Posted on 04/27/2020 8:12:34 AM PDT by Kaslin
A new kind of television advertisement has crept into our collective consciousness here in the age of virus. In an effort to show that they care, and you know, sell stuff, major corporations are inundating the airwaves with saccharine-sweet, super-sincere TV spots that are not a little bit dystopian. Indeed, the virus, it seems, is inescapable even when we cut to a few words from our sponsors.
You’ve all seen them. They include phrases like, “In this time, more than any other,” or “As we all rise to the challenge,” or “Stay safe, stay home.” The last one is particularly infuriating. I mean, I am home! I’m watching freakin television! Where do you think I am, a sports bar? I’m just trying to tune out watching “Friends” over here.
In a Dunkin Donuts ad, employees in one store are making masks. An AT&T ad like dozens of others is a for-profit celebration of frontline responders. There is ad after ad after ad of cozy indoor shots of parents teaching kids, people cooking, virtual happy hours, all of it.
And they aren’t even honest. A lot of families are at each other’s throats. What there should probably be is more Peloton divorce ads about couples who now hate each other, or some single guy sadly taping together used pizza boxes for the recycling.
It is honestly enough to make me long lovingly for the days “Mike Bloomberg for president” ads were more prevalent than grains of sand on the beach. Remember that? It was about 14 years ago, I think. But annoying as they were, those ads weren’t as cloying and Orwellian as the 30-second spots reinforcing lockdown orders while selling products.
We all know already about the shutdown. It’s not a public service to constantly remind us that we have barely left our houses for two months. One of the big reasons people watch TV is to escape this weird reality for a few hours, to settle into the world as it was, not as it is. But the next thing you know it’s back to hospital rooms and facemasks on the screen, stirring music swelling beneath. Just stop.
You know what I want from TV ads right now? I want pretty people with good, strong teeth pushing products that can dramatically improve my life. I want jokes, and celebrity cameos, contests and yelling. I want some affirmation that someday life will be back to normal, not constant reminders of the current drudgery.
A great danger in a long-term slow-motion crisis is that a narrative can start to set in across the culture. Increasingly. that is reinforcing a victim narrative. After all, there is little some Americans crave more than the mantle of victimhood. It is a message of powerlessness in which all we can do is heat up a can of baked beans and wait for the dictatorship of expertise to give us the all-clear.
Television ads play an outsized role in crafting that narrative. This is in part because TV viewership among Americans is so fragmented that we don’t watch the same news, or the same shows, but we do watch the same ads. It is one of the few forms of television that can still saturate society. Please saturate it with something other than shilling while putting on a coronavirus pageant.
There is a danger of wallowing. Yes, our lives have temporarily changed, but no, coronavirus need not be at the center of our every waking moment. In fact, if we let it be, we will all slowly go insane. So please, big companies and advertising companies, just cut us a break. Let us think about something else. I’ll buy it, whatever it is. I promise.
Enough!
As my job is an essential service, I am out of the house 5 days a week, working. As I drive 11 miles each way to work each day, I appreciate that there are not too many cars on the roads, though there are still idiots that think that 85 mph in a 60 mph zone is a grand idea. The line ups at grocery stores are a pain, as are the shortages of some items but it certainly isn’t GUM Department Store, circa 1975!
I consider myself blessed, as I still have a job and have guaranteed hours and hopefully, enough seniority to avoid layoff down the road. Besides, I know who is in charge and I have a relationship with Him, and that is all I truly need!
OMG!!! Yes.
Every company is advertising “oh, how caring WE are”!!!!
It is sickening.
Is someone going to buy a Subaru because their ads seem to reflect that they “care” more than does Ford or Toyota for instance? And if I am looking for a car, is that sort of message what I really care about??? Noooooooooooooooooo.
You can just see the marketing departments working nights trying to come up with some virtue-signalling tie-in to the WuFlu crisis. “Look, if we come across as more compassionate than our competitors, our study shows we’ll increase sales by up to 10 percent. So let’s get busy, people, and show how freakin’ compassionate we are Maybe something with a puppy.
Everyone loves puppies, don’t they?”
It’s the “Karen’s” They are behind those ads. If i’m lying I’m dying.
At least these companies haven't adopted America's "new normal" (my God, such an ugly, trite phrase) motto that has replaced (hopefully only temporarily) "The land of the free and the home of the brave": "Better Safe Than Sorry".
(acknowledgement to Dennis Prager for that one)
Anything to exploit the kept ignorant. “No payments for 80 months”
They are also propaganda.
I’m waiting for another “We Are The World” song. It would fit right in with the agenda.
I have started muting my tv every time one of those assnine commercials come on!”
I couldn’t agree more. Those things are almost as bad as the non-stop “ATTENTION !!!! IF YOU HAVE MEDICARE ....” Both the Mute button and the On/Off switch are getting quite a workout lately. :-)
Because we’re all in this together.
Sometimes I think that's why the piano, an ugly-sounding instrument if ever there was one, was invented.
“I don’t have TV and have never seen a Coronavirus ad.”
My TV is off a lot, but since I cut the cord on cable and went OTA, I’ve enjoyed watching Comet TV (a lot of old B-grade sci fi flicks & other “oddball” stuff) and Antenna TV (syndicated old shows like Father Knows Best, Dennis the Menace, Alice, etc.). Now if only those channels would get rid of the asinine COVID-19 and Medicare commercials ....
I'll be watching Jeopardy with my wife and one of those obnoxious ads comes on, full of young (or young-looking) happy people joyously having the time of their lives, and say to her, "Gee, I wish I had genital herpes too!"
Haha...guess I don’t watch enough tv
Just stop.
Please.
“We” are not in this together at all.
I HATE these commercials.
The attitude of virtually every doctor and nurse is something on the order of, "if you could see the things I see, you too would favor the mandatory wearing of full suits of medieval armor." And a condom, too, of course.
Exactly, the whole entertainment/media complex has been trying to tear down the Man that over 60 million people voted for in the last election.
Together, My Ass! F ‘Em!
“Those ads have been on for at least 1 month.”
Yes, but irritation takes to get to the point of “Dear God, take me now! I can’t put up with it any more!”
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