I don't know how much influence ads have on me as a whole, but sometimes they stick in my brain.
There's a radio commercial from AT&T lately that goes something like this:
Announcer: AT&T has added 237 new towers to the Hampton Roads area this year, so you can talk more!
Woman: I have a signal even when I'm at the beach with my friends, so I can still help the kids with their homework!
Man: My connection works great even when I'm [some location], so I can do more work!
Other Man: I can check the scores from [location] to [other location]!
And then the announcer continues on... The thing is? Those first two "testimonial" folks really don't sound all that happy about it. I'm not exactly being sold on the benefits of good coverage, here...
And there's a McDonald's breakfast wrap commercial that makes me twitchy, because its lines don't match up, grammatically:
Old Man: ...You kids, with [umpteenth description of the wrap] handed to you for practically nothing!
Young Man: Actually, Grandpa, it's in a flour tortilla, see?
See, the "actually" implies that Grandpa was wrong about something, and the youngster is correcting him -- but he's not contradicting anything! Argh!
Though I find this one funny:
Football Fan: In the ham and egg breakfast sandwich, the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed. BE THE PIG.
I especially like the subtle alignment of the pig in the food and their sweepstakes for "pigskin" tickets.
Speaking of which, Penny may have had something of a revelation forced upon her the other day.
Matt's habit, lately, has been to answer random questions of Penny's with, "Bears!" "What's Alex playing with?" "Bears!" Like that.
So on the way home from school, she said, "What are we having for dinner tonight?" and Matt said, "Bears!" and she said, "Nooooo. Silly Daddy! We don't eat animals!"
And Matt said, "Uh, yes, actually. We do."
"Noooo! Silly Daddy!"
"I'm not kidding. We eat cows..."
"Noooo!"
"And pigs..."
"Noooo."
"And chickens..."
"N- Wait."
She tried to shake it off, but when they got home and Matt was telling me about it, she started to protest again, and Matt said, "What do you think hot dogs are made of?"
She pondered the question briefly, and then decided that perhaps the better part of valor was to go draw a picture.
2 comments:
Should I be getting you a vegetarian cookbook, or a copy of Upton Sinclair's _The Jungle_? :D
Although, I learned an interesting thing.... I had a reference question on Muslim food restrictions yesterday, and apparently the reason that pig isn't on the menu is because omnivores (pigs, bears, humans) are considered haraam (unlawful). Carnivores (wolves, lions, snakes...), with the exeption of piscivores (those who eat only fish, like sharks or seals) are also haraam.
Now, Westerners have no problem with omnivorous meat (yay, Donner Party), but... you know, we're not terribly keen on carnivore meat, either, are we? I'd never thought about it that way before. Maybe that's why the idea of cat meat grosses Westerners out.
(My reference patron decided upon a fruit basket as the safest gift food choice. ;) )
I usually avoid submitting corrections to your journal, because even when I mean to just be helpful, it comes across as petty and nitpicky. But this correction is funny, so I can't help myself.
Matt: "And hot dogs are made of meat, too. They're made from cows."
Penny: "No, they're not!"
Matt: "Yes, they are. What do you think they're made from, if not cows?"
Penny: "Well... people...?"
Matt: "Hot dogs are not made of people. Remember this. We. Do not. Eat. People."
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