(Still) Existing with Commercials

I don't necessarily know how to say that I have missed Buzznet other than saying that I've missed it.  The new look is pretty chic.  I'm torn because the old format has my heart wanting for it once more, but I think that I like Buzznet like this.

Everything changes.

So, as I sit here on this afternoon in 2010 in the month of July, I wonder where life has lead me thus far.  The last two years of my life have been heavily spent within the confines of my university.  Catholic school isn't nearly as glamorous as it sounds (and I've only got two more years to get through before I can call myself a graduate).  It seems like eternity, and I don't know how much information I have collected.  Does anyone stop to think about what they could be processing?  If you haven't, I recommend a good break from your life to figure out what you know.

And no, I'm not talking about popular culture.  If you want that, go to the homepage.  

I've got a sweet cup of cinnamon apple tea to my right.  It tastes delicious (certainly a lot better than some of the protein shakes that I've had over the last week or so). The weather outside is disgusting; gusts have been knocking on my door all day, rattling my dogs up and forcing my cats to seek shelter underneath tables and within cabinets.  The rain starts swiftly and heavily, flowing for about five minutes, and then it stops to make way for tiny rays of sunshine.  The ground could use a good rinse, so I don't mind it too much.  I was really hoping for a good game of basketball with my younger brother today.  Eh, it can wait.

The mood is just right for me to take some time to think about what I see most often:  commercials.  I am, as you probably are, an avid television viewer.  If I'm not on television, the oven is going off as I read one of my old books or my Netflix queue is on pause so that I can go to the restroom.

It's such a problem.

I have given a lot of thought to television programming over the last few weeks, months, years.  Commercials are still the one thing that I truly cannot understand.  Who regulates these short stories?  How do they interact with the network that is airing them?  What is the designated age group that companies are trying to target?!

I think that I've got a few commercials understood.

Car commercials:

Most of them discuss their multiple awards and safety features that their products have to offer.  Many like to take the route where if we blacken the video out, it sounds like the voice-over is talking about a woman's body.  Some like to take the route to focus on something that has nothing to do with automobiles at all and somehow tie their name in right at the end.  I love when editing errors happen in these commercials and skin colors change (I wonder how the editors missed that).

You can click here to look at some adverts where cars have been put in the position of objectified women.

Axe commercials:

Deserving their own category, these are the most unsavory of commercials.  I don't know if I'm at an age where I get bored very easily by something that I think is thoroughly attempting to grab as much attention by highlighting sex, but every one of these commercials that I see bores me.  Depressingly, there are so many media outlets that still ask for us to find these atypical people attractive.  I understand that in order for a business to do well, you should appeal to the biggest market out there.  I focus on my being a minority because there is so little representation of anything John Ortega out there in any of these shorts.  This one is somewhat promising (in a sick, socio-normative way): giving the woman a small taste of power and suggesting that she attack the one place that every straight man fears women tread.

Of course, we are made clear who this is made for by the end of this 15 second clip.

It's fine. I found out how to make my own cologne.  My queer, Hispanic body has no place in this hetero-normative environment, but that doesn't mean that I have to smell foul. 

Food commercials (specifically for animal food):

It could just be that my dog has had to go to the vet's office lately, but I have issues with companies that advertise their dog food as being a combination of flavors that are premium and natural ingredients.  I would be more mad if they were wrong; most of the dog food that is out there today is primarily made from corn.

I've been feeding this dog food to my dogs for a couple of months, not thinking anything of it.  Now, my dog does have an allergy to corn (which I accept is not the same for every dog), but the main ingredient in this is ground yellow corn.  False (or at least faulty) advertising, thy name is Beneful Healthy Radiance.

A teeny note:  I understand that trying to see yourself in commercials is problematic (I could even make an argument about racial implications made by different animals, but we'll save that for later).  But if I am going to have to suffer through them for almost 1/3 of my daily programming, I expect to see something a little more creative, a little more representative and a little more progressive.  Need I remind anyone that it is the second half of 2010?  

Enough about commercials, I'm off to make some dinner for my brother and I.  Colorado is a nice state; I suggest that everyone visit sometime.  Just not on days like this.   And if you do get stuck here on days like this, write a blog.  It turned my afternoon to evening very quickly.

- OW :)