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| The Sunday Scoop Edition #6 Mother Nature plays with Barbies. Argh! What is it with mixing little kids and electrical appliances? I�m telling you, it doesn�t work in any way, except for the �that�s so unbelievable that it�s almost cute� way. Apart from that, it�s just plain annoying and doesn�t inspire me to do anything other than throw cushions at the TV � and the sooner the advertising executives realize this, the sooner I can stop wishing that little Jimmy would get his hand stuck in the lint filter. By now you�re probably listing all of the appliance ads with little kids in them, trying to figure out which one I�m nuttering on about. I�ll save you the trouble � Panasonic�s Reverse Cycle Air Conditioner. Here we�re introduced to another one of those loving families, who live in a nice house with white furniture that never gets dirty. Podgy-looking, all-around nice guy Dad sits on his sparkling couch, reading whatever it is that�s trying to make him look intellectual, while the blonde, kewpie-doll, rug rat daughter sits at his feet and plays with her knock-off Barbie doll. Ok, so there�s really nothing unusually stupid here � except for the whole �clean, white couch� thing, but you must have patience � Stupidity will eventually rear its googly-eyed head (yes, that�s right � googly-eyed. Can�t you just picture Stupidity with googly eyes?). Sure enough, within the first 10 seconds the ad plummets from mediocre to ridiculous. The supposedly adorable daughter (who has the biggest cheeseburger-cheeks I have ever seen) starts talking to her doll, Trudy (what kid names their doll Trudy?). Anyway, she decides that Trudy needs some sun in her plastic-coated life and that they�re going to pretend to go somewhere tropical. Except that imagination just isn�t enough for this kid, she wants to feel the heat, hence the need for this fantabulous air conditioner. So Cheeseburger-Cheeks (aka CC) raises the remote control in her pudgy little hand and turns up the heat, while Dad just sits there in silence and gets sweaty. Ok, firstly, who would let their kid play with the air-conditioner? Secondly, who would sit there and bake for absolutely no reason? Stupidity was having a field day with this ad. Then after everyone is a comfortable shade of red, CC decides that Trudy needs to cool down in the Antarctic, so the pudgy hand is raised again and the temperature reaches sub-zero levels. Once again, Dad is mute to the sudden change and just shivers in silence (maybe little CC has something on him and is threatening to tell Mum. Oh, the tangled web that children weave). But no, it turns out that Dad is just one of those loving guys who likes to see his children have fun at his own expense � well, to a certain extent. When CC decides that it�s time for Trudy to go to the Sahara Desert, Dad finally gets his act together and snatches the remote with a reprimanding smile before those little sausage fingers can make a move. Then in true style of a crappy ad, the voice-over man concludes by saying, �With Panasonic�s Reverse Cycle Air Conditioner, you play Mother Nature�. Uh-huh, because that�s what everyone wants � the power of the elements to be in the hands of a child. Oh, and since when did Mother Nature play with Barbies anyway? Sarah Taylor, Professional smart-ass. |