Robots: Musk, Prada, Lavazza play the cute card

Prada re-boots elegance at the dinner table

The Italian luxury fashion house invites us to "explore Prada’s Holiday 2024 campaign, where style and festivity converge at a graceful dinner event".

Yes people, it's only October, but here come the 'holiday season' commercials!

In Prada's highly stylised staging,?House Ambassadors effortlessly interact with a trend-setting giant teddy bear and a couple of robots which blend fashion sense with an intellectual demeanour.

Also playing the cute card....

Tesla CEO Elon Musk presented not only the Robotaxi self-driving car but also a concept vehicle capable of carrying up to 20 passengers at a glitzy event for the company's investors, at which its Optimus humanoid robots danced and served drinks (we hear).

Pucker up for a rosy future

Painting a picture of increased safety, mobility, and environmental cleanliness as the Robotaxi / Cybercab models are rolled out - which Musk predicted could be happening by 2027 at a unit cost of some US$30,000 - the 53-year-old spoke eloquently and not without? humour of people owning 'flocks' of cars which they could 'shepherd'.?

And last but not least

With a helping hand from comedy favourites Steve Carell and John Krasinski ('The Office', US version), Italian coffee company Lavazza serves up a curious and friendly little robot to remind us that 'Pleasure Makes Us Human'.

Luigi delivers delicious coffee to office workers, and learns through trial and (can we call it?) error why humans enjoy the beverage so much.

Of course, it's not about the coffee, it's about the way it makes us feel.

At time of writing, Lavazza's Luigi had garnered more than 8.5 million views on YouTube.

Does all this 'cutification' deliver understanding and humour at a time when humanity is in danger of losing touch with its very essence, or is it just a flock of slick ads shepherding us away from the fact that humanity is in danger of losing touch with its very essence?

Oh hey, let's not get too deep. After all, it's the, erm, holiday season....

ENDS

For more thought-provoking snippets and contextualisation of the latest ads, head over to ADDS at Addvertising.org!