Brands often strive for ‘weirdness’ to seem quirky, but the oddity of Captain Morgan’s ‘thumbs’ ad, unveiled this week in Canada (and set to hit GB TV screens in February), feels different.

The set-up comprises close-ups of thumbs scrolling on phones. Boredom prevails. But when their owners drop off, the thumbs seem to become sentient, twisting unnaturally and apparently organising a party. To a simple-but-ingenious reworking of Sisquo’s Thong Song, we see them don jewellery and hit the town, with tiny Captain Morgan’s cocktails/nail art their drink of choice.

Is it a dream? Thumb world is genuinely creepy (without any cues suggesting it’s meant to be), while the opening up of a little mouth in one offers a tiny shock of body horror.

Not since Cravendale gave them to cats in 2011 have thumbs been so strangely, successfully twiddled.

Topics