Another Horrible Commercial: Just for Men - Graduation / Job Interview

Saw this commercial today and completely agree that it's horrible. Dude putting it on YouTube via the video camera is a little bit of a spaz with his commentary, but he's right.

Lamenting the Fact that Hip-Hop Sucks Now

Just saw this on current and hearing 5 awful hip hop songs in a row made me sad. I guess it's like most everything else in society - the most popular stuff is lowest common denominator crap. But it seems to me like hip hop just continues to devolve into lower quality sh*t year after year. Will we one day look back at the past 15 years of hip hop and wonder, WTF? It's like when rock music went into the abyss in the 80s? (See exhibits A, B and C below if you forgot how bad that sucked).

Aside from that, 'Sergio' has a couple of nice lines in this Current clip

- "she appreciative when he buys her a luxury car"

- "this thing is like the Mulholland Drive of rap videos: no idea what's goin' on"

- "attention Sergio, parentheses: burp jurp"



Exhibit A: While Lion - Wait



Exhibit B: Stryper - Calling on You



Exhibit C: Huey Lewis and the News - I Want a New Drug

Giving Cougars a Bad Name

Some observations about this pod:


1. Nothing wrong with the whole Cougar lifestyle -- if that's what you're into --- but these d-bags and the unfortunate women they roped into the clip give it a bad name.

2. The 'director' looks like the runt cousin of David Faustino

3. What do you call the dudes who acquiesce or succumb to cougars? In this particular clip, I think Wikipedia gets part of it right:

"it hunts species as small as insects and rodents"

Criticism: Incredibly Awful & Insulting Infomercial for 'Presto'

While watching some Current on TiVo (see this post for full review of Current), I was stopped in my tracks by the worst commercial I have seen in quite some time.

The spot was for Presto, which lets you "send email and photos to people who don't have a computer". I haven't been able to find it on YouTube yet, but the 'view demo' link on the Presto site provides a good approximation for it.

The net message is 'Do you have a weak, feeble minded, lazy moron that you know couldn't possibly understand something as complicated as a computer? Would you like to send pictures to that moron every now and then? Of course you would. Lucky for you that we are selling this ugly grey box for only $150 plus $10/month for 'service'. Nevermind that you could FedEx pictures to your moron twice a month for the same amount of money, Presto is a great deal."

Here are some key frames from the online 'dramatization' of the commercial:

Frame 1: Mom is an easily flustered dullard



Frame 2: Mom is such a moron it would be a crazy time suck to have to try and teach her how to use a computer



Frame 3: Everything could be so much better if Mom had a magic photo box in her parlor



Frame 4: Mom almost has a heart attack because the magic machine from the future is trying to show her something



Frame 5: Mom and Dad chuckle together in relief once they realize the magic box is friendly and doesn't mean them any harm

Question: What's the Saddest Part of Miss Teen South Carolina's TV Debacle?

Image Source: Onion.com

Like most people in the U.S. with a TV, I couldn't avoid the widespread coverage of Caitlin Upton's meltdown during this year's Miss Teen USA broadcast.

Yes, she embarrassed herself. Yes, both the question and her response might well synopsize all that stinks about the current state of education in the U.S. Just another not so subtle reminder that it is only a matter of time until we fulfill Mike Judge's prophecy.

[Note: According to Jeannie Moos of CNN, no 'credible study' could be found to substantiate the stat used in the question. Check out the following link for video of Moos' report, under "dumb moments"; I'd link directly, but don't see how that is possible/easy given CNN's site structure. Also note that MSNBC has a more sympathetic piece about Caitlin that tries to provide readers with a broader sense of who she is.]

But here is a question to both everyone and no one in particular:

What really is the saddest part of all this?

- Is it the fact that some soon to be model / actress / wife of successful alpha male flubbed her speaking part in a non-event and now might be derided by people she doesn't know for a few days?

- Or is it the fact that we're still having beauty pageants in the year 2007? Why are we still having these ludicrous exhibitions of tastelessness anyway? And why are people still watching? "You're pretty - yaaayy."

[Sidenote: If someone hasn't already done a documentary that intersperses clips from beauty pageants, dog shows and livestock judging events, they should. Free idea for any enterprising filmmaker who wants it. Here's the sell: Drop Dead Gorgeous meets Best in Show meets Miss Heifer USA -- but it's all real. Done and done.]

Or, if that's either too radical or too obvious of a question, here's another:

Who does anyone think they are fooling by including in these pageants a portion that solicits intelligent responses and opinions?

Disclaimer: please, anyone who stumbles across this, spare me comments about how many beauty pageant contestants have IQs >130 or have XYZ advanced degrees, etc., etc. I'm certain there are exceptions. Though I would like to believe most attractive, intelligent women realize there are many better things to be doing with their time and abilities than field questions from the likes of Aimee Teegarden and Mario Lopez.

Question: What is the Saddest Thing About Lou Dobbs' Dye Job?

Image Source: MSNBC.com

A few weeks ago while channel surfing in some hotel during a business trip I was stopped short by a close up shot of Lou Dobbs on CNN. I don't watch much of Lou Dobbs Tonight because I don't have much patience for self-important grandstanding. So maybe this dye job he is sporting isn't news to folks, but it jolted me a bit. I remember Lou being pretty gray up top ~7 years ago when he was doing CNN's Moneyline News Hour and launching Space.com.



Image Source: CNN

So to see him with a rejuvenated thatch of red hair was a surprise.

After processing the shock, I thought to myself that this is generally sad, but I'm not sure what exactly is the saddest part:

- Is it a national "news" figure so vain and insecure that he feels compelled to dye his hair and is perhaps deluded enough to think people don't notice that he is dyeing his hair?

- Or is it the likelihood that if he didn't dye his hair an even smaller share of the American "news" viewing public would tune into his program because, for a depressingly large percentage of people, surface appearances trump content quality when determining which channel to watch.