re: www.thetruth.com
I popped over to the website for those orange anti-smoking ads (you know, exploding basketball players, snotty kids being hostile on webcams ....) because, well ....
Anyway, I wrote them to ask what was up with one of their ad spots, since it asked people to make an utterly futile demonstration and to destroy their own property. But in the meantime, I had an opportunity to use their forwarding service so I could write the CEO's of two tobacco companies and thank them for being great product providers (that sounds sarcastic, but from a smoker's perspective ....)
But what really caught my eye was a "name generator". This thing cracks me up, since it's a big data collection tool. But you put your first and last name into separate fields and it searches a long list of words to make you a new name, one "to be proud of" and to "use wisely".
Anyway, it seems to me it's harmless, but a few years ago, parents wouldn't have been so keen about this sort of thing. I mean, I knew enough guys who put "OG" or "Dog" into their name in my days to know that parents generally hate that crap. However, this is interesting: is it OK to do something parents have generally thought not good for their children if your "cause" is good? (Never mind that thetruth.com is operated by tobacco companies.)
So I ask this: What if it was a rap website, giving your kids a street name? What if it was a Satanic heavy metal site giving your kids a dark name? What if it was the local youth group, renaming your children and asking them to call each other by their class names?
But I have no real opinion. On the one hand, I think it's generally harmless. On the other, it's patently stupid. Who am I to say so? Apparently I'm the Street-Level Rump-Shakin' Duck of Truth, that's who!
Maybe a real issue would suffice here, y'think? Okay, okay ... how about this? I've noticed that several of thetruth.com's ads have utterly missed the mark. Furthermore, it's plagued by an endless parade of hostile attitudes that, when I was in high school, belonged to the people with which I did not associate. I would imagine this sort of thing is common, since I'm hardly the first, last, or only King of the Fools. But between an utterly hollow presentation method apparently meant to impress kids somehow, and messages that aren't quite on target, is it possible that the tobacco interests running thetruth.com are intentionally subverting their own campaign in order to lessen its impact?
thanx,
Tiassa
ps--I have no idea why I care at all about this; maybe I'm just fed up because one of my drinking buddies is in lust with Brittany Spears, so I had to watch the whole damn Teen Choice Awards last night.
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We are unutterably alone, essentially, especially in the things most intimate and important to us. (Ranier Maria Rilke)
I popped over to the website for those orange anti-smoking ads (you know, exploding basketball players, snotty kids being hostile on webcams ....) because, well ....
Anyway, I wrote them to ask what was up with one of their ad spots, since it asked people to make an utterly futile demonstration and to destroy their own property. But in the meantime, I had an opportunity to use their forwarding service so I could write the CEO's of two tobacco companies and thank them for being great product providers (that sounds sarcastic, but from a smoker's perspective ....)
But what really caught my eye was a "name generator". This thing cracks me up, since it's a big data collection tool. But you put your first and last name into separate fields and it searches a long list of words to make you a new name, one "to be proud of" and to "use wisely".
Anyway, it seems to me it's harmless, but a few years ago, parents wouldn't have been so keen about this sort of thing. I mean, I knew enough guys who put "OG" or "Dog" into their name in my days to know that parents generally hate that crap. However, this is interesting: is it OK to do something parents have generally thought not good for their children if your "cause" is good? (Never mind that thetruth.com is operated by tobacco companies.)
So I ask this: What if it was a rap website, giving your kids a street name? What if it was a Satanic heavy metal site giving your kids a dark name? What if it was the local youth group, renaming your children and asking them to call each other by their class names?
But I have no real opinion. On the one hand, I think it's generally harmless. On the other, it's patently stupid. Who am I to say so? Apparently I'm the Street-Level Rump-Shakin' Duck of Truth, that's who!
Maybe a real issue would suffice here, y'think? Okay, okay ... how about this? I've noticed that several of thetruth.com's ads have utterly missed the mark. Furthermore, it's plagued by an endless parade of hostile attitudes that, when I was in high school, belonged to the people with which I did not associate. I would imagine this sort of thing is common, since I'm hardly the first, last, or only King of the Fools. But between an utterly hollow presentation method apparently meant to impress kids somehow, and messages that aren't quite on target, is it possible that the tobacco interests running thetruth.com are intentionally subverting their own campaign in order to lessen its impact?
thanx,
Tiassa
ps--I have no idea why I care at all about this; maybe I'm just fed up because one of my drinking buddies is in lust with Brittany Spears, so I had to watch the whole damn Teen Choice Awards last night.
------------------
We are unutterably alone, essentially, especially in the things most intimate and important to us. (Ranier Maria Rilke)
