Gotta love those funny TV commercials! How about the ad where one guy hits another in the head with a cell phone, twice, or where a woman bounces a cue ball off the forehead of an obnoxious man? Then there’s the guy who breaks down a wall to be allowed to answer a quiz question. We’re supposed to laugh, of course. If we do, though, what we’re telling our kids is that violence is both an acceptable response to minor irritants and funny. It’s time to change this way of thinking. We start not by laughing at the aggressive scene but by using the ads as a chance to talk to our kids about violence against our fellow humans. Our discussion will likely bring out stories of similar antagonism on the playground or among their friends and give us a chance to offer guidance in how to handle such situations.
Tag Archive for ads
“Funny” TV Ads
Keep Your Privacy Private
Californians are getting the power to protect themselves. What is your state or country doing?
Starting in 2020, Californians will have the power to control whether or not online companies can keep or sell our data. Currently, online companies collect all sorts of information about us and use it either to bombard us with advertising or profit from it by selling it to others who attack us with ads…and worse.
Although the new law isn’t as strong as the one in Europe, it’s the strongest in the U.S.
Start bombarding your lawmakers with demands that they enact similar legislation. We all deserve to avoid giving up part of our private lives every time we search or buy on the internet, go to a website, or download a movie or e-book.
Remember: Their taking our data isn’t just a bother to us; their having our information can also endanger us, especially the most vulnerable among our family and friends.
Super Bowl Ads
If I don’t watch The Game I miss the ads. Actually, I tune into the yearly show “Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials,” aired a week before the game, to see what I missed. The ads are funny, sexy, thought-provoking, timely, expensive, and disturbingly violent.
It’s the attitude that “violence sells” that bothers me. So many ads feature people getting hurt or hurting someone else on purpose–designed to make us laugh. I don’t happen to think that’s funny.
This year’s Greatest Top 10 Ads of All Time were encouraging, though. Yes, there were the Three Stooges type humor in some. However, here were the top four: #4 Bridgestone tires (saving a whale), #3 Victoria’s Secret (suggestive but not overboard–for them), #2 Coke (Mean Joe Green–kid teaching adult a lesson in humility and generosity), and #1 Budweiser (horse/dog friendship and cooperation leads to success).
I have no idea what Sunday will bring between bouts of grown men fighting over a bit of pigskin. As for me, I’ll spend the day looking for Bridgestone tire sales, slyly placing the Victoria’ Secret weekly ad near my husband’s chair, drinking a bunch of Cokes, then topping it off with a Bud or two. The game? Oh, yeah, that. Maybe I’ll catch the half-time show.
