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Letters From North America |
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Now I know that you cannot have television without advertising. We do have free programs on PBS, but they still have so-called ‘sponsors’. The British had free television for years and, well, that’s enough about that. Anyway, the programs are built around a sponsor base, who show us, the audience, advertisements to entice us to buy something as a result of watching some program. All well and good. As I have said for years…”there isn’t any free lunch…” And it’s true in this case as well. What gets me is |
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For questions or comments, please contact me at pperry@austin.rr.com Designed and Hosted by The Home Page Factory |
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that the producers of the ads that we see apparently think we are idiots or something. It almost appears that they sit around in some room somewhere, and discuss how gullible we might be that week. I can see them now…”Let’s see, what if we put some guys in a truck and we drive to some unsuspecting persons house and ask to smell their laundry….” Or what about if we go into a restaurant and brew some coffee and then after serving it, tell the customers that it really was instant coffee and not the fresh brewed that they ordered, wouldn’t that be great? ” Maybe, they’ve done a stupid poll or something and they think everyone is so dumb or naïve that it doesn’t really matter what they put on the screen, we’ll just accept it as gospel fact and run out of the house to the store and buy whatever it is that they are selling at that moment. We’ve long been exposed to advertisements for soap, gum, toothpaste, breath mints, mouth washes and underarm deodorants. In fact, the daily saga shows on television are called “Soaps” since they were first sponsored by; you got it, soap companies. What we are expected to believe is that, if you buy this certain product, you will be found to be more attractive to someone…either male, female or an animal (if you buy good pet food). If you will just buy THIS brand of toothpaste, then all of your dating worries are over since women will flock to you like ducks on a June bug. I can accept some of this stuff, since I feel that good and proper grooming does tend to make you more pleasant to be around. I don’t like sitting with folks with green teeth or that smell like they haven’t bathed in a month or so. Personal grooming is a civil responsibility we all share. However, I do feel that just because you are clean and neat and your breath and armpits smell great doesn’t necessarily mean that you are a destined to be a lady-killer. I know, since I was clean and neat all through school and where did it get me? But that’s another story and we don’t have time for all of that here, and since this is a family paper I don’t think I will ever explain, either. But, here we are at the end of the 20th century and the best that Madison Avenue has to offer is this boiled down tripe that they have been serving us for years and years. You’d think they could come up with something better than this after all of this time, wouldn’t you? I mean…”Double your pleasure, double your fun…chew Doublemint Gum?’ Are we expected to believe that we’ll get twice as many pleasing looks if we just chew this brand of gum? Get real. The latest and, in my opinion, lowest blow to advertising efforts at manipulation of our seemingly primitive minds is an ad that I have seen several times in the last week or so. In this one, a man and woman are avoiding each other until…. UNTIL…. they wash their clothes in this new detergent and guess, what? Yes, now that their clothes are clean and fresh, well, they just naturally are going to be linked to each other and stay happy forever and ever and ever. Well, excuse me while I go and throw up. If this isn’t dumbest one to come down the pike in God knows how long. Let me see if I get this straight, I see woman “A” she sees me. But neither one of us will talk to the other one, because, well….their clothes look…you know…dull and lifeless. So, somehow we find this new soap and bleach product, rush home and use it and then when we somehow, meet on the street, Voila! we fall in love because our clothes are so nice. Excuse me, but I don’t think it happens that way. How stupid do they think we are? I could keep on writing about this for another page or so, but I see the mailman out there and I want to rush out and get my sweepstakes entry for Publishers Clearing House. Ed McMahan sent me a personal letter last week, saying that I was one of the BIG winners.