Notable because the catchphrase “Different Place, Different Rules” might just as easily be used to outline Lynch’s whole oeuvre as for this particular campaign, this ‘iron Bambi’ ad is Lynch-lite. A trucker, speeding down the road towards a fawn that looks like a picture from a greetings card, is caught off-guard when the fender-bender only bends his fender, and the deer walks free. In The Straight Story — the most Lynch-lite Lynch film, and one that’s produced by Disney — there is a character whose only function in the story is to hit a deer and then explode into a surrealistic freak-out.
“I’ve tried driving with my lights on! I've tried sounding my horn!” she yells. “I scream out the window! I roll the window down and bang on the side of the door and play Public Enemy real loud! I’ve prayed to St. Francis of Assisi! I’ve hit 13 deer in seven weeks driving down this road, mister, and I have to drive this road every day!” Made only two years later, it’s hard not to wonder whether this Playstation ad, the deer’s stone-cold revenge, is meant to be atonement. Different rules, different place — but this time the place is advertising, and the rules are flexible because they’re Lynch’s own.