Mixed Signals: Orange Juice Is Good But Not Omniscient

Mixed Signals is Erin Straza’s musing about marketing miscellany in advertising, branding, and messaging.

Some days are so full of trouble and mishap, they leave us breathless and downcast in its wake. We wish we had gotten a hint of what was ahead so we could have been prepared for the onslaught.

A campaign for Florida Orange Juice plays up this common human desire in its campaign series titled “Take on the Day.” The TV spots show a main character sipping orange juice in an early-morning meeting with all the people who will bring a little chaos to the day ahead. Here are two spots:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXbCrInQLW4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL0dXg_V-h4&feature=relmfu

I appreciate the humor of this message and the superb delivery by the actors. The link back to the product confirms that drinking orange juice is the wise way to start your day precisely because of all that could be ahead of you.

Really, wouldn’t it be helpful to know when and how life was going to go from mundane to chaotic? If I knew what to watch out for and when, I would have time to prepare myself. Then, perhaps, I could keep my anger in check or my frustrations at bay or my heart from being stomped upon when my world gets tossed out of order.

However, there is a downside: If I knew what to watch out for and when to expect it, I could count on my own knowledge for security and peace. Would I even remember my need for the Lord?

It’s our extreme and utter neediness that confirms our dependent creature status. It is precisely because of all I do not know that I need to know God and why I have a morning meeting with Him. Not to drink orange juice and get the stat sheet for all that will go wrong—but to be reminded that despite what my day will hold, the God who knows what’s ahead will go the way with me. He will help me work through my anger and diffuse my frustrations and soothe my weary heart.