Tine Steiss, Creative Commons
A commercial running here in the U.S. of A. is making my tv watching life so much worse.
Worse, even, than the incessant and gnarly political ads.
The product for sale is some sort of frozen, highly processed food.
That in itself is troublesome, what with all the cancer and diabetes running rampant around here.
We’re supposed to want to “fork it.”
Seriously?
In the ad a guy spanks his naughty mac and cheese (or whatever the heck he’s eating).
Ew.
Then his co-worker applauds the perversion with a gleeful perversion of his own.
Makes my skin crawl.
Reminds me of an episode of Criminal Minds in which two highly disturbed, highly sick individuals living in the same neighborhood find one another and become partners in sadistic crime.
Like some sort of creepy radar.
Someone way back when said, “Sex sells,” and a whole “subliminal seduction” ad genre was born.
Born and grown-up into a hideous adult.
A blatant, perverted, nothing-subliminal-about-it adult.
Well, guess what?
That adult doesn’t sell.
Not to me anyway.
I’d rather eat my own vomit than “fork” anyone’s product.
For a refreshing, edgy, radical change of pace, madison avenue, let’s see if pure, noble and lovely will sell.
Light & life 
Yuck! I haven’t seen the commercials in question, but I am really amazed by what is allowed to be portrayed on television. And I’m in Canada, where the standards have always been much more relaxed.
I remember an iconic Canadian high-school drama (Degrassi High) pushing the envelope in the late 80s/early 90s — what Canadian teen will forget the condom-on-a-banana episode, or the season finale when Caitlyn found out that Joey had *VERB*ed Tessa. (Yes, the verb was the F-word at 8pm on Monday night on a family television network.)
My husband and I gave up television before my first son was born — partly because of studies that show that any screen time at all is detrimental to children under 2 — and partly because I knew that, left to my own willpower, my year-long mat leave would be a soap opera frenzy. It’s been ten years of TV-free existence, and I don’t miss it a bit. When we go to hotels and see television, I am always shocked by the changes that have taken place (in only a decade) in what is considered acceptable.
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I never saw Degrassi High but when I would ask 7th graders to name inappropriate shows, that one was often on the list. I’m sure it has twisted many a young mind.
My hat is off to you for having no t.v. Your children are going to be imaginative geniuses – probably already are.
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Thanks. Having no television makes for some fun backyard games. My kids don’t play superhero, they play David & Goliath, or Christian and Christiana in Pilgrim’s Progress.. Lately, they’ve been playing Canadian explorers (we’re at the colonial period in our history studies). Not that there is anything wrong with playing superhero, but I kind of like that they have literary and historical frames of reference rather than pop culture ones.
I didn’t know that Degrassi was available in the US. I don’t know what the new show is like. I know they have a Degrassi: the Next Generation out nowadays, with the original characters playing parents and teachers of the teenage generation. But if it’s anything like it was in the 80s, it will be pretty bad. I think the original Degrassi even had an episode of a teenage girl getting an abortion. It was like a series of ABC after school specials, driven by a much more “progressive” agenda of secular humanism.
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Until you said so, I didn’t know Degrassi was Canadian. And yikes.
“I kind of like that they have literary and historical frames of reference”
Me, too. Like I said, geniuses.
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That picture in your post looks like a microwave dinner, but it’s packed in aluminum foil…That kind of defeats the purpose. Nice post by the way, but that picture got my mind spinning.
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I think it’s an old-fashioned t.v. dinner – the kind you heated in the oven, back before microwaves. I think it does a pretty good job of depicting the unsavoriness of the ad.
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I haven’t seen that commercial either but yuck! It is so scary to think how much TV HAS changed in the last decade. I told my husband that one absolutely can not watch a sitcom without having to endure crude sexually related jokes. One sitcom in particular makes my blood boil and I can’t stand to see it on so I always change the channel. The “talk” on that show is almost ALWAYS about genitals, masturbation, or sex. WHY do they think that’s all we viewers want to hear about? If I was trying to raise kids in this day and age, I don’t believe I would even have a TV in the house! I’ve recently been re-watching old episodes of The Waltons from the 70s and early 80s and Little House on the Prairie. It’s made me realize how trashy TV is now and I miss good clean wholesome family shows such as these that dealt with real life issues. .
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Loved Little House. You are right about those shows dealing with real issues – issues of the heart.
God help us if the crap portrayed in some of today’s sitcoms are real issues.
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One night I sat down on my couch with pad and pencil and actually counted the masturbation/genital jokes I heard on one particular sitcom. I think I threw the pencil down and stopped when the count got over 10. I had to quit watching. I decided later that I had turned into my mother. She’s been gone for 10 years next month and I’m glad she’s not here to see what TV is like now. It has REALLY changed in the decade that she has been gone. She would not like it one bit. In fact, I’m quite sure she would be horrified!
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I turn off that commercial! I hate it! Love your last sentence. Do think they’ll try it? lol
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I change the channel, mute the sound or leave the room. We can only hope (and pray).
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