Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Titles are for those that have a point.


I write ads for a radio station. It is not glamorous but it is fun. There are boundaries. I am not allowed to mock religious folk, nor can I do anything overly sexual or crude which, according to some of our listeners, are one and the same. On the flip side, I get to sit and think up ways to make crappy things sound good, see what I can slip past the censors and be surrounded by interesting people all day long. Also, because of the nature of the job I pay more attention to advertising that I used to. It's interesting if you think about the images and tag lines companies use.
One that really makes me laugh is Royal. The toilet paper has kittens on their package and claims their product is kitten soft. I agree that most kittens are soft but I have never thought of wiping my ass with one. Now that I have thought of this, the thought makes me giggle with glee.
Other packages that make me smile are ones for douches. They have these demure, motherly women who are still young but have some undefinable trait that makes them seem more mature than they should be. Perhaps the fact that they use a douche makes them more grown up. Anyway, the thing that makes me laugh is the stark contrast between those packages and ones for hair colour. Hair colour models are either wild and crazy, sultry, or radiant. Never demure. They radiate confidence and seem to say, "Fuck yeah! Change your colour! Don't be a slave to nature!" whereas the douche models expression seems to say, "Goodness, is that scent me? I hope no one sees me buying this."

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