Friday, December 29, 2006

Good morning, Fatty.

I know I've mentioned before that I hate commercials and advertising. They tell idiotic lies, and even if we (as individuals) don't believe their lies, we sure as shit don't say anything. Is no one else offended? Haven't they insulted our intelligence enough?

When I was but a wee lad (think 5th grade or so), I could not get past a certain conundrum that I kept seeing in commercials. They would always say things like, "Come by our After Christmas sale and save big on all merchandise!" Or, "You can save up to $200 a month at Worthington Ford's year end sales extravaganza!" This to me seemed like the dumbest thing I'd ever heard. I felt like they might as well say, "The easiest way to lose weight is to get really fat!" And we're not only expected to believe this nonsense, but to go out and do it.

I had to ask my mom. "Mom," I said, "How can you be saving money if you're spending it? That doesn't make sense." And she explained that by "save" they were referring to the amount off of the regular price, so if you were to buy at an inopportune time, you'd pay more... etc, etc. Well, as much as I love my mom, and trusted that she was right, it still didn't make sense to me. Why didn't they just say what they mean?

To this day I hate to hear some jackass telling me that if I spend $30,000 on a car, I'm saving money. It's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, and it makes my blood boil.

Now... I'm not usually one of those conspiracy theorists who read way to far into things, but there's one commercial out there which I think is blatant in it's bigotry and innuendos. Watch this:



Does anyone else see a problem here? Let me tell you why this commercial makes me feel dirty.

First, the commercial begins with white people building a fence while another white guy (John Cugar Melancamp) sings proudly, "This is our Country!" As if to say, "This isn't your Country, Mexicans!" And, as we all know, building that dumb ass fence along the border is and has been a hot button political issue.

The commercial fades in and out of different eras in American History (not specifically, but that's what is implied). All the people are white. The fence is the image running through all eras as if they're implying that we've always wanted to keep Mexicans out of America, even though large parts of the Southwestern states used to belong to Mexico, hence the great white trash capitol of "New Mexico".

Also, notice the name of the ranch the guy at the end drives away from. The "KK Ranch". Think I'm kidding? Watch it again. I know what you're thinking, 'cause I am too. "What?! These crackers are so dumb they actually misspelled 'KKK'!" Sadly though, I don't think it was a simple mis spelling. I think they actually meant to fool us. As if they removed one of the K's from a commercial that is obviously anti-immigration and carries heavy, blatant racist undertones, that we might not notice, and certainly wouldn't put 2 and 2 together.

I dunno... maybe I am reading too much into it, but never the less, I can't watch that commercial without cringing and feeling embarrassed.

I'll stop there for now, as this subject can keep me going for hours. Please keep a clear head while watching television, especially commercials. The best thing we can do to overcome something like this is to govern our own thoughts. Just don't buy into it. Our Country, without fences, without racism, without politics bleeding into the media and trying to brainwash us... trying to keep us docile and controllable... Our Country, without shit like this would be a better place.

4 comments:

Kory said...

Just as a side note, the News Paper that guy is reading says, "War Ends". Not that the phrase really implies anything racist, but I did think that was also kind of interesting. War Ends? What does that have to do with Chevy?

GunnNitz said...

Counter Blog

For each great mind and man, there must in turn Be a Nemisis.
So Here I am, my Critique is unrequested and my interpratation somewhat different.

I see this Commercial in quite a different light than you. However what is on one’s mind can appear in all that we look at if we look or think hard enough. I've even seen snowflakes that where as yellow as can be even before they touched the ground. I was wearing amber colored glasses at the time but they where blatently yellow.

As I watch this commercial I see about 16 different people (that includes counting one boy who appears to run though 3 scenes as 3 people). Only 8 of them do you see clearly enough to determine they are white ( 5 plus the boy). So to say all are White simple be inferring that the over half you can’t be sure of are all white, Quite a big assumption based on what?
Second I see what appear to be farmers, sons of the pioneers who settled this country building a fence. A great change in America was brought by this new barbed wire. It brought about an end to the long cattle drives. Who knows maybe about the same time that Chevy was starting to make trucks. (It could be subliminal) It would seem silly to me to go back in American history to the mayflower or the Native crossing of the Barrier straight to try to sell trucks to “cowboys” and I use that term with reservation that I’ll save for another day.
There is in fact another theme throughout this commercial. Guessed it yet? It’s Chevy Trucks through the Eras. You can see the Trucks change with the times. But I’m watching it as a truck owner (I own 2 Chevys) without a focused thought on Border patrol.
KK Ranch? Well have you ever see a ranch without a K a J or an R in the insignia? I can’t say I have, but nor have I done a lot of research on the topic. There is However a KK Ranch in Hawaii which may also be an attempt at including even the most remote of states in the union. But why would someone with something to sell want to be inclusive?
I found that the tools on the side of the barn seem to say Jobs when watched at full speed. “American built” as their image and they try to make us think of jobs and “Our Country” to sell that image. I guess that makes sense.
I do however think that the lyrics from the song should be looked at.
"That poverty could be just another ugly thing And Bigotry would be Seen only as obscene. " Odd words for an I hate Mexicans Commercial.
"And the one that run this land Help the poor and common Man" Too liberal for my taste Kind of makes me want to throw up.
"And there is room enough here for Religion to forgive and try to under stand ALL the people of this land This is our country"
Lyrics from the song “Our Country” by Mellencamp. Who does in fact happen to be Caucasian. Damn him.
Well I could go on but there is a 30% off sale at the store that ends today so I gotta get over there ASAP. Have a great day.

Kory said...

Wow, G!

I appreciate your point, and actually, you're probably right... In all honesty, I couldn't, in good conscious, accuse Chevy as being a racist company, especially knowing that there are other (kind of) race specific commercials like this one:

(Hi. I used to be that Chevy Impala lowrider commercial, but I can't post HTML code on a coment. So I left. Trust me though, there were lots of minorities in the commercial, and neither one negative reference to immigration or a single white person.)

Not to mention that I too am a Chevy owner. I know... a Ford owning a Chevy, what's next?

Also, pops made fun of me for writing this too. He said, something like, "Hey, I read your Chevy blog. I think the same guys who shot JFK filmed it, right after they filmed the fake moon landing.

I understand that the points I've made may be trivial at best, and probably don't hold water, but I can't help feeling that way every time I see that commercial. I guess my point would be that if I were a Mexican dude, I would probably feel like that Silverado commercial was insulting. I wouldn't be able to help it. I guess that is to say that given the fact that they employ specific people for the sole purpose of recognizing those kinds of connotations that might otherwise go unnoticed, maybe they could have been a little more sensitive? Besides that, I personally have a natural inclination to hate all things establishment. Can't help that either, since I am the son of a relatively radical intellectual and a crazy old hippie.

What can ya do?

Thanks for the response. I like having both sides of the debate.

Word up, yo. Represent.

bobo said...

Take a look at this. Your post and the responses reminded me of it.

I see your point about the commercial, but it seems more like paranoia or a conspiracy theory than an actual plausible explanation.

I don't think the kinds of people that would support Chevy due to its purported enthusiasm for racism and keeping the Mexicans out would be smart enough to pick up on those subtle cues in the commercial.

Quit being so damn sensitive, ya mook.