Shallow Eyes

The Super Bowl hip-hyped juggernaut has left town. Joe Flacco is off to Disneyland and the 49niners are off licking their wounds and electricians are off to the Super Dome. The only things left are the second-guessing and the criticisms.

One of the weird phenomena created by the Super Bowl is the Super Bowl Commercials. These have become almost as anticipated as the game itself. It has also spawned the bizarre annual TV Show where people sit for an hour watching commercials only interrupted occasionally for a commercial by the sponsors. Is that an only in America moment or what?

I find a lot of people liked the Doritos Goat ad this year. I thought the Ram Truck ad was a perfect ad. It was like a little History Channel show, a beautifully photographed collection of farmers shown against the narration of Paul Harvey in praise of these men and women of the soil. It was a two-minute tribute and only at the very end did you find out who it was for and that was brilliant. Not only a matching of product to a targeted audience, but after it was done I actually knew who the sponsor was even though Ram Trucks was mentioned only briefly.

Another ad that drew a lot of comment was for Go-Daddy. I do not know why, but some years back Go-Daddy's ad agency decided to go with the tasteless, somewhat sleazy, sex-tease ads. I suppose on the theory that sex sells. Many of their pitches featured scantily clad models promising you could see more by going to the website. They even hired race driver Danica Patrick as their pitch person What any of this has to do with a business that registers domain names and hosts websites I do not know. (Somewhat incongruous, my church's website is registered by Go-Daddy.)

To many, though, Go-Daddy stepped over a line this year with their Sexy meets Smart ad. I have read a  number of critical comments on the social networks concerning this one and every one I saw was very negative. The general feeling was of a mutual disgust with the presentation. In case you did not see this particular little display it went this way. Danica Patrick, dressed in her racing leathers stands off to one side of a bench. Seated upon this bench are two people, a model that is introduced as  Bar Rafaeli. I never heard of her and her name sounds much like a Key West watering hole where Hemingway might have hung out, but she is called Sexy. Next to her is an obviously short, overweight young man called only Walter. He wears glasses, has blotchy skin and is dressed in stereotypical nerd fashion. He is called Smart. After this introduction, Danica said, "Together they're perfect."

We are now treated to a close-up of these two kissing accompanied by a lot of slurping sound effects. It really is rather disturbing to watch and one would expect there might be some protest about this prolonged and intimate kiss on a show where kids are watching. At least in this Go-Daddy ad everyone keeps their clothes on. There was protest, too. However as a long ago Sociology Major I was fascinated  by what the criticism focused upon.

It wasn't what one might expect. Most of the reaction was repulsion that this (allegedly) beautiful woman would engage in such a kiss with such an (allegedly) repulsive looking man. "Eww, how could she lock lips with that ugly nerd?" was even stated.

Oh how shallow we are. This was not people reacting to some moral breakdown. It was people showing their prejudice against someone who wasn't considered good looking. If this kiss had been presented between Bar (who names their daughter Bar anyway) and one of those gyrating gentlemen in the Calvin Klein underwear ad (on right and another inappropriate ad for the game) would there have been as much negative comment?

This ad was so objectionable on so many levels besides bad taste. For one, look at the idea that to be smart you must also be homely or socially awkward. For another, the idea that two people who are far different in their appearance couldn't seriously be in love. But yet, so many people embraced those two bias and were turned off by this beauty and the beast match up. Go stand in the corner with the ad execs of Go-Daddy and be ashamed for your shallowness...and take Calvin Kein with you.

A Pickup Truck Load of Unmitigated Gall

I come to my Blogger dashboard this fine Christmas Eve day and what do I see?

"1 Comment Waiting Moderation"

It's always nice to get a comment. It tells me someone has read my dibble and even taken the time to say something about it. I quickly open up the comment and read a semi-cryptic message from someone named Frances, with an e, the female form. I have a cousin Francis, but he isn't a she, so I rule him out. I don't have any followers or friends names Frances. Perhaps I am attracting a new audience; perhaps a new recruit to the magical land of Larry.

However, what in the world do they mean with this comment?

"It's fortunate enough that they have their own pickup trucks. Others have to go for a pickup truck rental service just to move their things."

The comment was made on a post I did quite awhile back called  Photographs of Dads and Sons and Pickup Trucks. (You can click on that title if ou wish to read it.) I'll tell you what it was about right here tough. It was about photographs of sons and dads and pickup trucks, duh!

Actually it was a nostalgic piece, perhaps just short of a tribute to my dad. It was a response to a Post by my friend Ronald on his Retired in Delaware Blog.  I was comparing simularities between his relationship with his father and my own to my dad. The only mention of pickup trucks was in the title and this paragraph at the end:


"One other thing, though, in Retired in Delaware's Post is the pickup truck. Funny now, but this is something we saw quite differently.

On the right is my dad's pickup truck (and my teenage shadow taking the photo). My friend, Ron, was humiliated by having to ride in the back of his dad's pickup. I loved riding in the back of this one. That was where I wanted to ride, me and my friend Richard.

We thought it was cool.

There are some stories about that pickup, but for another time."

So why this comment about our dad's being fortunate while others must rent pickups? Did Francis grow up poorer than Ronald and me?  Was Frances jealous of our families enormous bounty of owning a used, battered pickup truck?  I certainly realize there were families worse off than either Ronald or myself.

Or is Frances a sensitive soul concerned about the downtrodden of our world, those underprivileged souls who must put along this world in rented pickup trucks? 

I clicked up Frances' link to find out something about her and this is what I got.

That's right, an ad for Hertz rentals.

My sensitive little Frances turns out to be some pathetic troll toiling for Hertz. What is her profession? Does she sit in a corner of a Hertz back room hunched over a keyboard all day surfing the web for the key word "Pickup Truck"?  This is Hertz idea of a great marketing campaign, sending comments to any blogger who mentions such a vehicle no matter the context of the post? The brilliant mind of the corporate types on display making spam in the quest to make hay.

Shame! Shame! Shame! You know who I rent vehicles from when it is necessary? Enterprise, they come right to your door and pick you up.

But wait, there's more! You see that ad above, well, tell you what I'm goin' do. You read this Post right now and I'll thrown in another Ad absolutely free, you don't pay $19.95 and you don't even have to pay shipping and handling.

I looked on that Hertz ad and saw the usual suspects down at the bottom, the Facebook, Twitter, Google+ boxes. I didn't know what the fourth box was, the blue one with IN on it. I should have known, but I didn't, even though I guess it was obvious. I just had never seen it before, so I clicked it and it opened this in LinkedIn.

Yeah,yeah, another ad from Hertz, but there was something unique and maybe a bit disturbing about it.

Look there on the right in the middle. There is a familiar face. Hertz has the unmitigated gall to put my LinkedIn profile picture on one of their ads as if I am somehow endorsing Hertz?  Who gave Hertz permission to use my image in their placards? was it Sneaky-Surfer Frances?

I don't want to hear any moaning and groaning from Hertz about this post. If they can plaster my face on their ads, then I can plaster their ads on my Post.  If Hertz ever chances upon this diatribe the only thing they need send me is an apology. I don't care about comments from dweebs like Frances, but I do take umbrage at unauthorized use of my image as a marketing tool.