Re: the previous post about seat belts and booster chairs: It’s a good thing to set safety standards, but they also lead to mind-numbing self-righteous PSAs. Heard one on the radio this morning. It’s for the fishing opener; it has Grandpa and his grandson running down the checklist. Turns out junior has a life preserver, but Grandpa doesn’t, and he says he doesn’t need one. This prompts a long, solemn lecture from the kid. Then Grandpa says “fine, you drive to the lake and drag the boat off the trailer and get it in the water. Call me when you need a knife to gut the fish. I’ll be down at the VFW.”
It’s possible that kids have had water-safety drilled into them by years of public education, but it’s more likely that an adult would instruct a balky kid that he must wear that hot, scratchy, smelly vest. But apparently there’s a national aversion to treating adults like adults in modern media; kids are preternaturally wise and smart and funny, and adults are doofs, lummoxes, and generally uncool. Unless they’re old. Old people get to be cool.
It reminds me of an ad I saw last night on Lost: a guy is redecorating his apartment. Can’t get anything right; every time he ads a rug or a new sofa his wife shrugs and demonstrates her indifference. Finally he realizes that what the room needs isn’t better furniture, it’s a wife who dresses more interestingly. So he buys her some sexy clothes with his CITI card, and the final scene we see her walking around the living room in spike heels while he nods in approval: the room is complete!
Just kidding. If they did make such a commercial, they wouldn’t show it in prime time. Flip the genders around, though, and you have the spot described above. Except the husband was dressed the way she wanted, which did not include high heels.
(Note: the title of this post does not mean to endorse intergenerational corporal punishment. Anyone want to be the first to cite the source of the line? Make me proud.)
From Wikiquote...
From the Simpsons, Season 6, "The PTA Disbands!"
Jasper: Talking out of turn, that's a paddling. Looking out the window, that's a paddling. Staring at my sandals, that's a paddling. Paddling the school canoe, oh, you better believe that's a paddling.