Years ago I read Boom, Bust and Echo about the effects that demographics have on society. I've always taken an interest in that sort of thing. So I've been prepared for many nuances of Generation-X's trajectory through life. I was ready to have difficulty getting promoted as Baby Boomers held higher corporate positions. I was ready housing bubbles as the Boomers downsized from their empty nests. I was ready for the negatives that population shifts would send my way.
But I was not ready for commercials trying to make adult undergarments cool. I realize it makes sense; as the Boomers move on to the senior years, there's going to be more seniors' products being marketed. But that is still small comfort when the Tena Twist jingle is going through my head. And if that guy asking people to try them on for charity ever approaches me, I'm going to tell him where to stick his adult undergarments. Then I'm going to explain that I meant it in a figurative and insulting way, not a literal, recommended-product-use way.
And I was not ready for the erectile-dysfunction ads. I know they've been roundly ridiculed already, but to me the funniest part is not the four-hour-erection warning. The silliest thing is how they have replaced tampons as the products we have to advertise while only hinting at what they actually do. For instance, these endless Cialas ads use parents carving out time for themselves as an implication of sex. But my biggest concern is the effect they'll be having on children, who must be second-guessing everything their parents say now. "Good news, my mother says I can stay out past my curfew...Oh My God! My parents are having sex!"
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