| 1:47p |
Linguistics; propaganda; "Dad, I need 80 bucks...."
I don't know what you think of that "Dad, I need 80 bucks.." Ameritrade commercial running on CNN and the other news channels right now; I know what I think of it. It turns my stomach.
When the teenage girl tells her Dad she needs 80 bucks for a pair of jeans that she has to have because everybody has them, Dad asks her who the designer is, runs to his laptop and orders 100 shares of the designer's stock, and turns over the 80 bucks -- which, needless to say, he has right there in his pocket.
Not even one of the dialogues below takes place.
(1)
TEEN: "Dad, I need 80 bucks."
DAD: "You don't need 80 bucks. You want 80 bucks."
(2)
TEEN: "There's these jeans....."
DAD: "And you have to have them."
TEEN: "Yes."
DAD: "You don't have to have them, you want to have them."
(3)
DAD: "Do your friends have them?"
TEEN: "Everybody has them!"
DAD: "Then shame on their parents."
(4)
DAD: "Like you don't have enough jeans."
TEEN: "So, can I have the 80 bucks?"
DAD: "Absolutely not. All the kids in this world that don't even have clean water to drink, and you want 80-dollar designer jeans? No way. Go wash your mouth out with soap."
I find this commercial particularly repugnant when it comes along in the middle of the CNN documentaries about starving children in Africa, and the many thousands of children orphaned by AIDS, and the endless miles of devastation in New Orleans.
You talk about propaganda. The message going out all over the world is "This is how lots of people live in the United States. This is how they raise their kids. This is a loving Dad who takes good care of his family, always has a hundred spare dollars in his pocket, and is always watching for good tips that will make his stock portfolio even more profitable."
I had a note in my e-mail inbox this morning reporting that there are elders on the Pine Ridge reservation who've spent this past week in zero-degree cold with no heat whatsoever -- because the propane companies won't deliver unless you order the minimum $150.00 worth of fuel, and the elders don't have that $150.00 in their pockets.
Meanwhile, our vice-president is doing fundraisers for Tom Delay. |