I usually record the TV programs I like so
that I can fast forward over the ads. (Not their intention I know but so many
of them are so boring and time wasting.)
Today I decided to watch the commercials:
Commercial 1 taught me to get into debt. I
can get a loan at a clothing shop in 15 minutes! Wow! (Don't know how I will
pay it back!)
Commercial 2 taught me that when I am
hungry I can eat a chocolate bar and become quite mellow while packing on the
Ks.
Commercial 3 taught me to want a breakfast
product because there was a toy inside. I have no idea of how nutritional the
product is.
Commercial 4 wasn't too bad but it nearly did
convince me that I was not safe if I had no legal aid. I have only needed it
twice in my life – once for getting married with an anti Nuptial contract and
once for my divorce. So why should I pay on the off chance that I will need a
lawyer. I pay insurance on the car, home and contents on the off chance that I
will need them – I don't need more.
Commercial 5 taught me to eat a breakfast
cereal because a famous swimmer did. Would this make me excel? I think that is
what they wanted us to think.
I then watched all commercials between the
shows.
Commercial 6 helped me bring strange people
into my safe haven – my home – to make me rich. I could sell my plastic
containers on line and make enough money for a bus trip to the tip of Africa.
Commercial 7: Washing powders – they are
all better than the other leading brands. They all get rid of stains (I MUST be
doing something wrong!) Some have celebrity endorsements and others have cute
or funny people.
Commercial 8: A washing cream that won't
strip your skin from your face.
Commercial 9, 10, 11 and 12 taught me to
trade on people's respect for the dear departed if only you had taken that
funeral policy. This one I find especially heinous as it trades on people in
their most vulnerable state. They basically say "No funeral cover?
Tough!" look at what could have been. And the disgusting thing is that it uses well
known actors and is aimed at the most vulnerable members of South Africa –
people who are mourning the death of the others.
Food adverts range from the fun to the
boring and downright unpleasant. I really don't appreciate the humour in
getting chicken wings for a condemned man which he is still eating as the execution
begins. Ho Hum! Sorry the only funny chicken ads come from the most brilliant
firm who do not sit on their backsides watching the world go by! They see a
situation and next thing there is an ad. I will never forget the chicken doing
the Sharon Stone Basic Instinct interview! Brilliant!
But every now and then an advert comes
along that gives you faith! I love the current one where a man learns to read
so that he can read his son's book. It ends with the catch phrase "give
that man a….."
