Holiday TV ads irritate many people – all those perfect
families, eating perfect food after giving one another diamond rings and IPads. My mind perversely calls up its picture of
the Christmas I spent on C Ward of the Oklahoma State Mental Hospital. Those of you have been reading my blog for
awhile, or who know me, will assume that I was there as a patient – well ha
ha! I worked there. I was a psych aide. We had a plastic Christmas tree with all soft
plastic ornaments hanging from the high ceiling above. Granny Gannon, whose claim to fame was that
she could curse for 20 minutes without repeating herself, walked up and down the
long gray ward, muttering imprecations.
Nancy, a trusty who, some 30 years ago, had run over her husband with a
tractor, also trudged up and down the hall on her endless rounds of
mopping. Other folks moaned, yelled, or
stared listlessly at the TV set anchored high above us.
I wouldn’t mind the ads so much if at least one uncle passed
out in the mashed potatoes, or one kid was throwing a fit because she didn’t
get a babypoopsalot doll. Even those ads
would not be free of bias based on class, socioeconomic status, disability, gender
identity and others. There is not much
that can be done about this. The advertising
industry will continue to pitch product to those who are affluent and either
look like they walked out of a Norman Rockwell painting or are desperately trying
to look like that. TV experts counsel
people on stress, the consequences of adding ten thousand dollars to your
credit card debt in two weeks (duh), hangovers, weight gain blah blah
blah.
How about some reality-based holiday Public Service
Announcements? A middle-aged guy sits
alone watching TV in his underwear and drinking beer. A calendar on the wall proclaims that it is DECEMBER
25. A voiceover says: “Is this you, again, this Christmas? You need to buy a dog!” Cut to happy old guy walking a dog wearing a
Santa hat and flirting with a gorgeous babe who is also walking her dog.
Or how about this:
A chubby redneck mama dips out squirrel stew and collard
greens, while Tiny Bubba proclaims “God bless us one and all.” A festive line of type proclaims: Happy Holidays from all your friends at
WRBRO.
It would help. The
99% of us who are not rich, happy and incredibly good looking would know that
we too have not been forgotten during the holidays.
