Asinine Ads or Cockamamy Commercials (You Choose)

Very, very early in the life of ZiggyBackRide, the staff here wrote about television advertisements that had us wondering for one reason or another. Now, a few years later*, a new crop of positively puzzling pitches has emerged.

1) Jergens Natural Glow - The voiceover in the commercial for this bronzing body cream asks the question, "With Jergens, who needs the sun?" Perhaps the fine folks over at Jergens are under the impression that the sun is merely nature's outdated tanning lamp and, if they are religious folks, proof of God's insistence that each of us must maintain a natural glow. As important as that glow is**, unless Jergens' exciting new product can prevent the instantaneous freezing of our planet and the resulting end of all life thereupon, I'm gonna stand by the idea that all of us still need the sun.

2) Hallmark Recordable Cards - Hallmark is advertising greeting cards that allow you to record a message. The commercial shows a family sitting around the table as the guest of honor opens a card from someone who couldn't make it. They are all quite moved as the voice of the card's sender lets the receiver know how special the receiver is and how badly the sender wishes she could be there. The Voiceover boils it all down for us, saying, that now we can "give the gift of voice." My question is this: Where are Hallmark's offices located that the people who work there have never heard of the telephone. The rest of us have been using it for decades to "give the gift of voice." The Hallmarkers really need to get out more!

* There have been plenty of other asinine ads/cockamamy commercials since the early posts, but our staff has been occupied with higher priorities.
** It is not important at all. In fact, glowing can generally be considered dangerous.

Some Brutal Honesty About Some Honest Brutality

I have come to enjoy reading "The Week," a magazine that summarizes many of the previous week's top news stories and what various news outlets had to say about them. This week's "The Week" included a briefing entitled "Mexico's brutal drug war." It included the following passages...

Last month, drug traffickers threatened to kill one police officer in Juarez [a town on the US border] every 48 hours unless Police Chief Roberto Orduna Cruz stepped down. When he refused, his deputy turned up mutilated and dead, followed by another officer and a jail guard. Cruz finally resigned his post and fled the city.

and...

Mexican drug gangs have extended their operations to at least 230 U.S. cities, according to the Justice Department, which calls the Mexican cartels "the biggest organized crime threat to the U.S." In recent weeks, police in Atlanta and Phoenix have blamed a wave of kidnappings and home invasions on the cartels' turf war. "The situation in Mexico is very, very dangerous for everyone, including the U.S.," says former Justice Dept. official Philip Heymann. "The situation hasn't reigstered in the mind-set of Americans, but it will."

According to a related piece in the same magazine, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said last week that Americans' "insatiable" demand for illegal drugs is a major cause of Mexico's bloody drug war.

So here's the honesty:

If you use illegal drugs (yes, that includes marijuana), you are responsible for this. Not wholly responsible, of course, but you are helping make it happen. I don't care if you think drugs should be legal*. I don't care if you rarely use, I don't care if you never sell, and I don't care if you only do it in the privacy of your home. If you are using drugs, you deserve some credit for violence and fear that are rampant in Mexico and becoming more and more a part of life in the U.S. If you use illegal drugs, do us all a favor and don't ever fool yourself into believing that you're not hurting anyone and don't ever let anyone who uses convince you that they're not responsible for this. They are putting you and me and every one of our neighbors in danger.

Hope you're having a great weekend! Check back tomorrow for lighter fare regarding some troubling television commercials.

* If you think drugs should be legal, you should absolutely work to have the laws changed. But disagreement with the law is not an excuse to break it, especially when doing so would contribute to the aforementioned violence and terror.