I was half-listening to a true crime podcast when the ad came on. I perked up when I realized it was for White Lotus branded coffee creamer. It promised something like a luxurious Thai vacation vibe without leaving your house, and I wondered if the ad writers had ever seen White Lotus.
That’s the contradiction of White Lotus, though. It’s a show about terrible people doing shitty things and making their lives worse. It’s also about having exactly one scene per season that makes you say, Holy fuck or I know this is HBO, but I didn’t realize they could show that.
What the White Lotus Thai Iced Coffee Mate collaboration is banking on is that you still wish you had these characters’ lives—as long as you also get to go to Hawaii, Italy, or, in the case of season three, Thailand. Coffee Mate is betting you think you’re different. That you’re sure that if you were as rich as White Lotus characters, you’d be grateful for your wealth and nice to the staff, and wouldn’t need to learn any life lessons by dying an embarrassing death or getting mounted by an old guy.
