This commercial is confusing on so many levels, choosing where to begin is almost impossible. We've got Bic lighters watching a cartoon movie that shows other Bic lighters watching a movie in which yet another Bic lighter is in trouble.

The "real" lighters, those being the stop-motion-animated lighters inside the conventional movie theater, decide to leave the theater in the middle of the movie they're watching (and presumably bought tickets for) so they can eat food. We guess maybe in a world where lighters run around and talk and go to movies, indoor theaters don't serve food.

Then they're sucked into the movie they're watching, where they proceed to eat everything in the cartoon drive-in concession stand before burning it down. If you're confused, you should probably feel relieved. Confusion is the only natural, reasonable response to this bit of cinema. We think it's what the book nerds call "meta" fiction, and it's either really dumb or so deep, it's over our heads. And we've read an entire Thomas Pynchon novel (admittedly, though, not one of the big ones).

And the other question is: What exactly is this a commercial for? It looks like it ran during movies, but is it selling Bic lighters or theater snacks? Maybe it's trying to sell both, though it doesn't really seem to be trying to sell anything. The message is, If you're hungry, there are better snacks at the drive-in, and be sure to bring your Bic brand lighter so you can burn the place down. Then again, this can all probably be written off as being a product of the '70s. There is no way whoever wrote and executed this commercial was sober.

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