Since Times Select is no longer, I now can read what the opinion makers at the New York Times have to say. I was not going to pay extra to read these people, and apparently lots of other people felt the same way.
The Thomas Friedman article, which is the most emailed today, basically states that we have become a stupid nation since 9/11, which is entirely true. It is our great misfortune that this incident happened to be on the watch of the stupidest president ever, so our great leap backward is exponentially compounded.
Friedman complains that leaving or entering this country by airplane has become so absurdly stupid and humiliating that one thinks twice about showing up at an airport. I don't blame any tourists that look with serious reservations at the prospect of being treated almost like common criminals once they deplane. They may rather spend their money and their time in places where they are appreciated, not viewed with irrational suspicion.
The situation has become untenable. The moronic ritual of taking the shoes off, the humiliation of being treated like cattle by murgatroids with, let alone no education, but no training and no prospect of using sensible criteria if indeed one of us turns out to be a terrorist. My rosewater is confiscated because it may turn out to be explosive. Lip gloss is not allowed, but lipstick is. This is insane and there is no justification for such stupidity. Things like these do not make us safer. Intelligent screeners and smart measures make us safer. The whole process seems to be designed in a punishing way, as if wanting to leave the country, either for business or pleasure, is some kind of morally dubious enterprise. It is provincial and xenophobic, which is what this country is fast becoming.
The other day I accompanied a friend to the airport. The machine that screens the big luggage collapsed, stalling the passengers who not only had to drag their own bags to it but still had to go through the metal detectors and the sock showing dance. However, there was an identical machine functioning in perfect order two feet away, with very few passengers, but it didn't seem to occur to anybody to get that machine to screen the bags for this flight. Too much trouble to drag those bags two extra feet.
Friedman is right. Our airports are dumps, our cellphones are medieval, we do not have enough public WiFi and the United States now lags behind on everything that characterizes the 21st century, from gay unions to making technology accessible to everyone. But as long as someone can make a buck, someone will come up with a twist. I saw at JFK these branded machines that I'm sure you pay to screen your info so you don't have to go through the security nightmare. This should be the case with all passengers and one needn't have to pay for it. I wonder who is going to get rich with that concession. Halliburton?
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Friday, September 28, 2007
Obama in my hood
In case the media failed to report that there were a lot, a lot people yesterday at Washington Square Park to see Barack Obama, I'm telling you there were. Lots of young students from NYU, but lots of old codgers from the nabe and lots of very diverse people. Very lovely. It was great he chose the center of Greenwich Village to preach to the converted. I would have stayed, had it not been for a stupid advertising event I had to attend and which I regretted the moment I walked in the door. I'd much prefer to listen to what Obama has to say that to scream inanities in a noisy bar full of advertising people. By the time I left the joint, it was too late, the rally was over. Department of Wrong Priorities.
Oh well.
Oh well.
What A Pill!
The Grande Enchilada is obsessed with weight just like everybody else, and so was curious about the new non-prescription weight loss pill called Alli, that comes in a very beautiful case with very pretty, colorful lettering.
Since the Enchilada is always deeply suspicious of medicines in general, and of diet pills in particular, she did a little research. According to the Enchilada the only truly successful way to lose weight is to stop fressing (something that she is not quite prepared to do), so a diet pill that everybody can buy is deeply suspicious. No more than half a second into the research, Enchilada finds the catch: not only do you have to eat a low fat diet while you are on this pill, but if you don't, you crap in your pants. The pill only allows you 15 grams of fat per meal, which as far as the Enchilada, amounts to starvation.
However, my question is, if you already have to be dieting and starving, why the hell do you need a pill that gives you the runs? You stick to the low fat diet and you will lose weight without shitting in your pants.
Meanwhile, people in Africa, etc, etc.
Since the Enchilada is always deeply suspicious of medicines in general, and of diet pills in particular, she did a little research. According to the Enchilada the only truly successful way to lose weight is to stop fressing (something that she is not quite prepared to do), so a diet pill that everybody can buy is deeply suspicious. No more than half a second into the research, Enchilada finds the catch: not only do you have to eat a low fat diet while you are on this pill, but if you don't, you crap in your pants. The pill only allows you 15 grams of fat per meal, which as far as the Enchilada, amounts to starvation.
However, my question is, if you already have to be dieting and starving, why the hell do you need a pill that gives you the runs? You stick to the low fat diet and you will lose weight without shitting in your pants.
Meanwhile, people in Africa, etc, etc.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Department of Why is This News?
Cynthia Gorney (another Mexican Jewess!) writes a very entertaining and informative article in last week's NY Times magazine about the Hispanic ad agency Grupo Gallegos and through them, about Hispanic advertising in particular. I admire Grupo Gallegos, for it tries to do original and fresh creative work. But my beef is why this article sounds like news when Hispanic advertising agencies have been doing it for years.
Regardless of whether Hispanic ad agencies choose to do cheesy ads with abuelitas and piñatas or not, it is a frustrating reality of the Hispanic advertising world that people still react to it as if it was newly minted, or as if it is a remote and exotic thing they know nothing about.
Even though, the growth of Hispanic spending has mushroomed to hundreds of billions of dollars a year, as the article points out, the pace at which most American corporations are adapting to this trend is still glacial, and their budgets still puny. Hispanic agencies and production houses are used to performing miracles with budgets that would be considered laughable in the general market world.
Then there are the corporate clients. Some are relatively enlightened and respectful of the cultural differences, even if they find it difficult to understand them. No client wants to hear that their wonderful global campaign needs to be tailored, sometimes beyond recognition, to reach the Hispanics here. But many clients are ignorant and indifferent, and deeply resistant to spend on Hispanics, even if it means making more money for their brands.
Sometimes, some of the worst clients tend to be acculturated Hispanics themselves (I've had a couple of cases of this) who look down on the recent immigrants. They tend to underestimate the intelligence of the audience because of an ingrained prejudice that tells them that these people have to be talked to as if they were mentally incapacitated. There are those Hispanic executives that champion the market and fight to get their brands out there, but those are not in the majority.
Most of the time though, bridging the gap in Hispanic advertising between client and consumer feels like an endless limbo of incomprehension (you feel you are from Mars, because that is how they see you) and it takes enormous effort to educate clients (then your newly enlightened brand manager leaves to be replaced by another one who doesn't understand zero and you have to start from scratch). Some agencies, like Grupo Gallegos, do not believe in talking down to their audience, although I found it rather frightening that someone there would think that their audience doesn't know who Napoleon is. I once worked for a Hispanic chief creative officer who thought that Mexicans didn't know about the pyramids in Egypt or who Cleopatra was, but she wanted us to change the pyramids to the time of the Aztecs to sell a car. We had a screaming fight trying to convince her that Mexicans were not going to appreciate someone defacing their historical monuments with a pickup truck. This kind of patronizing, contemptuous attitude oftentimes comes from agency people themselves. And as is usually the case in immigrant communities, the worst culprits are those who feel ambivalence towards their immigrant origins, people who may have been seriously discriminated and disenfranchised when growing up here and who don't wish to be confused with the illegals still arriving today. The reality is that those of us who make commercials are college educated upper middle class people with all this entails in terms of Latin American class prejudice, which is plenty.
I have always felt that advertising should raise the bar, not lower it. And if some in the audience don't know who Cleopatra or Napoleon are, the commercial should encourage them to find out.
There are 11 million Hispanics in this country. There is Ugly Betty on TV. There is more Latino influence in the culture than ever before, but people choose to be oblivious, if not patronizing.
One would think that people would be a little bit more attuned to the brown people among them.
But don't get me started. At this point, this magazine article should not be so didactic. Hell, at this point it shouldn't even be news.
Regardless of whether Hispanic ad agencies choose to do cheesy ads with abuelitas and piñatas or not, it is a frustrating reality of the Hispanic advertising world that people still react to it as if it was newly minted, or as if it is a remote and exotic thing they know nothing about.
Even though, the growth of Hispanic spending has mushroomed to hundreds of billions of dollars a year, as the article points out, the pace at which most American corporations are adapting to this trend is still glacial, and their budgets still puny. Hispanic agencies and production houses are used to performing miracles with budgets that would be considered laughable in the general market world.
Then there are the corporate clients. Some are relatively enlightened and respectful of the cultural differences, even if they find it difficult to understand them. No client wants to hear that their wonderful global campaign needs to be tailored, sometimes beyond recognition, to reach the Hispanics here. But many clients are ignorant and indifferent, and deeply resistant to spend on Hispanics, even if it means making more money for their brands.
Sometimes, some of the worst clients tend to be acculturated Hispanics themselves (I've had a couple of cases of this) who look down on the recent immigrants. They tend to underestimate the intelligence of the audience because of an ingrained prejudice that tells them that these people have to be talked to as if they were mentally incapacitated. There are those Hispanic executives that champion the market and fight to get their brands out there, but those are not in the majority.
Most of the time though, bridging the gap in Hispanic advertising between client and consumer feels like an endless limbo of incomprehension (you feel you are from Mars, because that is how they see you) and it takes enormous effort to educate clients (then your newly enlightened brand manager leaves to be replaced by another one who doesn't understand zero and you have to start from scratch). Some agencies, like Grupo Gallegos, do not believe in talking down to their audience, although I found it rather frightening that someone there would think that their audience doesn't know who Napoleon is. I once worked for a Hispanic chief creative officer who thought that Mexicans didn't know about the pyramids in Egypt or who Cleopatra was, but she wanted us to change the pyramids to the time of the Aztecs to sell a car. We had a screaming fight trying to convince her that Mexicans were not going to appreciate someone defacing their historical monuments with a pickup truck. This kind of patronizing, contemptuous attitude oftentimes comes from agency people themselves. And as is usually the case in immigrant communities, the worst culprits are those who feel ambivalence towards their immigrant origins, people who may have been seriously discriminated and disenfranchised when growing up here and who don't wish to be confused with the illegals still arriving today. The reality is that those of us who make commercials are college educated upper middle class people with all this entails in terms of Latin American class prejudice, which is plenty.
I have always felt that advertising should raise the bar, not lower it. And if some in the audience don't know who Cleopatra or Napoleon are, the commercial should encourage them to find out.
There are 11 million Hispanics in this country. There is Ugly Betty on TV. There is more Latino influence in the culture than ever before, but people choose to be oblivious, if not patronizing.
One would think that people would be a little bit more attuned to the brown people among them.
But don't get me started. At this point, this magazine article should not be so didactic. Hell, at this point it shouldn't even be news.
Department of the Obvious
People are all in a tizzy because Giuliani had a fundraiser where he asked people to donate $9.11 to his campaign. It is execrable, but my question is why are people so shocked. The man has been exploiting this incident, which is the only thing he has going for him, since 9/12, 2001. So has the retard we call President, and for even more nefarious purposes. Let's pool our collective outrage and vote these schmucks out of our public life.
I'm starting to hate facebook
1. I get an advertising from that new TV show Gossip Girls in my page, as a "sponsored"post. I don't want it there but I can't delete it.
2. I don't want to know that this friend or the other changed a period into a comma in his or her profile every five minutes. But did you know that in your preferences you have a kind of equalizer console that allows you to get more news from some friends and less from others? It's sick and brilliant at the same time.
3. What's with all the applications? I got an invitation to an application that happened to be sponsored by Travelocity. And they warn you that they can look at your information. Too Orwellian for my taste.
4. Is facebook substituting actual human social contact?
5. I got a request for friendship from someone that is more of a strict business acquaintance. I don't even actually know this person in person. She is a supplier. I think Linked In (another waste of time) is more appropriate for that, no?
6. I started receiving several posts from a blogger. I wrote him that I felt he was spamming me and now I am in mortal fear of having offended him. I could send all my facebook "friends" every post that appears on this here blog, but I don't: a). because it is annoying and b.) because I figure that if my url prominently appears on my facebook page, people can use their fingers to click on it and read, if they so desire.
7. I have a feeling that I don't really know how to use facebook.
8. I'm having facebook anxiety. And I'd much rather have analog social anxiety. At least you can sidle up to the bar and order a gin and tonic.
Thanks to fierce Mimosa from Paris for inspiring this article with this link.
2. I don't want to know that this friend or the other changed a period into a comma in his or her profile every five minutes. But did you know that in your preferences you have a kind of equalizer console that allows you to get more news from some friends and less from others? It's sick and brilliant at the same time.
3. What's with all the applications? I got an invitation to an application that happened to be sponsored by Travelocity. And they warn you that they can look at your information. Too Orwellian for my taste.
4. Is facebook substituting actual human social contact?
5. I got a request for friendship from someone that is more of a strict business acquaintance. I don't even actually know this person in person. She is a supplier. I think Linked In (another waste of time) is more appropriate for that, no?
6. I started receiving several posts from a blogger. I wrote him that I felt he was spamming me and now I am in mortal fear of having offended him. I could send all my facebook "friends" every post that appears on this here blog, but I don't: a). because it is annoying and b.) because I figure that if my url prominently appears on my facebook page, people can use their fingers to click on it and read, if they so desire.
7. I have a feeling that I don't really know how to use facebook.
8. I'm having facebook anxiety. And I'd much rather have analog social anxiety. At least you can sidle up to the bar and order a gin and tonic.
Thanks to fierce Mimosa from Paris for inspiring this article with this link.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Shocking Nazi Photos
Forget about the usual horribly morbid pictures of Jews in Hell.
Quite astonishing are the pictures of the Nazis who ran Auschwitz frolicking happily around at the camp in their merry SS uniforms, playing the accordion, etc.
The pictures are quite chilling.
Quite astonishing are the pictures of the Nazis who ran Auschwitz frolicking happily around at the camp in their merry SS uniforms, playing the accordion, etc.
The pictures are quite chilling.
Run, Sarko, Run!
What is cooler than Nicholas Sarkozy, plenipotentiary ruler of Vive la France, running in Central Park with an NYPD t-shirt?
Absolutement rien.
Can you imagine both sarcophagi Mitterand or Chirac donning the same? Mais, non!
Go, Sarko!
Absolutement rien.
Can you imagine both sarcophagi Mitterand or Chirac donning the same? Mais, non!
Go, Sarko!
I'm having a heart attack
Call 911. They are putting a Starbucks across the street. On the corner of Houston and West Broadway.
I am seriously hyperventilating. This is the beginning of the end.
Middle Enchiladita and her husband, who are in town from DF, fail to see the harrowing implications of such a development. They look at me as if I was totally deranged.
I suffered in semi-silence when Subway, the sandwich chain arrived (2 in a one block radius). I kvetched to no end when Kim's Video materialized into a Duane Reade. I'm looking at the new Pinkberry on Bleecker St. with deep distrust. I rue the day that my Price Wise Pharmacy became a stupid North Fork Bank. And now this. This is pathetic. It's the last straw.
I am seriously hyperventilating. This is the beginning of the end.
Middle Enchiladita and her husband, who are in town from DF, fail to see the harrowing implications of such a development. They look at me as if I was totally deranged.
I suffered in semi-silence when Subway, the sandwich chain arrived (2 in a one block radius). I kvetched to no end when Kim's Video materialized into a Duane Reade. I'm looking at the new Pinkberry on Bleecker St. with deep distrust. I rue the day that my Price Wise Pharmacy became a stupid North Fork Bank. And now this. This is pathetic. It's the last straw.
Headline
I loved the headline of The New York Post today, a paper I usually loathe:
The Evil Has Landed.
Exactly.
The Evil Has Landed.
Exactly.
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