Supergeil, or How a Supermarket Got Under My Skin

After moving in with Leni into what the internet had cheerfully dubbed the fashion blogger flatshare, I became, through pure geographical coercion, a devoted customer of Edeka. It was the only shop within reasonable walking distance. Breakfast from Edeka. Lunch from Edeka. The 11pm "we really should cook more" snack run, also Edeka. I had developed opinions about their yogurt selection.

Then they released the "Supergeil" ad with Friedrich Liechtenstein—an eccentric German performer who carries himself like a man who has been quietly magnificent for decades and is simply waiting for the world to notice—and my grocery loyalty became something stranger. Liechtenstein drifts through the store in the video, past freezer cases and bread displays, murmuring supergeil (roughly: "fucking awesome," originally teenage slang that sounds even more absurd in his particular baritone) over a minimal electro track. The whole thing is deadpan and committed and oddly moving.

I watched it three times back to back and then felt hungry. Which is, of course, exactly what they wanted. Doesn’t make it any less good.