Hello, folks. I would like to address a problem concerning television but first things first. I have alluded in a few posts to writing about metaphors in current American pop music and I said that my next post would be about this problem but something strange happened. Before I write any post I like to put at least a little effort into researching the topic. I am a lit student after all and research is kind of a compulsory habit for me at this point but while I was doing research I came across a music critic who specializes in pop music known as Todd in the Shadows. I made his name a link to his work. In the name of research and fascination I watched all of his videos and in so doing I made a discovery. I am woefully under-qualified to talk about the tropes and practices on pop music and Todd hit every point that I was going to make anyway. What I'm trying to say is, Go watch his reviews. They are awesome as well as being a solid blend of insightful and entertaining. Now, on to the new problem. TV commercials.
Anyone who knows me could tell you that I hate most television commercials, especially ones made in the past few years. Some abuse electronic music or promote stupid music, while others lazily attempt and utterly fail at making jokes. But the absolutely worst of the worst commercials are the ones that sell their products for the wrong reasons. That is what this post is about.
Commercials exist to sell product and I have no problem with that, their invasive nature aside. But I do often take issue with the way in which some commercials promote their products. Take this -> commercial for instance.
This commercial is for cough syrup which by itself is not hard to sell. Cough syrup is pretty simple. It helps you stop coughing (in theory because sometimes it won't depending on why you're coughing). You don't want to be coughing and you don't wish it on your loved ones either. But the commercial is not just selling cough syrup, it's selling a brand of cough syrup and based on the fact that cough syrup is simply cough syrup each company has to come up with reasons for consumers to buy their cough syrup over another brand. Again, because cough syrup is just cough syrup the options are limited for creating selling points, so it seems to have come down to who has the most appealing commercials.
I can't make it clear enough that the reason to sell cough syrup is pretty simple. Coughing is a signal that something is in your respiratory system that doesn't need to be there and your body want's to get rid of it but at the same time coughing can damage your lungs and throat, so buy cough syrup to alleviate the potentially painful process that is coughing. The commercial writes itself. "But cough syrup for you and your loved ones' health and well being." But that's not the message of this commercial is it?
In fact this commercial doesn't want you to care about the health of yourself or those you care about and it doesn't want you to buy cough syrup for that reason. The reason that you should buy this cough syrup is so you can hear the television because you wouldn't want to miss anything due to the sound of your spouse and child hacking their lungs out, especially the commercials.
Now that last tid-bit is not in the commercial but that subtextual reading is there. It's obvious that the couple is watching television and not a DVD because the wife could have just hit the pause button instead of turning up the volume in an effort to drown out her husband's coughing (that act alone makes me sick with indignation). They're not watching on any form of DVR either because, again, they could pause and skip commercials later.
Am I the only one who notices these things?
I guess this commercial hits a big sore spot with me because about six years ago I had a severe and very memorable case of Walking Pneumonia which presented with a persistent cough and that lasted for about three maybe four months. And during that time I coughed practically nonstop and a cough like that for such a long time does things to your body. For those three to four months my chest hurt, my throat hurt, my head hurt, and my body ached because when a person coughs their body tenses every time. It was miserable. I'm still dealing with it to this day because it messed up my lungs and I cough every winter now. But according to this commercial none of that is as important as being able to hear the TV right?
I'm not saying that you should buy or not buy this brand of cough syrup but I am saying that I don't like the heartless way that they chose to advertise their product. I'm not even sure what to call this rhetorical strategy because its not an emotional appeal (pathos), it doesn't rely on the brand's name as the selling point (ethos), and it promote the medical effect of the product (logos). The advertisement is just offensive and callous.
I would like to thank you all for reading and I can't say when I'll be able to post again because the spring semester just started and I can neither say what I'll be writing about because... What ever happened to mystery? Seriously, people.
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