. . . Madison Avenue. . .
. . . and me. . .
As a TV-watching kid, I loved commercials. At least SOME commercials. Remember "I can't believe I ate the whole thing. . . You ate it Ralph!"? Not so much as a 'hardly-watch-any-TV' adult. In these days of cable television, Netflix and bluerays, not only do commercials turn me off, I refuse to even watch conventional, network (or local for that matter) television.
Do I want a medal? (Or just a chest on which to pin it?) Naw! Just musing about how popular entertainment and I, myself have changed.
As I write, commercial AM radio (yes Virginia, there STILL is an AM radio) is chattering in the background. One commercial, in particular, annoys me. It's one for the newest casino in the area and runs no risk of enticing me to patronize them at all. The the appeal to the base desire for attention, not to mention an easy fortune procured by gambling, is a fascinating psychological ploy.
"Everywhere you look there’s endless excitement and the kind of thrills you just don’t find anywhere else; like over 1,000 Vegas-style slot machines, the hottest Table Games around, dining that always gets two forks up and the kind of red carpet service you would expect in Hollywood."
I've been to Hollywood. Believe me, I am not the kind of person that gets 'red carpet service' let alone 'cheap, throw-rug' service in Hollywood. Just the regular-Joe-schmuck service that I (and most other regular people) get anywhere else.
It's good to dream. It's certainly good to possess a certain self-esteem. But don't confuse dreaming or self-esteem with crass commercialism. I think the lesson here is, quite simply and obviously, 'don't think that you won't lose money gambling just because you're pretending that you're a movie star.'
What do you think?
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http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html
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