” and laments his “unseemly demise”.
The “patriarch of the family” was Limon III, who was a sanitizer of cutting boards. The unnamed lemon’s Grandpa, Harvey, worked as a breath freshener. His Nana Avon, with her “unusually tart personality”, ended up in a bowl of potpourri. In addition to Uncle Meyer, there is also an Uncle Perrine, who “kept the family together”, and was a coffee table centerpiece. There is no mention at all of unnamed lemon’s parents.
Unnamed lemon has a sister named Yuza, who is described as having “perfect skin”. She ended up as a model for still life paintings. He seems proud of his sister, but frustrated with his brother, Villafranca, whom he describes as “the lazy bum”. Villafranca worked as a wedge on water glasses at a country club. He also has a cousin named Libson, who “spent summers on the beach highlighting the hair of high school girls”, and another cousin who ended up as part of a skin cleaner.
I’m not quite certain if this “family tree” is filled with interesting family stories, or if it actually a medical family tree, detailing how the other members of unnamed lemon’s family died. At the bottom of the tree is an image of “Strawberry” who is unnamed lemon’s “Sweetheart”. One can infer that their children would taste like the McCafe drink that inspired this amusing ad.
Image by J. Casalino on Flickr