Poop Shute

Holy Lack of Ethics, Batman!

Okay, so I don't watch much tv, and when I say I don't watch much, I really mean it. The coming of "reality" tv and a busier lifestyle than I had as a kid don't leave much space for the idiot box. Occasionally I feel left out when folks joke around about some pop culture reference that I'm not aware of, but...

Meh.

Recently, Meg and I have had a new addition to the family. We got a new kitten with freakin' huge eyes like the grey aliens from X-Files. In honor of his extra-terrestrial appearence we named him Marvin Kaseijin (Kaseijin is Japanese for martian). We call him Ka for short. Some of you may remember my old baby-sitting technique on Marvin's older brother, Henry: the television. The images and sounds seem to be enough to trick a kitten into thinking he is not alone, and so he stops crying and watches. Just like Henry before him, Ka succumbs to tv and is quiet and calm.

Now I shall tie this all together. Since I leave the tv on for him when he's alone, I tend to leave it on when I'm in there feeding him and/or playing with him, so I have seen more boob-tube lately than is usual for me. Mostly I have been seeing a lot of commercials as most programming is inane and does not hold my attention nearly as well as my fuzzy big-eyed friend.

One ad in particular caught my attention. It went something kinda like this:

Voice Over: Maybe one day you'll take your Samsung camcorder to the company Xmas party. Maybe the next day you'll use your Samsung MP3 player to show your boss some of his more shining moments from the party. Now you've got a company car. Then maybe you show the Vice President some highlights from last years yacht party. Now you've got a corner office. Then later the president says "I hope you bring that camcorder of yours to the next company party." And you say "sure." (then we go to black and "SAMSUNG" shines across)

Now that is a paraphrase, but in case this isn't clear, they are talking about blackmail. Not only are they talking about it, but as the voice over describes these events, we see them played out. Now, don't worry, I'm not flying off the handle in outrage here, I'm just a little concerned about us as a race and a culture.

Now, I know what you're thinking, you're thinking "but Joey, aren't you over-reacting? Don't you think it's a just a joke?"

Sure, ok. It's a joke. I'm not going to say that blackmail can't be funny under the right circumstances. Lord knows I've had plenty a' laugh 'round the ol' water-cooler while showing a C.E.O. pictures that I took of him with a crackwhore in the back room at his son's bar mitzvah. Oye, what a schplotz that was! BUT there's a fine line here. Allow me to explain.

Let's say a company that makes, oh I don't know... something like... moustache trimmers! Let's say that this company ran an advertisement wherein somebody blackmailed somebody else. Here it's absurd, and unrelated to the product. That would be fine and dandy because the moustache trimmer is in no way used in said blackmail. It's a joke because it has no connection with reality.

But in the Samsung scenario the key difference is their products could actually be used for blackmail, and in all likelyhood are used in that way by somebody somewhere. Not only can Samsung be useful for blackmail, but key to the whole thing, really. I mean come on, the ad is practically a step-by-step guide on how to use hand-held electronics to climb a corporate ladder made from the knives protruding from your co-workers backs.

It's like their saying to John Q. MiddleManager: "come on, John, shell out a couple hundred bucks on some Saumsung equipment and you can leave a trail of once powerful men tattered and broken in your wake."

I don't know. Like I said, I'm not exactly angered by this, but more troubled, I guess. I mean, what's next? Crowbar commercials listing the best models for brinking into each type of home? Or a laptop ad showing kids how to hack into banks the world over? Or worse yet, ads showing people how to make more movies with Martin Lawrence?!?!

shudder