Peter York On Ads: The dung beetle: a must-have accessory

NO 268: KIT-KAT

The moth that flies at the light bulb in the new Kit-Kat commercial is definitely female. Ooh, it says after each heated bruising impact, in a soft breathy voice. Flap away - two-second memory syndrome - repeat behaviour, ouch. It's quite disturbing, this daft little hit-me-again voice. And very memorable. The whole thing looks grey and sad, and faintly David Lynch-ish. Just the bulb, the moth and a bit of ceiling.

And the point of it is, give it a rest, leave it out, get a life, give us a break.

In another treatment a dung beetle - they're fashionable now - pushes a round ball of compacted dung uphill where it gets impaled on a spiky twig. True to form it scrabbles away idiotically at the immovable object. That's enough, cool it, chill out little brother. Have a nice lie down and wave your legs around.

Another - longer - ad opens on Loch Ness in black and white, setting you up for the familiar observational stake-out. Bagpipes skirl away tiresomely. But we've had it with Nessie, we don't care whether it's real or rubber. Steven Speilberg can make something better. David Attenborough can film something better. It's a lost cause. Go home, as Tracy Ullman used to say. Get real. Have a nice lie-down. Then the Kit-Kat logo appears from the water briefly, in the Nessie position. But much more interesting.

The other Kit-Kat treatment looks and feels completely different because it's animation, in that fashionable neo-50s commentary style - a bit Wallpaper, a bit Conde Nast Traveller.

A lazy, nail-painting secretary gossips away on the telephone - girl things - her in-tray piled high, her out-tray empty. Pink text and the logo suggest an alternative. Get a grip.

It all looks very different from the classic exhortation - where we all came in - and from the 80s sub-Benson and Hedges surrealism Kit-Kat used to run with. It's got continuity of message and catchphrase - "Have a break" - but it introduces a distinctly edgier, younger aesthetic. And running just 10 seconds they seem more like a station ident than an ad. So snap out of it, pull yourself together, stop fidgeting, and leave Rover alone.