Sidebar..

First of all, be sure to raise a (real or mental) glass and toast to your Mother this Sunday, whether she's here or just a memory.  I wouldn't be writing this, or you reading it, without her.  For me, Thanks Jackie!

Okay, I finally got my head above water, figuratively and almost literally.   Been a rainy couple of days and more on the way tonight.  Also a busy week with civic organization pulls and duties.. 

Thanks for accompanying me to Charleston and points south, and thanks also for the kind words of appreciation.   We both enjoy traveling.  Especially with a bag of Canon equipment.  MFO drives, I shoot, er I should say, take pictures.

As I wend my way through the days, I run across (or see on TV) things that bug me, and sometimes have enough sense to write them down.  So the list has grown enough that we should take a little side trip through rantdom.  Of course other more interesting things are in the hopper like our Blue Apron experience, a little foray into cooking with a sous vide device, a couple of restaurant visits, and other things more culinary…

But, let’s get a few things off the list and my chest:

Selfies:   I do haunt FaceBook a bit, and besides all the kitties, puppies, babies, and grandkids, there actually are several useful sources of information.  Like our neighborhood has a page that is useful for us to keep track of vandalism, lost dogs, and such, there are Birding pages which I frequent, and a couple of interesting history related pages (You know you’re from St. Mary’s County if….) which contain pictures of structures of years ago, stories from residents about tobacco farming, “did you ever know…. So and so), etc.   But, there is one phenomenon which always puzzles me.  (And, this is just cultural curiosity, not meant to criticize anybody), WHY do people feel they need to publish pictures of themselves (commonly called selfies)?? And I’m not talking about pictures of folks standing in front of the Washington Monument, I’m referring to those that are just their face.  WHY?  They know what they look like; if I know them, I know what they look like; if I don’t know them, I don’t care what they look like.  And of course the “comments” below them are always a string of things like: “beautiful”, “gorgeous” “lovely”.   Is that their narcissistic motive, pump me up folks!  If I would join the crowd, I can only imagine: “ugly!”; “hide the kids!” and so forth.  

Okay.  On to:
Car and other advertising:   I know I have ranted before on Subaru about “Love, it what makes a Subaru a Subaru”.  Not automobile safety, features, Love.  And the commercials reflect that.  Dad with a teary eye seeing daughter off to college in her Subaru and he says at least it’s the Subaru.  Works for them.

And recently another ad is plastered all over the place that makes me kind of nauseous.  Starts out with a close up of an elderly lady obviously grieving, with a soft focus (female) “kid” in the background with a sad, concerned face.  The audio is a male voice talking about how he never had a chance to see this great country and now wants everyone to see it.   On to smarmy shots of cross country travel through Monument Valley, swing sets, deserts, with Pandora music with lots of “America’s” in the lyrics, and so on with more close ups of Grammy with that same expression, sometimes with visible parts of an urn in hands.  Finally, we’re on the coast of California (?) and although (mercifully) we don’t see ashes flying it is obviously the culmination and objective of the trip..  More patriotic music, and finally the kid is seen piteously smiling at Grandma who now doesn’t look so sick.  Okay, is this a commercial for:  A funeral home?  Insurance policies? Investment firms?  No, no, and no.  It is an ad for a VOLKSWAGEN.  All of the traveling shots are in some version.  Until the closing logo, I don’t think the word comes to us.  And with all that patriotic foofaraw, exactly where are those vehicles mostly made?

And of course the concept of “selling the experience” not the product is not new.  Another recent example is the folks from Zillow telling us that we’re not buying a home, we’re buying a back yard with a pool where the kid’s fingers turn pruny, or that kitchen where you make yourSide baby’s first “Smash Cake” (whatever that may be).  Or the guy that bemoans his commute time because he never sees his family (all with about five seconds between sentences) and how they “jumped on Zillow” and found a place much closer to work, and “now he has his family back”. Plus a hefty mortgage payment????

Nothing is sacred.  Charmin wants us to have a “cleansing experience” when “we go”, all done with cutesy cartoon bears exposing their backsides.   What’s next?   I shudder to think.

And I’m not even going to mention Chevvvvvvveeeyyyyy! All done with “real people, not actors”.

As H.L. Mencken (actually) observed (~1926):  

No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me —has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.

And, as the Bottom Feeder writes almost every day

DFD