Been watching the test Had the test on in the evenings, and a few ads have caught my attention; most of which I couldn't find on Youtube. I'll cover those ones at the start:
First, we've got this ad for Magellan money managers, who are supposedly experts in building global share portfolios. It rattles off all this shit about how we live in a global society where your shoes are German, your iPhone American, your car Japanese, your coffee-maker Swiss, etc, etc; and every time it plays, I want to add "… and made in China" to the end of every bloody example.
Then there's this one airline ad, which stars one of those obnoxious cunts from Top Gear, and is all about the benefits of traveling first class. I can't remember seeing ads for first class air travel … well—ever—in the past. And while I don't know how many people sitting at home watching the cricket on a Tuesday evening, are going to be shopping around for the most luxurious in-flight experience, it just seems out of place sandwiched between an ad for $8 legs of lamb from Aldi and electric fanny-hair trimmers. … and speaking of such …
Yes, apparently that's something you can buy yourself—or a loved one—for Chrissy this year. This ad features a bunch of young ladies having a pillow fight in their undies, and every time I see it, I can't help but wonder, Does anybody you know actually own feather pillows? Seriously, apart from a couple of my old Nan's pillows, which were stuffed with what I think was horse hair, I reckon every pillow I've ever slept on has been made out of some sort of foam.
And while we're on the subject of Grannies & fannies, KFC has an ad with a bunch of people singing "There's a Hole in My Bucket", and I can't listen to it without hearing my Nan laughing and telling me, "Weeell, bet'er t'ave a hole in yer bucket than a bucket in yer hole"; and if you hear this every time that song plays from now on - you're welcome.
Sticking with grotty fast food, Maccas likes to throw out the sentimental shit at Chrissy time, and this year, they've finally managed to put one together that touches my cold dead heart. It's a music video featuring what looks like a typical Nan & Pop looking after a mob of feral grandkids on a beautiful Summer's day. I actually managed to find this one online …
Which brings me to this final ad, from the federal gov, which seeks to raise awareness about violence against women …
Every time I see this thing, I think about the hiding one of my nieces or nephews would get off the nearest adult if they slammed a door in anyone's face. And then, when their parents found out, they'd be lucky if they didn't get a second hiding for good measure. I know that these days it's fashionable to classify that sorta thing as child-abuse, but you know what?—I can't remember the last time I saw any of the kids in my family slam a fuckin' door in somebody's face. Hmmm?
Anyway, that's it from me. What've you been watching lately?
7 comments :
Why the fuck would any airline need to advertise its premium offerings? Most of their money should be spent in trying to convince us that their economy class is tolerable. Or better yet, spend the money actually MAKING economy class tolerable (the way it was in the 80s, when flying any length of time didn't fill me with dread).
Those ads with girls having pillow-fights are so male gaze-y they need to be banned. I don't see why seeing a chick in her undies having a pillow fight is going to make me want to trim my pubes into a heart shape either. But yeah, I own a feather pillow, but it's in the spare room because I don't like how it flattens after you've been lying on it for a while. Or how hot your head can get with them during summer. The rest of the pillows in the house are either latex or synthetic fibre fill (and a bit lumpy those ones). Your mention of horse hair pillows though took me straight back to staying at my Nana's house as a kid too. Erk. I did not really like my Nana.
That Macca's ad just made me wonder how many kids these days get to spend their time ANYWHERE with as much space as this (admittedly multi-generational) family seem to have. But it did remind me of all the summers I spent at the shack in Margaret River as a child and how my sister and I - even when we were both quite young (7 and 10) - were allowed to wander and cycle the streets, go to the beach, take ourselves to summer day camp at the local caravan park and generally entertain ourselves without any adults around, which is a wonderful memory to have and I should phone up my Mum and thank her for helping make and allow that to happen. Our parents knew we knew what to be wary of (be it snakes, blue-ringed octopus, or dirty men) and trusted us to stay together and to get help if we needed it. The worst thing that happened to me on one of these days was getting a bad sunburn because it was cloudy and I didn't feel the sun as being hot so didn't bother with sunscreen. And that was a great way for me to learn the importance of it, while I lay face down on the bed trying to sleep because it was too painful to lie on my back. These days, they'd be up for child neglect and we would have been taken for street urchins or something, haha.
And yeah, I really think half the problem with the youff of today is that their parents didn't teach them real consequences or bad behaviour like ours did. That said - and I think I've said this before - I only ever got one real hiding in my life because the threat of it was enough to make me behave. I don't believe this shit about how hitting kids makes them more violent. Kids ARE violent, they don't need us to show them how to be. It's like making excuses pedophiles because they themselves were abused as kids... are you kidding me? Out of all the people, a victim of abuse should know how wrong it made them feel and know not to do it to someone else and seek help. Anyway I think we are living the consequences of a huge experiment carried out on all of us in removing physical discipline as an option for parents and teachers (and other authorities). And I don't think we are going to be happy with the results.
PS my head almost exploded when I heard that as part of the review of the NT youth justice system (don't get me wrong, there a lot wrong with it) was a recommendation not to punish kids and that they just need counselling until they reach the age of 14. That they can't be held responsible for their actions up until then because of some lame brain development thing. What a crock of shit. Under those rules, the boys who abused, tortured and then killed poor James Bolger would be off scott free! (though I guess maybe a Singapore-style caning would have been and okay alternative to prison) While I think it's not good to lock young kids up with hardened crims, there needs to be some punishment.
Mind you the flipside of that is that when a white guy runs down and kills a young aboriginal boy, he should fucking go to jail for it too, and not get off because he was angry and didn't mean to kill him WITH HIS MONSTER 4WD.
Poor kids. Growing up with bugger all freedom AND bugger all discipline. And all that screen time probably doesn't help either.
Fourteen? Jeez, just think of the damage someone could do by fourteen.
years ago, I listened to this Pommy bloke who was touring Australia, talking about the time he'd spent in prison on (I think) drugs charges. While he was inside, he'd been physically and sexually assaulted, forced to join a gang, and come out with a worse drug habit than he went in with. He was advocating introducing public flogging as both a more humane and less expensive alternative to prison for certain crimes. It certainly changed my view of things.
Yeah, he has a point which in theory I agree with, but both he (and myself) have never been flogged, so we really don't know the long term emotional effects of that either.
(that's not to say that I don't think there's a place for it, as I said above, but it would be good to get some idea if it works, I wonder if there's some studies about the results of Singapore's regime, which is a little brutal in itself, nothing like what happens in Saudi though)
I've gotta say, as I get older, I get more and more skeptical about the social sciences. For instance, given the cultural differences between Australia and Singapore, how relevant do you think a Singaporean study would be, even if it was thorough and impartial (big if).
I'd be in favour of trialing it as something that perpetrators could voluntarily opt into, as an alternative for sentences under 12 months, or something like that.
A bit like sending a drug offender to rehab instead of prison?
More or less, I suppose. Except, I assume you don't get belted in rehab. Of course, I wouldn't know, since I've never actually been. Maybe that would actually work better. :)
Post a Comment