At the Wii/Super Bowl Party yesterday, most of the people could have cared less for the football and more for the deer chili con quesodip being served. But mostly, the crowd was there for the commercials and Prince half-time show. Anyone else who sat through the rainstorm in Miami can agree, Prince rocked. The commercials, not so much.
Oddly, I was telling people about how All State was still allowed to sponsor the BCS Championship Game post-Katrina, even though they shafted everyone within a 100 mile radius of New Orleans. While discussion ensued during lackluster commercials spots, I found a new fury which shows just how disconnected our corporate overlords have become.
Anyone else see General Motors 'Robot' ad and feel the same disgust as I did? See the heartless ad here: http://www.gm.com/
At a time when GM is cutting 25,000 jobs, they decided it was in their best interest to show the story of a robot. But not just any robot, a robot who loses it job due to efficiency. The robot then finds itself in a string of demeaning, even for K-Fed, series of jobs that tailspins to it being lost in the shuffle of the corporate fast food industry safety net. Robotic depression ensues, much like in real life.
Finally, the robot, unhappy with its life post-GM, after its string of dead end jobs, finds itself contemplating a jump off a bridge to end it all, down into the waiting arms of a swirling river right out of "It's a Wonderful Life." When the robot sees a series of new GM cars and trucks rolling across the bridge, it leaps, deciding to end the pain. Falling, falling, to the sweet eternal sleep of death, because without a good job, the robot felt it had become worthless.
Now, imagine the entire lot of auto industry workers, 25,000 of whom will soon be in the same spot as this robot via GM itself, watching this commercial. Countless more in Michigan and other locales have already lost their job to such robots, and I am sure schadenfreude is the last thing on their minds.
No, they saw their lives mimicked and mocked in this robot's quest for work reflect their own journey to a land of severely less paying service industry job. They will connect with the hopelessness captured by the robot, a hopelessness that is post-manufacturing in America's heartland. And they might even throw a can of beer at the TV in disgust over how disconnected the fat cat board members of GM who approved this ad have become.
Because if GM thinks it is Super Bowl worthy to show a robot off itself because it has become useless to corporate America, how must they feel about the actual humans in the same boat? Much less the same car.
Update: Okay, those sick puppies at GM have decided this is a major rebranding push, so go go, enjoy their video at : http://www.gm.com/
This heartless bastards have the video on their front page.
Updateded, Sad Texas News:
Percentage of Uninsured Children - 1st
* Income Inequality Between the Rich and the Poor - 2nd
* Percentage of Population without Health Insurance - 1st
* Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) Scores - 47th
* Percentage of Population over 25 with a High School Diploma - 50th
* Percentage of Non-Elderly Women with Health Insurance - 50th
* Rate of Women Aged 40+ Who Receive Mammograms - 44th
* Rate of Women Aged 18+ Who Receive Pap Smears - 47th
* Cervical Cancer Rate - 5th
* Women's Voter Registration - 43rd
* Women's Voter Turnout - 49th
* Percentage of Eligible Voters that Vote - 44th
http://shapleigh.org/...