I didn't watch the Super Bowl. I haven't for many years. There was a time, back when there were Budweiser frogs, that I did check in for the commercials, but with youtube previews and Internet recaps, I don't need to do that anymore.
So I saw the Budweiser puppy commercial before the Super Bowl and I wasted about 15 minutes of my morning reading a Slate article about other commercials.
When I went to watch the commercials - because of course I wanted to see the maudlin one about preventable accidents and the Nissan commercial that everyone was calling crass - I had to watch an ad to see the advertisements.
It was like an infinite loop of commercials. And then I started wondering, have we all turned into a commercial?
Of course we have. We wear branded outfits and baseball caps with logos on them. My sneakers sport a bit ol' "N" for New Balance on them. My watch says "Timex." My titanium-framed glasses on the inside of the frames say "Charmant," whatever that is (maybe that's a color).
My car says Toyota Camry on it, my cameras all say Nikon, my cell phone says . . . well, whatever it is, it's an old flip phone and I can't remember what it is but it says its name on there (and indicates that I am not yet into this decade). My husband's flip phone is a Motorola, I know that.
I have T-shirts that advertise insurance companies, Hanes on my underwear, and St. John's Bay on my sweater. ACE is tattooed on the elastic bandage on my ankle.
I don't consider myself a name-brand kind of girl, and yet there it is, proof that I'm a walking billboard.
Just like you.
I have ads on my blog just because - I don't make much money from them, but there they are anyway. One hopes, I suppose.
Looking around my office, I see a Samsung monitor, a Dell computer, a Sphere light, a bottle of Purell hand cleaner, a Panasonic cordless phone, a Casio calculator, and a box of Kleenex. And that's without hardly moving my head. A turn to the left and there's Energizer batteries, a Sterling & Noble clock, an RCA stereo, and a Staples bag with notebooks in it. Oh, and let's not forget the HP printers, Norcom column pad that I keep my freelance billing in, and the Quaker popped rice.
Good grief.
We really are trapped in an infinite loop of commercials.
Maybe I'll put a "For Sale" sign on my forehead. I wonder what someone might want to put there.
I watched a collection of ads on the internet and tried to see them as mini movies (maybe with some blatant product placement). I'm always curious about the ad creators mind. I think they have to be good writers to pull it off. But even so I felt tricked in a way and inundated with product pushing.
ReplyDeleteThere is no escaping brand labels, unless of course, one made the products and clothing themselves but then many similar items I have seen at craft fairs and similar events also bear the maker's name, which it itself is a sort of label. It's much like the copyright symbols used intellectual works to show ownership.
ReplyDeleteI did have the game on while reading, but honestly don't recall most of the commercials.
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