NFL Sunday Ticket (commercial)

I've seen this commercial a few times now, the latest today at 11.37 am eastern time on the MIlitary channel, during a doc on the CH-47 Chinook.

A reasonable channel to have an ad from NFL Sunday Ticket, of course, but the contents are just repulsive.

Very old man in a wheelchair, who is clearly out of it, sits with a Cowboy blanket over his knees, while his very young, blonde and Texan wife talks about NFL ticket. Meantime, a dog goes around peeing on Redskin memorabilia. I'm assuming the guy is a Redskin fan, and his new trophy wife is a Cowboy fan, so she's going to spend what little remains of his life making him miserable.

Do guys really think this is funny?

J. G. Wentworth - commercial

Way back in 1976, Peter Finch starred in Network. He was a newscaster who has a nervous breakdown on air, and advises his audience to go to their windows and yell, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more."

Well, J. G. Wentworth is riffing on that with their commercials, where people who are getting insurance payments paid over time rather than a lump sum, yell out, "It's my money and I want it now."

There are two kinds of these commercials. ONe is opera singers, singing it, others have "real people" sitting in their cars or sticking their heads out their window, shouting into the nothingness.)

And J. G. Wentworth is going to help them get it.

Twist of Kate (TV reality show)

Kate Gosselin is a woman who has built a financial empire out of being over-fertile. She and her ex-husband have 8 children.

They were first featured in a documentary in 2005 called Surviving Sextuplets and Twins. Since that time Kate and her husband, and now just Kate herself, have starred in several reality shows featuring how they cope with their large family. I doubt if its representative of the real world - these people are paid millions of dollars to have cameras in their home watching their every move.

But that's it. This woman is world-famous, and her opinion matter to people (she is now co-host on The View) because she has 8 kids, and for no other reason.

SHe's also written 3 books. If Wikipedia is to be believed, women (I'm sure men don't give a damn) have bought over 500,000 copies of her books.

Gosselin has also written several non-fiction books. Her first book was published in November 2008, titled "Multiple Blessings." It debuted at number 5 on New York Times Best-Seller list, and sold over 500,000 copies by the end of 2009. Her second book, "Eight Little Faces", was released in April 2009, and also debuted at number 5 on the New York Times Best-Seller list. Her third book, titled "I Just Want You To Know" was released on April 13, 2010 selling approximately 10,000 copies in its first week and debuting at number 103 on the New York Times Best-Seller list. Her next book, titled "Love Is in the Mix" is currently slated for a 2011 release date

I confess that the thought of 500,000 people in the US or wherever being so interested in a woman who has 8 kids is disturbing. Perhaps a large part of it is because she is of course white, blonde and beautiful. (Plenty of other folk have 8 kids, but since they're matronly, and probably work menial jobs to keep themselves afloat, no one cares.)

The Big Bang Theory (sitcom)

I actually like this sitcom a great deal, but there's no denying that it's got devolution media written all over it.

Leaving aside the concept - 4 extremely smart guys and one beautiful woman whose intellectual capacity is only good enough to buy shoes...

There have been two episodes that really did an injustice to the name of science.

In Season 3, episode 18, "The Pants Alternative," Sheldon is afraid of public speaking so he gets drunk (accidently, on liquor Penny gives him) goes up to the podium and proceeds to moon the audience. Now, on the show that got a great big laugh. But in real life - he'd've been so fired the next day.

Similarly, Season 3, Ep 9, "The Vengeance Formulation," Sheldon's nemisis Kripke plays a practical joke on him. Sheldon returns in kind, only *his* joke catches some important college dignitaries as well as Kripke. Yes, very funny, but once again in real life, he'd be so fired.

Yet in the show, there are no consequences. Leading impressionable young teens to think, Jeez,there's no consequences for making someone look like a fool, or to play vicious practical jokes, it'll all be forgotten, so let's give it a try.

Parents who watch this show with their kids and teens need to point out this misapprehension to them.

Allstate Insurance commercial

Just saw an All State commercial I'd never seen before - 9.52 pm eastern time, A&E, watching Criminal Minds.

The ad is demonizing Wall Street executives. Shows a young, arrogant Wall Street exec in his car, talking coldly to the TV watcher, how he lost a million dollars, gets upset, slams on the brakes so that a woman behind him slams into him. So he's going to sue her because, "That's what I do."

So people should get All State.

So the demonization of executives continues. This is so bad on so many levels. Sure, a lot of executives spend all their money on large houses, with pools, and don't care about the little people, but they're not all like that and to portray them as evil, to create class hatred, that's not what the US needs right now.

Tampax (commercials)

There have actually been a series of commercials, in which a middle-aged but beautiful "Mother Nature", wearing a 1970s-ish skirt and jacket - I assume to look like some sort of exectutive, appears in a woman's life holding a box called "Monthly Gift" while looking extremely snarky and evil.

Just saw one onthe FX Channel while watching Deep Rising at 11.50am today. (A movie that is its own horror, but that's a rant for a different blog!)

What does this tell girls, and women (assuming any of them are watching this testosterone-laden movie, and I suppose any of those who like Anthony Heald or Treat Williams are)? Well, on one level, that other women, particularly executive women, are "evil," always ready to do you down.

On another level, I suppose it is trying to be funny. "Monthly gift" is one of the euphemisms for one's period, so presumably the creators are just tying to be funny, but there are underlying issues in how they portray "Mother Nature".

(And I've just looked on YouTube, and apparently these commercials are so popular that Tampax has its own channel devoted to them!)

The Back to the Future Date Hoax - Twitter

People believe what they read in newspapers, but most young people, who have no knowledge in back of them to judge anything they see, seem to get all their news from the internet...and worse than that, from "tweets" that other people send.

The latest debacle?

In the trilogy of movies called Back to the Future, there is one in which Marty McFly goes to the future, October 21st, 2015.

So a site called Total Film doctors - forges - a picture making it seem as if it were July 5, 2010. And everybody believes it and there is great excitement.

Now it's revealed to be hoax.

The question is, will any of the young people who were fooled by this be outraged? Will they think they've been deliberately lied to? WIll they realize it's a bad thing? Or will they think, "Ah, how clever, what fact can I write down to see if other people are stupid enough to believe it?"
'Back to the Future' Date Hoax Goes Viral

by Mike Ryan · July 7, 2010
Fireworks came a day late for "Back to the Future" fans this week after a film site ignited an Internet trend by declaring Monday, July 5th as "Future Day." The site, Total Film, tweeted a doctored photo of the date shown on the dashboard of the Delorean that "Doc" (played by Christopher Lloyd) and "Marty McFly" (Michael J. Fox) used as their time machine. The photo (see it here) showed July 5th, 2010 as the "future date" they'd be traveling to. Followers of the site's feed retweeted that pic, and then their followers retweeted the image and so on. Soon it became it became one of the most-searched terms on the internet and a worldwide trending topic on Twitter.

Joe Jonas tweeted, "Today is the day that Marty McFly arrived in the future after hitting 88mph in a Delorean in 1985." Ivanka Trump added, "Greatest fun fact EVER: Today is the day that Marty McFly arrived in the future in "Back to the Future 2."

Photos: 'Back to the Future' among movies with prediction fails

The only problem? The whole thing was a hoax.

After the so-called "Future Day" news reached every corner of the Web, the site finally caved and admitted they'd pulled a fast one on the internet, issuing a mea culpa post: "We got it wrong. Apparently 5th July isn't mentioned in Back to the Future. So we went back and changed it..."

See them now: Stars who played 'Back to the Future' mom, girlfriend

As it turns out, the real future day is still a good five years off. It's on October 21st, 2015 that "Doc" warns Marty that there are a few problems with his kids, so they must go to the future to correct the situation. It's worth noting that most of the films predictions will likely not come to fruition: On the actual "future day," as depicted in the film, "Jaws 19" plays at the local movie theater (or, "holomax," as it's referred to in "Back to the Future") and the Chicago Cubs sweep Miami to win the World Series. Another popular myth is that "Back to the Future Part II" predicted the Florida Marlins winning a World Series long before there was a team in Miami. This is also false, because, well, it's not 2015 yet and the Cubs would have to win -- which, if statistics hold, will likely never happen.

If "Back to the Future" has taught us anything, it's that facts about the past (or future) need to be checked using an almanac, not Twitter. Also, we have five more years to create flying cars, the hoverboard, and 15 more "Jaws" films.

Alpha and Omega (animated movie)

I went to see Toy Story 3 today and loved it. Before the movie began, though, there were 5 or 6 trailers for movies, most of them utter garbage.

One of them, an animated one - intended for children - was called, "Alpha and Omega."

There's no plot up at the IMDB yet, except one sentence, "Two mismatched young wolves are thrown together by circumstance."

The actual plot as depicted in the trailer - a male wolf, who would be considered "not handsome" or a "nerd" if this were a movie about people, is kidnapped along with a beautiful female wolf, who would be considered beautiful if she were human) and released in an area of a forest where the humans of the movie expect them to breed and start a new wolf pack.

They attempt to return to their original home, and of course initially the beautiful female wolf has no interest in the nerd, but he proves himself to be brave and resourceful so I have no doubt that by the end of the film they are in love and will indeed have sex - though perhaps the kids in the audience won't be treated to that.

Very reminiscent of Bolt, with his cross-country journey with the "villainous" cat Mittens.

Utter garbage.

Note the way the characters are depicted below.

The male... just a male. Obviously a nerd. Probably in this pic looking at the alpha female in hopeless love, knowing that he could never have such a beautiul creature.

then look at the female .... sexualized. Flirting. Come hither look. Telling girls...yes, girls, if you want to get a guy, if you want "grrrl power" it's not about looking strong, it's about looking sexy and willing to go to bed with the first guy who tells you you're pretty.

Huggies Blue Jeans Diapers (Commercials)

The only commercial I've seen for these things - there may be others (http://www.remotepatrolled.com/2010/05/huggies-jeans-commercial-i-poo-in-blue/) has a young boy, 2 or what have you, wearing sunglasses, strutting along like he's cock of the walk in his blue jeans diapers, being stared at with lust by grown women and eventually grown men.

The idea is that the babies will look cool as they poop, and its for the trendy parents who follow ever style trend and don't hesitate to buy their younglings $400 shoes that they'll grow out of in two weeks.

Not that I expect these diapers to cost that much, but if they did, some dim bulb would probably buy them.