More holiday times interestingness today from your friends in 1950! Holiday times means entertaining friends and family at your house, and if you ask DuBouchett, that means cordials! And, if you ask anyone (because you're less than sixty years old), "cordials" usually* means "alcohol plus sugar plus fruit. And, alcohol plus sugar means "instant hangover"! Holiday times, mon frer!
*Clearly, by looking at the ad, DuBouchett understands cordials to mean "pre-mixed" cocktails, but cordials are another word for "liqueur".
Okay, so what, technically, is a "liqueur"?
See? Instant hangover! Never question Professor Google! If you want to try it, spend an evening drinking "hard lemonade" and see for yourself. In DuBouchett's defense, the cordials in their ad here aren't very sugary. Manhattans, vodka, rye... It's nice that Dubouchett wants you to get hammered, but doesn't want your head to explode till tomorrow morning, instead of just before bedtime.
But more importantly, there is a greater mystery here. Double-you tee eff is that weird harlequin evil-looking mascot guy? He's playing that brandy bottle like a guitar, and that implies that he's the life of the party, and he's had more than a few cherry cordials. There's no explanation from simple context in the ad. Is he just DuBouchett's icon/logo?
Whup. He's called "The DuBouchett" man. There's your answer.
https://www.printmag.com/branding/dubouchett-paul-rands-harlequin/
As a piece of corporate branding the harlequin guy is pretty clever. The red and green diamond pattern vibrates your eyes in their sockets and can be spotted easily while flipping thro ugh the pages of a magazine... even after you've had a few cordials, which is just how DuBouchett likes you. Doncha go changing, Drinky McDrunkerson. Their harlequin guy is just kind of weird looking, is all, which is fine, because they're not trying to attract kids to their brand, with enormous, trying-so-hard-it's-creepy smiles and saucer eyes like you see on a cereal box. Here in The Future, with our hyper focus-tested omni-cutesy mascots everywhere, to see a weird jester pirate guy with an inscrutable French expression is refreshing, kind of.
Oh, The French. You're so inscrutable. If you really really like the DuBouchett harlequin man, you can maybe find a plaster one of him on Ebay. It'll cost you, though...
DuBouchett. Does that mean something? I think "bouche" means "mouth". Let's go back to Professor Google and ask.
Say what? "Stuffy"? Let's swap their places and see how "stuffy" translates.
Oookay.
Well, that's our inscrutable French friends for you. They simply cannot be scruted, and neither can their language. Viva France!
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