The ad plays on a specific invention of recent times called "porn addiction" — the implication that watching excessive porn can ruin one's life and family.
"My boyfriend has an addiction," the girlfriend in the commercial says. "My boyfriend is addicted to frozen food porn."
"Food porn" is a slang term originating from social media that refers to particularly beautiful and tasty-looking images of food being posted online. According to Devour's official statement, there are "over 185MM [food porn] posts on Instagram today."
The ad then shows a man watching those images, nervously closing his laptop or hiding his phone when his girlfriend enters the scene, as if he'd been watching something obscene. Add to that leaving used tissues under the bed, stirring food in a suggestive manner, and, eventually, shots of the couple getting into "amateur food videos" together, complete with "so hot!" commentary on the background.
"While it never actually goes anywhere lewd, it's not exactly playing coy, either," Thrillist writes.
The original, minute-long version of the ad was initially released online, with a "censored" 30-second version rolled out later for TV. (Well, the "censoring" was done mostly to shorten the time.)
Devour even went as far as posting the ad on an actual porn site — that being PornHub, of course — for a day.
"This one-day activation is part of a humorous juxtaposition to highlight the concept of food porn that began with the release of the uncensored 60-second Big Game ad," a company statement says.
Porn addiction is not recognized as a medical condition or mental disorder and is not listed in international psychiatry manuals. Of course, neither is food porn addiction.
Other critics pointed out that while putting an ad on a porn site for just one day would be unlikely to generate "a ton of sales," the brand might find itself associated "with content that it needs not be."
