Advertising Edits

I am of the belief that there should be a company which views all ads before they are put on television in order to weed out stupidity (and yes, this does mean that I do believe that not all ads are stupid). Here are two in point:

1) The Geico commercial where the gecko is standing on some guys desk who is looking for the first dollar he ever made. The gecko then describes it and then we are shown a flashback of him putting into a vending machine, and then we go back forward and rather than admitting what he has done he offers the man a chip. While he never lies that he took the dollar, he certainly doesn't tell the truth. Is that what you want from a company you are doing business with, especially an insurance company, for them to feel that deception is okay? I don't think anyone in the process realized that what they are saying is that they are willing not to tell the truth if it serves their interest. good ad!

2) There is a Smirnoff commercial which starts with a voice over saying how hot it was and that something had to be done, and then we see them take off their clothes and create a giant slip and slide on a hill using the sprinklers. The problem is, it's supposedly hot but they are all wearing jackets or long-sleeve shirts. If it's hot take off your jacket! Didn't the wardrobe department think that if it was summer people wouldn't be wearing jackets?

These are of course only two of the overwhelming examples of stupidity in ads, but these are the most galling to me at the moment. Doesn't anyone pay attention to these things, so that they don't get aired this way? Like I said, there should be a company that all they do is to tell companies and ad agencies how stupid their commercials are before they go out and annoy everyone.

First Entry

Greetings!

I have had the intention of writing this blog for a long time, but have never sat down and gotten it done. So, here is my first shot. It's been an interesting seven days. Last Friday Linda celebrated 15 years clean and sober. But, she also heard last Friday that a friend of hers, who had more than 15 years clean, had relapsed and died of an overdose. So our prayers go out to everyone who battles addictions in all their forms, and for their friends and family who suffer and battle along with them. Then on Saturday we had to put one of our cats, Abu, to sleep, as he more than likely had intestinal cancer. He was a 14 pounder but he had dropped down to 6 pounds. So, we spent the weekend trying to explain everything to Samantha, and trying to answer all her questions about sickness, death and heaven. Hard stuff for a three year old to understand.

There have been some very cute moments though. We also had a car die on us the week before, so I explained to her that the car was old and the shop couldn't do anything to make it better and so we had to get a new car. So when she was asking about Abu, she asked if he was old like the car and so the shop couldn't do anything to make him better?

Then to top it all off my beloved Yankees lost three more to the Sox. I'm not really all that upset about this because when all is said and done we are still only two games back with 101 games to go. Although if there should happen to be an managerial change I wouldn't complain too much. But I do have to say that NESN is unwatchable with Dennis Eckersley doing the color commentary. He has to be replaced and soon. And while I'm on this topic, one thing I've found is that those who give me the hardest time about the Yankees losing are those are don't care (and in some cases know nothing) about baseball. Why is that?

Well there it is, my first blog ever. My intention is to write something everyday at work, but no guarantees that will happen. But, I will use it to discuss lots of different topics, some related to religion, some not, but this will give me a way to talk about things that interest me that don't come up in church, as well as to expand on those things I do talk about.

Blessings,
John