Maybe it is apathy
Not really a deep post, but I'm putting it out there anyway.
I am curious what people think about the fact that this ad was still airing as of last night? I caught it during the Daily Show, but I assume it was running other places as well.
Is it healthy that we aren't concerned with the trivial in our response to the threat of terrorism, or are we really lulling ourselves into complacency?
(For those without the ability or patience to watch the video, the ad is one of Sierra Mist's Super Bowl spots from last year that features Kathy Griffen as an airport screener who keeps making buzzing noises as she wands over Michael Ian Black's bottle of Sierra Mist at a security checkpoint)
I am curious what people think about the fact that this ad was still airing as of last night? I caught it during the Daily Show, but I assume it was running other places as well.
Is it healthy that we aren't concerned with the trivial in our response to the threat of terrorism, or are we really lulling ourselves into complacency?
(For those without the ability or patience to watch the video, the ad is one of Sierra Mist's Super Bowl spots from last year that features Kathy Griffen as an airport screener who keeps making buzzing noises as she wands over Michael Ian Black's bottle of Sierra Mist at a security checkpoint)
posted by Patrick at 7:48 AM
2 Comments:
Isn't it interesting that Madison Avenue's popular culture is pretty much the only venue that Americans have where we can play out our anxieties about personal safety in the aftermath of 9/11? Where we can deal with our uncertainty in a humorous way? Where we can see someone express, with impunity, the basically non-PC ideas about airport security that we all secretly share? (What ARE they going to do with all that hair gel???)
As a nation, we had our moment of being hyperreactionary ("freedom fries," anyone?), but now that's over, thank goodness.
But I don't think anyone is apathetic. I just think that we (as a nation, but especially as residents of high-risk areas) don't have a place for our concerns to go.
We occasionally get the small catharsis of humor (like the ad you mentioned), but where you see that and ask, "too soon?" I say, "not even soon enough!" The woman who had to drop her La Mer face cream in a bin is probably not going to laugh about it for a while, but the guy who had to unload his Gatorade and Speed Stick will probably get a chuckle out of this ad.
I am a firm believer that laughter can keep one sane, especially in uncertain times.
the times are only uncertain because one wills it so! these threats have always existed, from pan am 103 to oklahoma city bombings; there have always been issues which have made people angry and reactionary. and unless we have a definitive way of solving that anger there is nothing we can do short of killing everyone to stopping them from doing that to us.
i am no less safe than i was 10 years ago. before the taleban it was the libyans. before them it was the soviets. in 5 years it will be the north koreans, or china, or conservatives, or a host of any other people who could conceivably have gripes with the power structures. we just reap the karma of the seeds of violence we sow, and since we've been in this business a long time, i expect as long as we refuse to be more humble in the global sphere then we'll continue to reap the bitter rewards.
the inability to bring liquids on board does nothing, because those that are angry enough will find ways of performing their continued goal of making people afraid.
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