Kolohe orders pizza inside six-foot Tahitian tube. For reals!
Three weeks ago, the writer Chas Smith reported on the making of a Visa commercial at Teahupoo and starring the Californian Kolohe Andino.
Chas wrote: “The television commercial really is top secret, though corporate veils cannot block an island’s rumour mill. They say that the woman in charge is mean, like Anna Wintour, and fires multiple people a day sending them home in shame. They say the giant, agitated crew of 70 eats so much that a food shortage lurks. They say that the commercial is for the Super Bowl. They say that its narrative arc includes Kolohe ordering a pizza on a cell phone while standing in a heaving tube.
“He zipped by me on a ski, while I was sitting in the channel, mouth agape. He did not stop to say hi but his eyes appeared very mischievous. I could almost feel him spending the thousands of dollars I owe Visa. His friends may call him “Corpo” but his name really means “li’l rascal” after all.”
And now, here it is.
The narrator, whose voice is a beautifully deep, perhaps even African-American baritone, patches us in: “Visa checkout is the easier way to pay online… But can Kolohe Andino really pay for pizza inside one of the heaviest waves in the world?”
Of course!
All the cynicism and capitalist envy in the world ain’t going to blunt the fact that this is as good and as audacious and as clever as anything manifested tween surf and mainstream.