Little man is either teething or hitting a growth spurt but either way he’s nursing non stop which leaves me either watching tv, reading a book, or trying to play video games one handed. I’ve come to be really annoyed with commercial television however. Now I like marketing to a degree, it was always one of my favorite aspects of working in retail positions, when I was given some creative leeway over how to arrange products. There are some really cute commercials out there, some even bordering on genius use of advertising techniques, but there are some now that are so stupid that they just grate on me every time they come on.

My first candidate- Dunkin Donuts. Their new campaign- order in English, and then go on to talk about their hot fresh latte. Um where did the word latte come from?

Next off- medicine ads. Now I do think the consumer has a right to know what medicines are out there and be able to research them thoroughly. But have you seen the side effects on some of these bad boys? A fibromyalgia medicine whose side effects are largely exacerbated symptoms of fibromyalgia (so it makes it worse?). A bi-polar disorder medicine whose side effects include permanent muscle spasms and death, psoriasis treatment that comes with viral skin rashes, eye drops for dry eye that may cause glaucoma, restless leg syndrome that causes ocd gambling.

When did we get so sick, and why do so many of our treatments seem worse thasn the original ailment?

Last up on my list- advertising aimed directly at children. I try to block as much as I can but sometimes we all like to watch a show together and commercials often come along with i. But when my three year old comes up and says “I want scrubbing bubbles for my bathroom, they’re cool!” it’s just gone a little too far.