I was watching the Denver Broncos/San Diego Chargers football game yesterday.
Near the end of regulation, the Chargers kicker, who presumably knew he was shortly going to have to kick a field goal - and one way out of his range - had to go to the bathroom.
I guess he didn't want to spend time running into the locker room, so he had a towel man hold up a towel while he relieved himself into a bottle (or something - never actually saw what it was.)
Unfortunately for the kicker, the two announcers were talking about him, and so a cameraman focused on his at that exact point in time, and for five minutes or so did not bother to pan away. So everyone in the country watching that game saw this guy - or at least his back - and knew what he was doing.
Why? Did the cameraman not have the sense to tell the announcers (with whom he is in constant contact) "Hey, something personal and private is going on here. Hold off a few minutes to talk about this guy? Or just pan away from him regardless?
But it gets worse. Of course, Yahoo "News" had to get into the act. So a couple of hours after the game, if you go to the Yahoo home page, you see the story highlighted there as if its newsworthy. "Embarrassing moment for Chargers kicker." And if you click on it you get to see the video of his back
And this article was right next to one that said, "Actresses caught in ugly dresses." (Well, I paraphrase that headline. It was something like that.) And I'm like...jesus christ - keep your fashion statements to yourself.
Also in the last few days, Ive been seeing commercials for the Victoria Secret Fashion show.
Victoria Secret - the lingerie people - need a fashion show? An excuse for skinny women to strut on stage wearing teeny tiny bras and panties? While guys - and gals, I suppose - ogle them?
Does this really need to be on TV?
Monday, November 28, 2011
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Samsung Focus Flash Phone - Commercial
Saw this a couple of days ago...forget which channel but probably TNT.
The scene is two young men - guys in their 20s who of course think they're god's gift to women.
The one guy takes a photo of the other guy in an embarrassing position, then posts it to some social media site...
Then there are clips of other people doing the same thing.
So that's how Samsung is marketing its new phone with camera - use it to embarrass and humiliate your friends. (And of course kids being what they are today, they can extrapolate. "Sexting" among teenagers is rampant.
And this kind of commercial just gives immature kids ideas.
The scene is two young men - guys in their 20s who of course think they're god's gift to women.
The one guy takes a photo of the other guy in an embarrassing position, then posts it to some social media site...
Then there are clips of other people doing the same thing.
So that's how Samsung is marketing its new phone with camera - use it to embarrass and humiliate your friends. (And of course kids being what they are today, they can extrapolate. "Sexting" among teenagers is rampant.
And this kind of commercial just gives immature kids ideas.
Monday, November 21, 2011
How sad...Breaking Dawn is a hit!
Just checked the IMDB. Apparently Breaking Dawn (the vampire love story) made $140 million dollars over the weekend, $120 million better than its closest competitor.
And I can just imagine who the audience members were...young girls who see in this vampire story their perfect lifestyle - always thin, always young, and of course, preggers.
And I can just imagine who the audience members were...young girls who see in this vampire story their perfect lifestyle - always thin, always young, and of course, preggers.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Breaking Dawn - new Twilight movie
Just saw the commercial for this abomination...
Never saw the original Twilight movie but apparently it's the story of a male vampire, and the young female "human" who is in love with him, and wants him to turn her into a vampire too, so they can be together always.
In this new movie, don't know if he's done that but he has made her pregnant. I had the sound off but we get all these seconds of the woman putting her hand on her stomach, and of her laying down and the vampire putting his hand on her stomach...
Normalizing evil.
Newsflash, folks - vampires are evil! They suck the blood of the living!
Of course I loved Dark Shadows as a kid... but that was a vampire, Barnabas Collins, trying to become human again, and afflicted with a curse so that he could never love anyone, because anyone who loved him would die.
Now we've got this pap, of people wanting to become vampires, so they will never age and never grow fat. (Anyone seen a fat vampire?)
Just...evil...
Never saw the original Twilight movie but apparently it's the story of a male vampire, and the young female "human" who is in love with him, and wants him to turn her into a vampire too, so they can be together always.
In this new movie, don't know if he's done that but he has made her pregnant. I had the sound off but we get all these seconds of the woman putting her hand on her stomach, and of her laying down and the vampire putting his hand on her stomach...
Normalizing evil.
Newsflash, folks - vampires are evil! They suck the blood of the living!
Of course I loved Dark Shadows as a kid... but that was a vampire, Barnabas Collins, trying to become human again, and afflicted with a curse so that he could never love anyone, because anyone who loved him would die.
Now we've got this pap, of people wanting to become vampires, so they will never age and never grow fat. (Anyone seen a fat vampire?)
Just...evil...
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Geico Commercial - the three white nerds
I can't remember if I've commented on this commercial before or not. I certainly meant to.
Geico has several different spokespersons and things - the most famous of which is the Gecko. There's another spokesman, the guy with the greased hair who comes up and says "Is switching to Geico as cool as_________," and then some example.
In this commercial, we've got three nerdy white guys in an office, who take out their cellphones and try to make music with them. One of the nerds gets his foot stuck in a chair, and tries to kick it away, and all three of them look like total idiots. A black woman - making copies - turns to look at them like they're total idiots.
It's just an embarassing commercial - which I assume is popular because it's been running for several months.
How to decide if a commercial is racist? In this case, racist against whites?
Turn the commercial around - make it three black nerds, and a white woman walking past and looking at them with such disbelief at their nerdity. You can bet there'd be outrage from the black community about that.
Now, I don't really think the commercial is racist - just offensive and stupid. Again, males are being made to look and act like fools, while the wise woman looks on more in sorrow than in anger.
Geico has several different spokespersons and things - the most famous of which is the Gecko. There's another spokesman, the guy with the greased hair who comes up and says "Is switching to Geico as cool as_________," and then some example.
In this commercial, we've got three nerdy white guys in an office, who take out their cellphones and try to make music with them. One of the nerds gets his foot stuck in a chair, and tries to kick it away, and all three of them look like total idiots. A black woman - making copies - turns to look at them like they're total idiots.
It's just an embarassing commercial - which I assume is popular because it's been running for several months.
How to decide if a commercial is racist? In this case, racist against whites?
Turn the commercial around - make it three black nerds, and a white woman walking past and looking at them with such disbelief at their nerdity. You can bet there'd be outrage from the black community about that.
Now, I don't really think the commercial is racist - just offensive and stupid. Again, males are being made to look and act like fools, while the wise woman looks on more in sorrow than in anger.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Pizza Hut Commercial
There's a new Pizza Hut commercial. I've seen it a few times. I've never heard it - it always seems to come on when I've got the sound down on the TV, but just watching it is offensive enough.
Typical white family - middle aged mom and dad, and a young son.
Some kind of spiel about the pizza. Then the dad tries to talk like a hip-hop African American DJ, and spins imaginary platters. And his young son looks at him like he's a total idiot.
End of commercial.
Why, why, why is it necessary for white dads (or, as the case may be, black dads) to be made fools of in such a way? If it is necessary to the commercial for the white dad to emulate a black dj and hip hop culture. presumably because the son is into that kind of music, could not the boy say, "Oh, cool, dad" or something of that nature? Why make it seem like the boy has total disrespect, even contempt, for his father?
It's not a funny commercial - it's a dangerous one.
Typical white family - middle aged mom and dad, and a young son.
Some kind of spiel about the pizza. Then the dad tries to talk like a hip-hop African American DJ, and spins imaginary platters. And his young son looks at him like he's a total idiot.
End of commercial.
Why, why, why is it necessary for white dads (or, as the case may be, black dads) to be made fools of in such a way? If it is necessary to the commercial for the white dad to emulate a black dj and hip hop culture. presumably because the son is into that kind of music, could not the boy say, "Oh, cool, dad" or something of that nature? Why make it seem like the boy has total disrespect, even contempt, for his father?
It's not a funny commercial - it's a dangerous one.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Subway Commercial
I've been watching Sunday night football on NBC, and seen a couple of commercials for Subway Steak Melt.
A grown woman comes up to a man seated at his desk in his office.
"Do you want to be my boyfriend?" she asks - in a dubbed little girl voice.
The nerdy looking guy, with dubbed little boy voice, says, "Sure."
So she reaches out and takes his Subway melt. To his look of surprise she says, "You're my boyfriend now."
Implication being, once a girl and boy are girlfriend and boyfriend, the boy has to give the girl anything she wants.
Is this actually how it is with little boys and girls, as this commercial seems to imply? Are little girls that shallow, that they will say, "Be my boyfriend" just so they can steal a boy's sandwich? And the boy will just give it up?
The sequel to that commercial is where the nerdy guy is appproached by another woman (both beautiful of course) who also can't apparently afford her own sandwich so wants to take the nerd's. But he's already given it to the first girl. "How could you," she says and storms off.
This awful thing brought back memories of a Jello commercial from a few days ago. A new boy moves to town, so we get scenes of little girls cooking food for him, and bringing it to his house with smiles on their faces, then a little girl shows up with jello and she's the one he lets into the house. Annoyed the hell out of it then and annoys the hell out of me now!
A grown woman comes up to a man seated at his desk in his office.
"Do you want to be my boyfriend?" she asks - in a dubbed little girl voice.
The nerdy looking guy, with dubbed little boy voice, says, "Sure."
So she reaches out and takes his Subway melt. To his look of surprise she says, "You're my boyfriend now."
Implication being, once a girl and boy are girlfriend and boyfriend, the boy has to give the girl anything she wants.
Is this actually how it is with little boys and girls, as this commercial seems to imply? Are little girls that shallow, that they will say, "Be my boyfriend" just so they can steal a boy's sandwich? And the boy will just give it up?
The sequel to that commercial is where the nerdy guy is appproached by another woman (both beautiful of course) who also can't apparently afford her own sandwich so wants to take the nerd's. But he's already given it to the first girl. "How could you," she says and storms off.
This awful thing brought back memories of a Jello commercial from a few days ago. A new boy moves to town, so we get scenes of little girls cooking food for him, and bringing it to his house with smiles on their faces, then a little girl shows up with jello and she's the one he lets into the house. Annoyed the hell out of it then and annoys the hell out of me now!
Mean Girls (The dangers of reality TV to today's youth, especially girls)
This is really sad...and is the reason why no one should watch the type of crap TV shows mentioned in the article below. (The article is talking about Indian women and Indian tv shows (as opposed to Native American tv shows in the US) but the same thing applies to any girl in any country watching this crap.
From Hindustan Times: Mean Girls
I was glued to this week’s episodes of Bigg Boss,” says Delhi-based Supra Agarwal. “The fights were at an all-time high,” adds the 29-year-old who runs a restaurant chain and is hooked to her Blackberry messenger updates on the drama peaking on her favourite reality show. And this is not the first season of addiction for Agarwal.
“For me, the word bitchy came from Dolly Bindra’s antics in the last season of Bigg Boss. Veena Malik’s act where she seemed to orgasm got her tremendous popularity. Even Shweta Tiwari’s bikini scene from Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao (IJSMB) (2009) went viral on Youtube,” says Agarwal, a fan of reality television shows. But this love for drama doesn’t end when the TV is switched off. It carries over in her real life. “If am unwell, I pretend it is worse than it is, in front of my in-laws to get my way with them. If my looks can help me get what I want, I use them. If I don’t do a bit of nautanki no one will bother. People want attention,” she says.
For another reality TV fan, Chandni Awasthi, 30, who never misses an episode of Masterchef Australia and Bigg Boss it’s about the ‘character-connect’. “We all have shades of grey. I relate to them because they remind me of people I know. A friend told me she found it thrilling to watch Pooja Mishra being verbally abused because she found Mishra’s character similar to her mother-in-law’s!” says the homemaker and mother of two.
Agarwal and Awasthi are not the only ones addicted to this TV bashing.
A recent nationwide survey done in the United States by the Girls Scouts organisation found that girls who watch reality TV expect more drama in their lives. Such girls tend to rate physical appearances higher than real effort. Nearly 70% of those surveyed thought that girls are catty and competitive by nature as compared with 50% of non-reality TV viewers.
“Shows like Bigg Boss and Emotional Atyachaar show wildly explicit contents with conversations laden with expletives. These affect women as they tend to copy the women characters of the show,” says Dr Bhavna Burmi, psychologist at Delhi’s Escorts Heart and Research Institute. Contestants in the Bigg Boss ‘family’ pick fights without a valid reason, she says. “Women watching these shows do the same over trivial issues without understanding that their family is different from the Bigg Boss ‘family’.”
Aping the worst
While the survey was carried out among teens aged 11-17 in the US, experts say it could affect women from any age group. “It’s usually housewives who watch these scripted reality shows, and tend to plan similar strategies at home even for minor issues. These could be throwing tantrums, forming groups for their selfish purposes,” says Burmi. Some carry the ‘act’ to the workplace. “I know girls who dress up for office to get noticed. How they project themselves is more important than the work they put in,” says Agarwal.
Pooja Chauhan, 24, who has worked as a producer on several reality shows says certain characters are role models for young girls. Chauhan says, “When Bani became popular after Roadies-4 and is now a VJ on MTV, girls who came for auditions said they wanted to be like her even though they hated her.” And while “not taking any shit” is what Chauhan feels her school going younger sister and cousins emulate the most from Bani, it is also her “black nail paint and Goth-style kajal” that became the new fashion trends for these young ones. “They see Bani wearing all that and love it. Today it matters how much you manage to impress people with your looks and character even if it’s a bad character,” says Chauhan.
In relationship-based shows like Emotional Atyachaar (testing a partner’s loyalty) or Splitsvilla (competing for a boy/girl friend), a new gamut of emotions and a jungle view of politics is on offer for children and adults in the prime time TV segment. The grammar of these shows breaks into three aspects says social scientist Shiv Visvanathan. “First, being calculative scores over being ethical and right. Then, aggression is important than gentle manners and lastly, presence of violence, both via emotions and physically,” he says. The gamely behaviour or even a feeling of sportsmanship is negated feels Visvanathan. “It is now all about competition,” he adds. “The women are shown to be mean as hell and aggressive, like ‘masculine vamps’. Viewers then imagine these exaggerated ideas as a way to succeed in life.”
The information and broadcasting ministry did object to the prime-time telecast timings of Bigg Boss (season 4) bringing the show under the scanner for objectionable content. The anger between contestants and the rise in spiteful conversations has not decreased. According to Dale Bhagwagar, celebrity publicist who has coached several contestants on Bigg Boss says season 1-5 show a rising trend of aggression on the show. “It was Dolly Bindra screaming in the last season and Pooja Mishra and Shradha Sharma using words objectionable words in the current season. A fortnight ago, Shakti Kapoor spanked Vida Samadzai’s butt and Siddharth Bhardwaj used the F-word at Pooja Mishra, which was discussed for nearly an hour on the show. Kids are watching all this.”
The hype market
Bad publicity works best, and ugly is even better. “Manipulation is to give contestants tricks to twist situations,” he says. “Like Shakti Kapoor tried for an image makeover in Bigg Boss after the India TV episode. Every participant goes in with a motive and strategy,” adds Bhagawar. Pleasing the voyeuristic viewer is taken very serious in the reality television business say insiders. Characters are made out of participants. “Bigg Boss 4 was centred on Shweta Tiwari whose ‘nice girl’ image went for a toss after the bikini scene in IJSMB,” says a show producer who doesn’t wish to be named. Not just women, people in general are getting more violent feels singer Neha Bhasin who took part in the first reality show in India and now hosts a relationship programme on radio. “It’s not just women clawing each other, men also abuse you equally to get attention,” she says.
But not everyone is turning into a drama queen. “People are smarter than we think,” says Bhasin. Socialite Tanisha Mohan says,“We don’t associate our lives with these shows; our lives are not scripted like theirs.” Visvanathan believes for every young person becoming mean watching mean TV, there are others who know where to draw the line. He says, “The young people who came in support of Anna Hazare were focussed on anti-corruption, than on Hazare himself. There are people on whom reality shows, thankfully, don’t work.”
From Hindustan Times: Mean Girls
I was glued to this week’s episodes of Bigg Boss,” says Delhi-based Supra Agarwal. “The fights were at an all-time high,” adds the 29-year-old who runs a restaurant chain and is hooked to her Blackberry messenger updates on the drama peaking on her favourite reality show. And this is not the first season of addiction for Agarwal.
“For me, the word bitchy came from Dolly Bindra’s antics in the last season of Bigg Boss. Veena Malik’s act where she seemed to orgasm got her tremendous popularity. Even Shweta Tiwari’s bikini scene from Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao (IJSMB) (2009) went viral on Youtube,” says Agarwal, a fan of reality television shows. But this love for drama doesn’t end when the TV is switched off. It carries over in her real life. “If am unwell, I pretend it is worse than it is, in front of my in-laws to get my way with them. If my looks can help me get what I want, I use them. If I don’t do a bit of nautanki no one will bother. People want attention,” she says.
For another reality TV fan, Chandni Awasthi, 30, who never misses an episode of Masterchef Australia and Bigg Boss it’s about the ‘character-connect’. “We all have shades of grey. I relate to them because they remind me of people I know. A friend told me she found it thrilling to watch Pooja Mishra being verbally abused because she found Mishra’s character similar to her mother-in-law’s!” says the homemaker and mother of two.
Agarwal and Awasthi are not the only ones addicted to this TV bashing.
A recent nationwide survey done in the United States by the Girls Scouts organisation found that girls who watch reality TV expect more drama in their lives. Such girls tend to rate physical appearances higher than real effort. Nearly 70% of those surveyed thought that girls are catty and competitive by nature as compared with 50% of non-reality TV viewers.
“Shows like Bigg Boss and Emotional Atyachaar show wildly explicit contents with conversations laden with expletives. These affect women as they tend to copy the women characters of the show,” says Dr Bhavna Burmi, psychologist at Delhi’s Escorts Heart and Research Institute. Contestants in the Bigg Boss ‘family’ pick fights without a valid reason, she says. “Women watching these shows do the same over trivial issues without understanding that their family is different from the Bigg Boss ‘family’.”
Aping the worst
While the survey was carried out among teens aged 11-17 in the US, experts say it could affect women from any age group. “It’s usually housewives who watch these scripted reality shows, and tend to plan similar strategies at home even for minor issues. These could be throwing tantrums, forming groups for their selfish purposes,” says Burmi. Some carry the ‘act’ to the workplace. “I know girls who dress up for office to get noticed. How they project themselves is more important than the work they put in,” says Agarwal.
Pooja Chauhan, 24, who has worked as a producer on several reality shows says certain characters are role models for young girls. Chauhan says, “When Bani became popular after Roadies-4 and is now a VJ on MTV, girls who came for auditions said they wanted to be like her even though they hated her.” And while “not taking any shit” is what Chauhan feels her school going younger sister and cousins emulate the most from Bani, it is also her “black nail paint and Goth-style kajal” that became the new fashion trends for these young ones. “They see Bani wearing all that and love it. Today it matters how much you manage to impress people with your looks and character even if it’s a bad character,” says Chauhan.
In relationship-based shows like Emotional Atyachaar (testing a partner’s loyalty) or Splitsvilla (competing for a boy/girl friend), a new gamut of emotions and a jungle view of politics is on offer for children and adults in the prime time TV segment. The grammar of these shows breaks into three aspects says social scientist Shiv Visvanathan. “First, being calculative scores over being ethical and right. Then, aggression is important than gentle manners and lastly, presence of violence, both via emotions and physically,” he says. The gamely behaviour or even a feeling of sportsmanship is negated feels Visvanathan. “It is now all about competition,” he adds. “The women are shown to be mean as hell and aggressive, like ‘masculine vamps’. Viewers then imagine these exaggerated ideas as a way to succeed in life.”
The information and broadcasting ministry did object to the prime-time telecast timings of Bigg Boss (season 4) bringing the show under the scanner for objectionable content. The anger between contestants and the rise in spiteful conversations has not decreased. According to Dale Bhagwagar, celebrity publicist who has coached several contestants on Bigg Boss says season 1-5 show a rising trend of aggression on the show. “It was Dolly Bindra screaming in the last season and Pooja Mishra and Shradha Sharma using words objectionable words in the current season. A fortnight ago, Shakti Kapoor spanked Vida Samadzai’s butt and Siddharth Bhardwaj used the F-word at Pooja Mishra, which was discussed for nearly an hour on the show. Kids are watching all this.”
The hype market
Bad publicity works best, and ugly is even better. “Manipulation is to give contestants tricks to twist situations,” he says. “Like Shakti Kapoor tried for an image makeover in Bigg Boss after the India TV episode. Every participant goes in with a motive and strategy,” adds Bhagawar. Pleasing the voyeuristic viewer is taken very serious in the reality television business say insiders. Characters are made out of participants. “Bigg Boss 4 was centred on Shweta Tiwari whose ‘nice girl’ image went for a toss after the bikini scene in IJSMB,” says a show producer who doesn’t wish to be named. Not just women, people in general are getting more violent feels singer Neha Bhasin who took part in the first reality show in India and now hosts a relationship programme on radio. “It’s not just women clawing each other, men also abuse you equally to get attention,” she says.
But not everyone is turning into a drama queen. “People are smarter than we think,” says Bhasin. Socialite Tanisha Mohan says,“We don’t associate our lives with these shows; our lives are not scripted like theirs.” Visvanathan believes for every young person becoming mean watching mean TV, there are others who know where to draw the line. He says, “The young people who came in support of Anna Hazare were focussed on anti-corruption, than on Hazare himself. There are people on whom reality shows, thankfully, don’t work.”
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Horror Porn
Went to the IMDB yesterday, and at the very top were links to 3 movies which will apparently make their debut in November - or maybe in December, just in time for the December season of peace on earth, good will toward man.
All three of them are horror movies. We Need to Talk About Kevin - mother attempts to find out why her young son turned into a serial killer. Paranorman, apparently about a guy with paranormal powers. Norman - is it a take off on Norman of Psycho fame? And finally, The Innkeepers.
How incredibly charming.
And we wonder why people today seem fraught with rage, anger, and insensitivity to others.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
York Peppermint Patty commercial
Typically whenever you see a food commercial - sometimes a restaurant commercial but usually for food you buy at a grocery store, you always see the eaters (usually the female eaters) having a kind of orgasmic reaction.
York Peppermint Patties has taken that to a whole new level - they actually show a woman having an orgasm after taking a bite of a Peppermint Patty.
It used to be when York Peppermint Patties did these commercials it'd be something wholesome - "Bite into a Peppermint Patty and I have the sensation of skiing down a mountain in the arctic," or something of that nature.
Now, we get this beautiful woman. Extreme closeup of her lips as she bites into the patty. Then extreme closeup of her eye as it flutters like she's having an orgasm. Then it pulls back a bit and the woman is relaxing after her sexual experience.
Yech.
York Peppermint Patties has taken that to a whole new level - they actually show a woman having an orgasm after taking a bite of a Peppermint Patty.
It used to be when York Peppermint Patties did these commercials it'd be something wholesome - "Bite into a Peppermint Patty and I have the sensation of skiing down a mountain in the arctic," or something of that nature.
Now, we get this beautiful woman. Extreme closeup of her lips as she bites into the patty. Then extreme closeup of her eye as it flutters like she's having an orgasm. Then it pulls back a bit and the woman is relaxing after her sexual experience.
Yech.
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