Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Must...Control...Finger...of...Scorn...

So, I'm watching a little Monday Night Football last night. Sort of the end of an long day, wind down kind of thing for me. I never get to see how a game turns out because I live on the East Coast now and I'd like to actually be able to get up in the morning but I can usually catch the first half if I don't fall asleep. Well, I'm watching and the new Nissan Pathfinder commercial comes on with a bunch of 20-something looking athletic, fit types driving through a scene from the American West somewhere when the announcer comes on and says something like, "you can't tell stories about the mountian if you haven't been to the top." The next shot in the commercial is of the Pathfinder at the top of some overlook with the fit, active 20-somethings coverting around a bit. Cut to the next shot and you have the Pathfinder rolling down the highway and the announcer saying, "Get better stories."

Now, here's my problem with this from my admittedly "Left Coast" point of view. YOU DON'T GET TO TELL THE STORY UNLESS YOU DID IT YOURSELF. I actually yelled this at the TV while unsuccessfully attempting to control the finger of scorn. As I'm sure will surprise some of my more tender readers, I also used a bit of colorful language to express my opinion of the Madison Avenue firm responsible for this ad.

I mean, what kind of story are you going to tell here, really? "Dude, like we were totally flying down this broad American highway when Dusty saw this turn off up to the top of the mountain so, like, he took it and the road got kind of rough. At one point we were bouncing around so bad that I actually spilled my double latte expresso on Buffy who was, like, totally bummed. But man, the view from the top was so cool! Yay us! Then we got back in the TrailDestroyer and headed out to some other relatively unspoiled place to leave huge tire tracks to enhance erosion so those who actually walk somewhere will have their hike ruined...." But I digress.

Note to Nissan: Your ad is stupid. I mean that with all the possible strength I can muster. Your ad is really, really amazingly stupid and ignorant. Even if I had been interested in driving that monstrosity you call a vehicle, your ad insulting my ability to create my own stories based on my own effort and my own will just convinced me never to drive your vehicle. I think you need to "SHIFT_paradigm" and realize that we don't need you to be able to create our stories. Especially when they are a lot more powerful when you're not part of them.

Rage subsiding...Blood pressure falling...civilization safe...

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