McLovin it

The cable channel here for Fox Movies is broadcast out of Egypt, just north of here, so a lot of the commercials are for that market. During the Oscars it felt like they kept showing the same three commercials: Samsung, Cadillac and 7-Up. The Samsung one is for a new cell phone, whereas the Cadillac one is for a new truck marketed to Egyptian women, showing one woman with long, dark, curly hair driving through the streets, and a voice-over of her saying, "Women want more than just cup holders." I'm not kidding.
The 7-Up ad shows a girl in a red and white striped dress who drinks from the new and improved bottle for 7-Up, now more curvy and fun, and suddenly the design on her dress turns into a fresh, youthful pattern. Her old boxy car turns into a curvy green Volkswagen as she gets behind the wheel and drives down a curvy road, only to stop and pick up a black&white, hand-drawn character from the 7-Up bottle who has come to life, sits in the passenger seat and puts the new 7-Up bottle on her dashboard. (Maybe she actually does need a cup holder?)
However, by far, my favorite Egyptian commercial is the one for McDonald's. It shows a young Egyptian wife in a huge, shiny kitchen getting ready to prepare a meal for her family. As she pulls out the hamburger meat, suddenly a man in a dark uniform and hat appears to assist her, but only briefly before he fades back into the shadows. She puts the lettuce in a bowl to wash and suddenly finds herself surrounded by young, male McDonald's workers who hand her a bowl of perfect veggies and another one across the kitchen island chopping the onions before they again fade away. The young woman continues to build the burgers on a gleamingly clean metal tray, putting down the toasted bottom bun, when suddenly the burgers begin to build themselves as if by magic: a meat patty appears, the onions and tomato pop in from nowhere, the sesame bun on top. Then the woman is transported, effortlessly, to a McDonald's restaurant, smiling and looking proud as she and her children watch her husband, in full Arab dress, pick up the burger and bite into it looking satisfied. Something is said in Egyptian as the scene fades to black and the Golden Arches appear with a deep male voice saying what sounds like "Mac Do-nol" cheerily to end the commercial and cut back to the Rikki Lake film, Matters of Life and Dating.