Commercialization

Lately I’ve been seeing some pretty interesting commercials. I know the point of commercials- to catch the attention of a select group of people to advertise some product or service, usually for sales. However, some commercials are kind of ridiculous in their presentation (in my personal opinion).

For example: Play Doh commercials

I’ve seen several commercials advertising this great little carpet-ruining tub of fun recently, (maybe it hasn’t been several, its probably been the same commercial but they all look the same to me) where the newest fun with the Play Doh was food-themed. Ice cream with sprinkles and decoration, burgers with all the fixins’ including pickles, all those great things and such. After seeing kids playing and laughing and putting together all these tasty-looking little Doh morsels of delight, putting them all nicely on a plate with great culinary presentation, they must end the commercial itself with a voice saying, “Play Doh, fun to play with, not to eat!”

Uh, this particular play-thing has an age recommendation of ages 2 years and up. Have they ever even seen a two year old child play? The majority of what they do when playing is place things in their mouths. Hell, I was 9 and my mom told me she’d give me a dollar if I ate a marble-sized chunk of Play Doh (easiest dollar I ever made). With that being said, with the starting age being two to play with Play Doh, it being made to look a lot like food and possibly parents making stupid barters with their kids, the “suggestion” at the end of the commercial probably isn’t enough. OR we could just stop making things we SHOULDN’T eat look like things we LOVE to eat… hmmm?

As long as we’re on the subject of commercials I don’t like…

Love Stride Gum, their ad gimmick, not so much. I pretty much don’t like to be told what to do, especially by people I don’t know. And while enjoying a piece of refreshing gum I don’t really have the desire to feel threatened. Their ads basically tell people to “Spit it out and chew a new piece already or we’ll find you.” Yeah, how about stay out of my damn breath-freshening business, thank you very much. I will chew it if, when, and how I want, and I don’t appreciate you being all up in my TV telling me how to be livin’ my life (or chewing my gum rather).

Now you got me goin, I’m gonna go get myself a Play Doh hot dog and freshen up afterward with a piece of gum...