It is amazing how much the advertising industry has changed over the last 30 years – or has it? In Mexico, we grew up watching a man with the largest nose I’ve ever seen saying “Chaca-chaca con Ariel” while announcing the latest craze in washing powder; a duckling (which happened to look a lot like a chicken) asking us to always remember it and the “Gansito” it promoted; and a cartoon character called “Pancho Pantera” telling us that chocolate milk is good for you if you want to score a lot of goals at football.

There is one TV commercial in particular that I am positive has stayed in the collective mind of most Mexicans my age throughout the years. But it is extremely cruel — even if it is only about tomato puree! The poor little tomatoes are the victims of a mean executioner who wants to make them puree. Literally. And they are actually happy about it.

I have the feeling that this ad would not make it to the TV screens these days. I bet there must be some vegetable anti-cruelty society that would organize a few demonstrations downtown Mexico City to protest against so deplorable behavior!

To date, the song on this commercial always pops into my head when I hear someone saying the word “tomatito” (small tomato) and I’ve always wondered if the salespitch voiceover at the end is the nasty executioner himself.