More evidence for the return of the mullet has presented itself–in the wild! And in the US, not Korea!

This ad for a fake cheese product is running in the August 2017 issue of Real Simple magazine. I’m sure that it’s in other magazines, too.

The tagline is “cheesier than ever.”

Things this ad has going for it (and by “it,” I mean the mullet):

• Attractive man wearing the mullet
• Delightfully cheesy content
• Gets you to think ahead to August 7th aka International Mullet Day
• Decent biceps

Things that this ad takes away from the memeing of the popularity of the mullet:

• Too much 80s theme–takes it out of TODAY or THE NEAR FUTURE aka WHEN THE MULLET SHOULD BE POPULAR
• Fake cheese (surprisingly not soy)
• The hairstyling is flat and uninteresting
• Aimed at the mom demographic*

*Although I suppose if you get the mom demographic screaming over something, it’s officially entrenched in the public’s consciousness (see also: Twi-Moms).

It’s not like mullets have ever really gone away from the public eye, but they are a convenient shorthand for a lot of people to refer to backwards hicks, or dated behavior. Stuff that can’t keep up sufficiently with the progress of modernism.

A modern non-dairy -gluten -soy company choosing to depict itself (however humorously) with a Mullet Man is — I am choosing to believe — a sign that the mullet has run fully circle in the irony mill and is now biding its time to reenter the public arena of hairstyles as a legitimate style.

That is, of course, assuming that mullets themselves are sentient in some capacity.

You know it’s true.