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July 16, 2009

A Half-Minute Made 'Em Mad

Have you seen the latest Minute Maid advert?



I think the woman who plays the nun is really cute and thought she looked familiar, thinking perhaps she was an actress I'd seen in a small part. (or maybe Bebe Neuwirth's daughter) A couple of weeks ago I decided to write the Minute Maid company and ask the identity of the young woman.

In the meantime, in a political forum I sometimes frequent, a Catholic poster was up-in-arms over it, saying she thought it an insult to the Church. Other Catholics chimed in, saying they too were offended. I had to reply, saying I didn't see it that way, that I thought it was an insult to men more than to her religion or to nuns. I understand why Catholics get so defensive, having to defend the Church over something nearly all the time. If it's not pedophile priests (a small percentage of them), it's movies such as "The DaVinci Code" or "The Golden Compass". I do agree with them that Christianity often is attacked and ridiculed in Hollywood.

Be that as it may, I simply don't think this silly little commercial denigrates the Catholic Church at all.

When I was a kid, I had a brilliant science teacher, a full blooded Cherokee Indian. Thanks to grants from the govt. and the tribal council, he went back to school every summer and had at least half a dozen advanced degrees; biology, geology, botany, physics, etc. Why he stooped to teaching a bunch of small town seventh grade knotheads, I'll never know, but perhaps he thought being a teacher a higher calling than research scientist, petroleum engineer or even a college professor.

He took us on several field trips, and was planning on taking some of we kids spelunking near where he grew up in Oklahoma. He was taking a course with some nuns that summer and when he told them about the upcoming cave exploration, they wanted to go.

He asked his wife if she'd get jealous if he took some "single women" along with us on the trip and not even batting an eye, told him:

"As long as you don't get into the habit...."



I got a reply from Minute Maid, btw:

Thank you for contacting The Minute Maid Company. We appreciate your interest in our advertising.

It may surprise you to learn that the contractual agreements with our ad agencies and the talent involved prohibit the release of an actor's identity without their prior consent. Unfortunately, consent has not been granted for this particular ad. We apologize that we cannot respond in a more positive way.

It was a pleasure hearing from you. If you have any additional comments or questions about our advertising, please feel free to contact us again. Best wishes!

Chicquilla
Industry and Consumer Affairs
The Minute Maid Company

Wasn't much of an answer.

Not much better than nun at all.



It's often flattering when a post of mine gets linked to, especially if it brings in traffic. (not that I make any money off of it, it's just gratifying) Earlier tonight I noticed a hit on this post, followed the Google search results page and noticed that it had been copied, but not exactly word-for-word.

Strange, very strange. Somehow I'm humorously offended.


When trying to find out who the actress playing the nun, I found a post in WikiAnswers asking the same thing. It's since been edited, saying the young woman is Martha Mintz. Spending far more time than I should on it, I still can't definitively say whether she is or isn't. As I said, she looks familiar, and Mintz IS an actress. She has an IMDB page, Facebook listing and a MySpace page, but looking through them I found nothing about Mintz being in the ad. Google Images shows that Ms. Mintz does resemble the woman in the Minute Maid advert, but I'm not convinced. She also has a YouTube account with a small clip of her roles, but I'm still not sure it is her. I've even found the company who produced the spot, but while I'm curious, I'm not curious enough to write them.

Or maybe I am, but not tonight.

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