Some notable stuff:
UPS commercial – the Brown/Brun/etc… ads, wherein UPS men all over the world are doing their thing. I liked the one where the Chinese guy is telling the Chinese woman (in Cantonese, I think) about a UPS guy on the other side of the world… while the American UPS guy is doing the exact same thing with the American woman – and both women look at their respective UPS guys skeptically. Meanwhile, there’s still that FedEx ad, wherein Chinese man, muttering angrily in Cantonese about his delivery thing, and the young Chinese mailroom guy saying one thing: “FedEx.” “Oh,” said older Chinese man, feeling much better. Hmm. Two delivery service ads using Cantonese. Say, I bet if I watched more tv ads in Cantonese, I mights actually learn the mother tongue. (Umm, sure, in fantasy land, maybe!) But, at least I’m entertained (although, I really hate the idea of referring UPS as merely “Brown.” I mean, that’s just stupid – why on earth do I have to call you by your – umm – color? Can you really make the word for a color your trademark? Arguably, yeah, you can, but, it just isn’t a great idea to me, that’s all).
And, then there’s the interesting Verizon ads of late – where you have this Hispanic looking family using every Verizon product possible, while their three-year old is messing around the house. My brother noted to me that the family seemed bi-racial to him – since the dad looked a little too light-skinned and, well, a shade too clueless about importing his digital pictures to his e-mail. While dropping by NY Times.com, there was the link to the Verizon’s website, for more info on (what else?) their products and how the Perez-Elliotts use their phone/DSL/etc. service. I couldn’t resist and I clicked to see more info on the family. Personally, I like the idea of this multicutural/multiracial/multiethnic thing – it’s seems like a sunny look at the 21st century America. Plus, the mom turned out to be a lawyer – great plug for the legal profession and its demographics (“Yes, a Latina woman with four kids, a techno-clueless husband, and a really big dog can do her job just fine, thank you very much”).
In honor of baseball season’s opening, here’s a link to a profile of the 1986 NY Mets and how they made us feel good.
I could link this, but I’ll resist it for now – the latest Mary Worth comic strip storyline is mondo bizarre. The new tenant in Mary Worth’s condo is apparently a male chauvinist pig, as he expresses his view that he cannot marry a woman who has an “agenda” outside the home. Uh, okay, what century is he living in? You get the bubble thought from Mrs. Cameron, the neighbor, who’s pretty confidant that the guy is not going to do well in his new advertising executive job with his view of women. And, yet, there’s a hint that the guy may have a reason for his view – maybe he was scarred for life by his – gasp – evil, hard-working mom who abandoned him for her career. Jeez, this better unfold properly. I didn’t like the way Mary Worth gang ended their previous storyline.
And, another comical comic strip note – today’s Doonesbury was hilarious take on the Condileeza Rice v. Richard Clarke spat… (link to the Slate.com, wherein you too can find the link to the 4/5/04 edition of Doonesbury).
I was actually watching “Ten Commandments” last night – or most of it, anyway (I’m too much of a channel changer to watch the whole thing properly). Stuart Klawan’s NY Times article about Cecil B. DeMille indicated that ABC aired DeMille’s “Ten Commandments” to coincide with Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of Christ” (Klawan’s otherwise interesting article specifically includes this remark: “You may catch DeMille’s ‘Ten Commandments’ (1956) tonight on ABC (evidently broadcast in response to the success of ‘The Passion’)”) – I think Klawans had it slightly wrong to allude to such ridiculous intention on ABC’s part – ABC aired “Ten Commandments” every year around Holy Week/Passover time. Mel is the one with the sense of timing to get “The Passion…” during Lent. (ABC airing a movie on Judas a couple of weeks ago, when Mel’s movie came out – yeah, _that_ was crude of ABC; but the same cannot be said about what ABC did with “Ten Commandments”). I’ll give ABC that much credit for trying to stick with some shred of tradition.
To the Jewish folks – have a nice Passover. To the Christians – have a nice Holy Week. And, may we please have some warmer temperatures in NYC?….