2 posts tagged “commercials”
It's snowing on this lovely, quiet Friday before the semester begins--a nice combination of fluffy flakes and tiny little pellets of ice that sound like maracas when they hit the dead leaves. As a testament to how slow the news day is, I have just been interviewed by the local paper for their entertainment/arts alternative publication. What, you wonder, was the subject of this interview? Was it my writing projects? My sock monkey-making craftiness? My fashion sense?
No, dear reader, the topic of conversation for the interview was how an annoying radio commercial once saved my life.
Here in Kansas, we have a fast food chain called Spangles. For many years, Spangles has been known for its highly annoying radio commercials. (Be forewarned that their website is as annoying as the ads.) These commercials are so bad that people lunge at the radio to change the station, and I'm no different. My story is just a bit more dramatic.
I was sitting in my car at a red light. It was at an intersection where one four lane street met another four lane street. I was in the left hand lane, going eastbound. In the right hand lane going eastbound was a guy who listened to a different radio station, or who perhaps didn't hate the Spangles ads as much as I did. At any rate, when the Spangles ad came on, I looked down to change the radio station, but the guy in the right hand lane didn't. While I was searching for a Spangles-free radio station, the light turned green, and Right Hand Lane guy went. Unfortunately for him, a police cruiser picked that moment and that intersection to run a red light, with no siren and no lights.
To make a funny story suddenly sad, I looked up from changing the radio just in time to see the police cruiser t-bone Right Hand Lane guy, who died at the scene. He was in fact dead by the time I put the car in park, turned on my flashers and ran across the intersection to the pile of crumpled cars. Reckless Cop walked away from the accident, spent a little time on administrative leave, and eventually went back to his job.
As for me, I drove away, feeling a little shaky, with a healthy respect for whatever instinct makes you turn away from things that annoy you. I still don't eat at Spangles, but whenever I hear their commercials, I feel a twinge of gratitude, right before I change radio stations.
Every time I watch TV--about twice a week, once for Lost, once for Arrested Development--I can't help but notice that nearly every commercial is for a car manufacturer. It's a little like going out to a bar and being hit on. Some of these commercials have a pretty straight forward come on: they show you the vehicle driving around on beautiful highways, or tearing up dirt roads. Other commercials are going for subtle. One shows a variety of beautiful nature scenes and people enjoying them, one shows highlights from the 60's, including requisite hippies with an old VW van, but of course, at the end, just like guys in bars, they have to cut to the chase...buy the car. Buy the car. I'm sorry, but at some point have these car manufacturers not noticed that every single American who wants a car and can afford one, ALREADY OWNS AT LEAST ONE?! There's no one sitting at home, thinking, If I saw the right car, I guess I'd go ahead and buy my first one. Sorry, there just isn't. We already own cars. It's not like a razor, where you might see a new design (one with seven blades perhaps...) and decide to buy that brand the next time you're at the store. It's a car, people.
