Watch, then read.
I saw this commercial during the Super Bowl on Sunday. I am by no means a football fan. Not that I’m hating, but I just don’t follow it. The Super Bowl is probably the only game I watch during a year and even then I would avoid it if I could. Usually I just wait for the commercials that are suppose to be funny…unlike this one.
Can I say that I was really upset when I saw it? Someone pointed out to my initial distress, “It’s just a machine”.
Yeah, it’s just a robot, something the we build for our convenience but what upsets me is the deeper meaning behind it.
This robot places all of its value on the cars that are around it and when it drops a screw it can find no other happiness and so tries to ‘kill’ itself. Yeah, the character may only be a little yellow robot but the message is meant for the rest of us and that’s where I have a problem. Why is our society okay with advertisers sending a message that declares “If you don’t own/have/look like this product then you might as well kill yourself” over the most watched event in our nations annual calendar? It no wonder as many people struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts in our society, according to the Super Bowl, if you don’t drive a GM you might as well kill yourself. There was so much uproar about a little nipple during the half time show two years ago, yet no one will stop to challenge the advertisers and say it’s wrong to say that killing yourself is okay.
Please understand that I’m all about freedom of speech and don’t want to see our society turn into a 1984 nightmare but at the same time I have to quesiton why we as a society don’t take action against the companies that want to spoon feed us messages about how our worth is soley based on what we own, how much we make etc. Its almost as if the Big Brother in America isn’t the government but the large corporations who decide for us what is beautiful, worthwhile or a ‘must have’. It’s the Walmarts, GM’s, Vogues, and as much as it breaks my heart…the Targets….of our society that are controlling our minds and telling us that we have no value unless we have that ‘IT’ item.
Yeah, its just a machine but there’s a message behind it. So my quesiton is: will you be a tool?
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My parents did. In 1986 when I was a destructive toddler they bought me a doll kitchen with about a hundred or so pieces all about the sizes of quarters. Instead of giving it to me to thrash, they saved it, hid it away. This year for my 22nd birthday they gave it to me. It is so cool that my parents love me enough to save me a gift until the right time when it would be most valued. And yeah, they look really cool in yellow.
Jess Boctor 