Mark Simpson On a New Billy Elliott-Flavored Ad With an Unexpected 'Twist'

Liverpool actor Michael Moran in the Pot Noodle advertisement that has become a sensation

Pot Noodle is an instant ramen-based snack popular with UK kids, students, and others with limited cooking facilities or skills -- or, arguably, taste -- that has a long tradition of jokey, slightly silly ads.

The latest one to air on UK TV ("You can make it") is probably their funniest -- and certainly their sharpest. It begins with a teenage working class northern lad lying on his unmade bed in his untidy room (complete with used tissues on the floor next to the bed) gazing up at his boxing posters, telling us that ever since he was a little kid he has has 'always wanted to make it' and is 'chasing his dream'.

Cue a montage of Rocky-esque shots of hard workouts in gritty gyms and early morning jogs through rusty cliches of post-industrial landscapes - and then the build-up to the Big Fight in Vegas: 'They said I'd never make it. But 'ere I am!'

When our kid steps into the ring, his family back home, including his apparently not-long-for-this-world Nan, go berserk: 'THERE 'E IS!!'

But the twist here isn't in the shape of the noodles. It's in the revelation that he's not dreaming the 'gender appropriate' dream for someone of his background -- to become a prize-fighter. Instead he's more of a lover: he's become a ring card boy -- mincing around in a shiny lime and lemon two-piece for the visual pleasure of the audience between rounds. All of that hard training was to get fit for that two-piece. And those boxing posters in his bedroom were about the ring card girls not about the boxers.

But the ad doesn't appear to be mocking him. He's still the product's hero. His family are clearly right behind him, while he's deliriously happy. And so is the gentleman in the audience, who licks his lips appreciatively.

And the lad does have great pins.

The ad has gone viral -- which of course was the aim. It's virality lies in the unexpected, "outrageous" twist, of course -- but also in the twist to the "uplift," which turns out to be more Billy Elliot than Rocky.

After all, the ending of the ad isn't really so outrageous or even so strange nowadays. We're living in a world where masculinity has lost its traditional certainties, opening up all kinds of possibilities. A world where millions of young men dream of being pretty and 'objectified'.

Though usually their ring card dreams are aimed at the cover of Mens Health.

Watch the ad below:

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