Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna were vicious competitors on the track, never afraid to do whatever it took to outperform the other. It turns out that competitive spirit extended to the commercial side as well, though when it comes to this ad, it looks like a competition over weirdness.
In case you're forgetting, Ayrton Senna wasn't above shilling for his sponsors every now and then. As a Formula One driver, it's really par for the course. The thing is, though, that F1 drivers have fans (and thus, cold hard cash) coming in from all over the world. There's nothing really wrong with that, except for the fact that people all over the world tend to speak different languages. So when you get a guy like Ayrton Senna, who doesn't speak Japanese, and you need him to sell some engine lubricants you've manufactured out of dead dinosaurs, what do you do?
That's right. You have him schtup women and claim children.
Alright, so the Ayrton Senna ad we saw a couple of weeks ago was definitely weird, but his arch-nemesis Alain Prost could never allow him to be on top. Thus we get this strange commercial from France, for Sega, I think.
We start off in a Centre de Loisirs, which, contrary to popular belief, is not a Center for Losers, but is closer to a recreation center. Specifically, it appears to be an ad for La Tête dans le Nuages, an arcade in Paris. I'm not sure, maybe we're in space, or something.
Anyways. We open up into a dimly lit room, filled with those giant arcade games, so we must be in a bowling alley circa 1993. A man in black wingtips enters. Who wears black wingtips to go play Cruisin' USA? Does he own the place? We don't know. Maybe it's an alien of some sort.
A series of quick cuts follows. Our alien wears a suit, but with no tie. He has hair. He slowly approaches a game. His face, too hideous to gaze upon, hidden by a fortuitously placed light. A red button is pushed ominously.
And then... wait... who could it be? It's Alien Alain Prost! He plays in what appears to be some sort of F-14 Tomcat simulator, and then, that's it.
He just sort of looks around.
So there you have it kids. If you went to a French arcade in 1996, you could maybe watch a Formula One World Champion just sort of hang out, by himself.
At least he's not claiming children as his own.