Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.
In the Fish Bowl: Super!
Every year around this time, people get excited about the Super Bowl coming up on the weekend. Many of us are anticipating the commercials even more than the actual game, for those advertisers are usually the ones considered to be at the cutting edge of public trends and values. The advertising mantra is “sell the sizzle, not the steak,” so the trend is to align their product image with the direction of the public leanings.
While some may say “business ethics” is an oxymoron, this brings up the debate over the definition of ethics itself. Certainly, the corporate goal is to earn money; thus, they provide the public what most people want, while piggybacking their product as a component of the “good” life, associated with the reality of life, and/or a pathway to happiness. The important thing is to give the customers what they want. Often, this means identifying and reinforcing any bias or prejudice held by the target audience.
For example, consider the Lays potato chips commercial from the 1998 Super Bowl with Michael J. Fox and Bryan Cranston, where a police officer is willing to reveal the “secrets” of his radar gun and accept the bribe of some delicious potato chips to have with his sandwich. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA8OKNUGwlk
Of course, the purpose is to entertain, but the underlying message is that police officers are corrupt and the decision to enforce the law or not is entirely arbitrary. Since the product sells, the commercial must be good! Certainly, the intention is not to undermine nor mock the authority of law enforcement officers! Officer - police thyself!
A few years ago, Orkin ran a commercial that showed a woman standing on a chair. All the viewers could see were the legs to the feet below the hem of the “business” skirt ending just above the knees. She was obviously a businesswoman and a briefcase was on the hardwood floor near the chair, where a small cockroach was running around on the floor near the chair legs. Viewers could hear the woman, obviously on the phone calling Orkin, starting to become hysterical because she could not leave the house with the bug between her and the door, and she didn’t want to be late for an important meeting.
Not able to identify the critter (“I’m not a bugologist!”), she can only desperately plead for assistance as soon as possible. The commercial ended with a view of the Orkin Man with his arms crossed (a la Superman with his cape flapping in the wind) ever ready to come to the rescue.
I only saw that commercial one time. It was quickly yanked from the air (and hasn’t even re-emerged on YouTube as far as I know!).
During the holiday break, I watched the Orange Bowl football game – Oops!- it was the Discover Card Orange Bowl game. One commercial break showed a woman on the phone to the Discover Card call center because she had let her husband handle the bill paying and he had missed their recent payment.
The woman at the other end of the line says “I’ve got one like that, too.”
However, they have the kind of card that allows “forgiveness,” so they won’t have a late charge.
“Is your husband off the hook?” she asks.
“No!” says the wife. “Last week I sent him out for milk and he came home with a puppy!” [Obviously not housebroken, as in the background the husband rushes out carrying the puppy while repeating “Hold it!”]
The lady in the call center says, “Forgiveness is a wonderful thing!” to which the wife clicks her tongue – obviously not in this case.
Of course, the subtle intended message is probably that the large corporate entity is more forgiving than the typical human, but the overtly not so subtle message is that males are goofs who can’t be trusted to perform simple tasks like paying bills and handling simple chores.
Imagine if the commercial roles were reversed and the husband calls in because his ditzy wife forgot to pay the bills and the male answering the phone says “I’ve got one of those, too”!
Then, what if the husband says, “I sent her out last week to get a pizza and she came home with a box of kittens!”
I suspect any such concept was yanked before it left the drawing board – even faster than the Orkin commercial!
So this weekend, I’m looking forward to watching events from New Orleans to see how the males get beat up again – in between the segments of the game.
After all, it’s what the public wants to see, so that’s what is delivered; just like at school, where the students are the customers, and we try to provide only the stuff they want.
Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a somewhat regular presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices during the academic year.
