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We are confident that should he ever find this column, he will find it both confusing and mortifying.
We can make fresh starts.
We can summon the energy for optimism.
At this nascent, hopeful moment, though, its vital that we put our best feet forward.
We must begin as we mean to go on.
We must make the most of this tender, fragile dream of a better tomorrow.
Sometimes they talk aboutmixing cranberrieswith other fruit.
Sometimes they talk aboutthe health benefits.
Sometimes there are gentlepratfalls, where their props fall into the pool of floating berries.
Its not a bad ad campaign, as these things go.
Why is this a good choice for Ocean Spray cranberries?
They need a new image, first and foremost, but more vitally, they need Matt Berry.
Cranberries are not especially exciting fruits.
They lack the sex appeal of a strawberry or the exoticism of a kiwi.
Matt Berry, too, can be something of an acquired taste.
Just beneath the surface of his regular middle-aged white-guy exterior, theres a swift-flowing current of unmistakable strangeness.
This is exactly what the cranberry needs.
Just look at these cran-berries, he will say, standing in the bog in his chest-high waders.
Im imagining J.J. Abramsstyle sun flares.
Im envisioning a slow-motion shot of a hand scooping up fruit.
Im picturing a pleasant incongruity in watching a British man take joy in such a classic American scene.
Clearly this makes sense for Ocean Spray.
But why does it make sense for Matt Berry?
Berry has done commercial work before.
But we need more, and Ocean Spray cranberries need more.
