Pet Food For My Ego

M

munk

Joined
Mar 22, 2002
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I saw an ad for IAM's the other night. The food was designed so that an overweight kitty, shown on screen, will shed some weight, while an underweight kitty, shown on screen, will gain 'muscle mass' and look its best.

Except for the fact that a cat is not a human, the ad could have been for us. It catered to a mindset that I find strange. It was in the same vein as pet psychologists and cemetaries. Cats are not people, not adults.

It's a symptom of something. As are the parents who want their little girls to dress up with earings and lipstick. Advertising tries to appeal to YOU. What they put on screen is statistically proven to be the good stuff. They're hitting the mark, whether or not that's you or I. I'm often embarressed for my generation, knowing the kind of self indulgence and narcism these ads attempt to connect with. The ads show us cars for awesome indivdualists, who aren't like the herd and just have to let those six cylinders wind out. The music should make the original owners of 60's RocknRoll roll over in their beds or sofas, wherever they are. Talk about being sold out, co-opted by The Man.

This topic's too big to shoot at in one post. But it seems like there's a big push to have one generation now, with less and less childhood and less old age. Morphing into the same. It reminds me of the decadence written about by Michael Moorcock, where an advanced society at the End of Time has meaningless affairs with each other and the world around them.

When I watch TV ads, I try to find the intended audience. That is where the scary stuff is, not in the Pet food.


munk
 
I don't watch much TV because of that.

I cannot tell you the last time I watched a network prime time show, excepting half of an episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition a couple weeks ago. I just don't watch TV; most of the time it's too offensive.

TV "News" might as well be called "Exaggeration" or "Speculation." In the past six years, I've attended functions as an invited guest of clients that were recipients of low-interest loans, grants, or just plain expanded their business on their own. Politicians invite themselves to these functions, and that attracts local TV news vans. It is shocking the difference between what actually transpired at a given event, and what was reported by the "news" as to what happened. One of my clients, a manufacturer of stamped metal parts, was reported to be a manufacturer of coiled strip metal -- "Ribbons of gray steel and red copper are manufactured and wound into coils by XYZ Co," said the talking head. WTF? The reporter spent 45 minutes talking to the two partner-owners and taking notes, and STILL got it wrong.

As far as commercials and the over and underlying messages, don't get me started. I especially get upset by the drug ads --

"So if you suffer from frequent aches and pains, talk to your doctor about new Blexcroid. Blexcroid is not for everyone, and should not be used by nursing fathers or anyone with a history of hypertension, obesity, asthma, diabetes, arthritis, and lactose intolerance. Persons taking Blexcroid in clinical studies report side effects that include: Localized reddening and swelling, blurred vision, internal bleeding, flu-like symptions, itchiness, hot flashes, palpitations, increased blood pressure, nausea, dizziness, rectal bleeding, loss of hair, diminished sexual drive and impotence, and in rare cases, aches and pains. So if you're ready to take the first step toward freedom from the chronic aches and pains of aging, see your doctor today, and ask if Blexcroid is right for you!"

Don't effing get me started. Don't.

Noah, in Lewis Black mode.
 
Everything else has some form of bias. We can complain about commercials trying to shift your opinion but what about music? (the stuff with lyrics anyways).

Silence is the only neutral opinion.
 
Hell, Noah's Zark, I want you to get started. The warnings are a requirement by the Feds for ads now. It's funny when you realize most side effects are very similar from drug to drug.

I try to watch TV as if I were from outer space, studying a strange world. You can't really appreciate the job TV does on one's mind unless you've been away from it a long while or dropped acid. (That's a joke) I think many of us develope chronic resistance to TV, but I think it's done a number on each of us.

I tell you, when you watch children's television you can see what they think they're doing as opposed to what is actually happening, and that gets interesting. They've got mental health professionals at each stage of the program development too. So we don't have any excuses. The best we can do, and stillthe programing will reinforce various social/cultural ideas, both positive and negative, they think they've eliminated or adjusted.



munk
 
Noah have you tried new Rapid Release Blexcroid? 70% of the time it works in half the time without a perscription...only with side effects of anal seepage, night sweats, and hallucinations of pink screaming bunnies.

Jake
 
Spammers are convinced I need a mortgage, a diploma, and Viagara.


Ad Astra :mad: :confused: :foot: :barf: :grumpy: :p :rolleyes: :foot:

oh, yeah. I DO take Blexcroid® but I do it specifically FOR the side effects.
 
TV is a waste of time, and you're allowing yourself to be socially programmed. It's both amusing and frightening to sit down and watch an hour of TV while keeping track of what's being sold, both in terms of product and philosophy. Munk's pet food example is great. To quote the late Bill Hicks: "TV is like taking black paint to your third eye."


Edit: Unfortunately I've watched my share of TV in the past, and I still wonder what damage it's caused. Watching it from the POV of an alien is a great idea. I know for some of us interacting with regular people is like visiting another planet. No glowing box necessary.

-Tycho-
 
I have not owned a TV in about eight years. I strongly encourage everyone to get rid of theirs. Just trying to watch less or not at all doesn't work for most people, you have to get rid of it. Doing so will change your view of the world. It will also leave you out of a majority of conversations, because you won't know what references people are using. I still don't fully understand what Survivor is, or was, or who those people who became celebreties because of it where, or why, or why would anyone would really care. It is not just the commercials selling you something, it is the whole media of TV itself.
 
I'm with you on that one, Bob. Makes social interaction completely different. You'd be surprised how much people talk about entertainment once you step outside the loop.

OT, I realize that in these posts I may come across as an elitist snob. I will admit I'm an snob, but only when it comes to things like coffee or beer. I'm just relating my experience, not trying to sound superior.
 
I thought there was only one type of snob. By definition, aren't all snobs elitist? Or do I have this wrong? Or is that saying among snobs one is a snob? Kinda like King of Kings, only with snobs.

Oh well.


munk
 
Hmm, good point. I may have been using redundant words.

But it could mean that I'm a member of the snob aristocracy. ;)
 
The only shows I watch are the PBS news hour, nightly news, Washington Week in Review, NOW with David Brancaccio, Meet The Press, and 24 ;)

Overall the net is much more funner than TV. :thumbup:
 
I haven't watched television in almost five years. Hearing stuff like this doesn't make me miss it all that much.
 
Munk,
You got to catch "House" on Fox Tuesday night. It's about this doctor who you might just be able to relate to. ;) Otherwise, I agree with Newton Minnow, it's a vast wasteland.
 
Bri's got it right. House is a great show. usually, i end up watch mostly movies or the news on TV, but House is really entertaining. Lots of neat medical info with some twists on the perception of cause/effect and dumb luck have on how medical treatment works. Steely gives it a thumbs up :thumbup:

jake
 
I must be weird...I enjoy "watching" TV while I am actually online surfing, reading and posting these messeges.

I can't tell you anything that is on network television, but do enjoy the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, PBS, some sports (boxing and football, racing) and movies on cable or DVD. My one vice I suppose is the Sci-Fi channel...there's always a chance to catch Jeri Ryan as "Seven".

.
 
Well... There's also Da Bears on Sunday noon, can't live without that perennial bummer... :barf:
 
Hollywood is soooo lazy. I can't stand any of those "reality shows" and the rest of it is not much better. You'd think the public would tire of cop shows, lawyer shows, and doctor shows. Oh sure, occassionally they'll radically alter things and you'll have an ex-cop practicing law while serving as a medic on the side. Or maybe an ex-lawyer detective who only works on hospital abuse cases. But other than that it's pretty much all the same.

About all I watch is the History Channel, Discovery, National Geographic, and occassionally the Comedy Central and Sci Fi (for BattleStar Gallactica).
 
The Other Side of TV. I was raised in front of this new invention. A society, a new culture grew from it and with it. Many the time's I've laid in bed too sick to move, high fever, in and out of consciousness, and the TV was my friend.

Staying up late in College and watching old movies. And back in those days, when you'd taken way too much of that stuff best left behind, there was TV, like an old friend, to welcome you back to Earth and home. Today watching cheezy horror or SF movies with my boys. Dragon Ball Z. And the News.
SF channel, Disc and Learn Channels, History channel- Tales of the Gun.
Yep, can be a accomplice to home.

Also, there's a certain beserk humor, and a 'cheezy' happiness out of criticizing the thing.


munk
 
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