July 28, 2004
Ads

Poor baby.  A couple of months back the Denver Post ran an article on being surrounded by advertising as we stroll through life.  It was your basic politically correct whine detailing the pervasive advertising constantly around us with the authors complaints covering a wide spectrum of advertising’s supposed rude interruptions of daily life detailing various transgressions like ads on the sides of latte cups or kvetching about Applebee ads on the room key cards at the Econo Lodge in Pueblo. 

The article went on to quote a middle aged skier from Greeley grumbling about the plastic covered ski maps appearing on the safety bars of lift chairs in Snowmass this past year.  Yours truly thought the maps an inspired idea.  You ski in, sit down and pull the safety bar across your lap and behold there in front of you is a map of the mountain.  No putting the ski poles under your leg, followed by trying to sit on your gloves, followed by digging in your pocket for the ski map, which you then proceed to try and unfold with frozen fingers while not losing either gloves or poles.  Plus anyone who has hiked under a ski lift come springtime is always off put by the number of ski maps left trashing the trails after sailing out of skiers hands and onto the snow to blow about till thaw.  But Mr. Greeley skier was quoted; “There’s something sad about hitting people up with advertising when they’re out enjoying an activity like skiing.”  Poor baby.  He’s so incensed over the logo of a beer company appearing in the lower left hand corner of the safety bar he’s willing to forego a convenience that also cuts down mountain trash.  Puhlease!    

With the exception of the CU football team there seems to be no subject more politically correct to badmouth than advertising.  Recently, baseball was taken to the woodshed for proposing a Spiderman ad appear on the bases during the All-Star game.  Oh the horror of it all.  Here’s a sport with a huge steroid problem supposedly being ruined by an ad on second base.  Baseball, with ads covering the outfield walls and where pitchers warm up in the bullpen, an area so named because in the twenties the pitchers toiled in front of ads for Bullpen chewing tobacco.  But now our national pastime was being ruined forever by an ad for a PG adventure film appearing on second base.  But baseball seemingly has no problem with one of their All-Star players appearing on TV for Viagra, leaving fathers across America to answer the their seven year olds question, “Daddy, how does Viagra help Rafael from striking out at home?”   

Know my bias.  I spent several decades earning my daily bread creating and selling advertising.  It was a zero sum game I enjoyed.  Either the ads got results or businesses didn’t buy again.  Today advertising is not about commerce but is the new “axis of evil.”