Have you been born again?

I have literally laughed out loud for several minutes now at this particular advertisement.  First of all, I just thought it was funny to have used such an iconic painting with several deep meanings to do something as mundane as pushing the elevator button.  Secondly, the elevator takes you up to a Plastic Surgeon's office with a caption that reads, "Be Born Again."  Well, I think that is ingenious.  It precisely and effectively gives the impression of a doctor who has the confidence that he can shape you into the image you would have given yourself if you were god.

Most of my blogs go on for paragraph after wordy paragraph, but I think the advertisement speaks for itself here.  Basically, the world will never stop trying to improve how we look or at least be overly conscious of our looks.  We can talk all we want about how wrong it is for stereotypes to manipulate the way we perceive our bodies but honestly... are we really going to stop?  I want to go to this doctor and have work done myself.  I love my dad, but I'm going to start looking like him in another 20 years and that won't work for me.  I can't wait to make enough money to start having things fixed.  And I honestly don't think that will ever change.

Centuries from now, if someone comes across this ad, they will probably think it's funny and use it and everyone will say how clever he was--and of course he'll take the credit--and I don't think I would blame him one bit.

Smoke On The Water

Smoke On The Water is one of those iconic songs released in early 1972.  It refers to the events of the band repeatedly trying to find a place for making music and both times, the venue was destroyed by fire, hence seeing smoke seemingly rise from a water front.  The lyrics do not state wether this was a fictional sequence of events or if they were based on actual experiences of the members, but the intent is there... don't burn bridges before you cross them.  Or maybe a more accurate conceptualization would be, no matter what comes your way, don't let it interfere with your art.  Then there is the possibility that it was the 70's, it could simply mean, don't let your pot head friends set off flare guns in closed buildings.  Regardless, the end result is the same:  you have to be aware of how your actions resonate into the future.

Foreshadowing if difficult at best.  Many decisions in life are lain with the best of intentions, but may cause catastrophic effects.  The bottled water industry could arguably be one the greatest example of such an instance.  Most people love the convenience of a bottled water stuck in a purse, backpack or side pocket of your car for later.  There have been many times in my life when an allergy pill and a bottle of Ozarka have made the difference between a good day and a really bad day for me.  But what is the consequence of our creature comfort?

Millions of bottles fill our landfills.  The resources to manufacture and transport water tax our ecosystem in an extreme way.  I would love to see a report on the fuel usage just to distribute the various brands of water around the world.  I think the total would be staggering.  The electricity that is used by dozens of plants purifying the water to be bottled would also be astounding, I'm sure.  Then you must consider the fuel and energy dispersed to remove the trash from our homes, sort, redistribute to landfills, and then pushed around by trucks and tractors into their designated areas.  If anyone reading this has ever driven by a landfill on a hot summer day (like Lewisville, Texas at 100 plus degrees outside), you can attest to how terrible it is to live near a landfill.  The stench of a steamy, smelly, sun scorched pile of garbage stretched over 400000 square feet... not pretty.  

A clear alternative is to drink tap or filtered water.  Find some rockin reusable bottle at your favorite super-center and drink away.  Also, supporting alternate means of supplying filtered water is a must.  Some college campuses, Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, for example, has dozens of water dispensers installed by a filtered water company and the water is purified inside a unit that looks like a regular water fountain.  By supplying their students with resources to fill their own bottles, the students have almost stopped purchasing bottles all together.  It is no cost to the students and the water is completely pure (according to the manufacturer).  And lets face it... if my doctor tells me to drink two quarts of water a day, I think I can find better things to do with nearly ten dollars besides giving it to the coke company.

So, we can have purified water easily accessible with the proper supplies.  We can have less garbage in our landfills.  We can eliminate pointless waste of natural fuels by less mass transportation.  My foreshadowing feels like this is a no-brainer.  In Poland, 2009, a new Guinness World Record was set for the largest mass participation of a guitar solo in which 6,346 people played the rift from "Smoke On The Water" at the same time.  Maybe if Deep Purple had some foreshadowing of this occurrence, they might have disbanded in 1971.

Fattie, fattie, 2X4

Now there is a controversial ad if I've ever seen one.  Let's discuss some of the various points of view at work:  One could say that it's not the meat that is bad for kids... it's the processed, fried meat that is bad for kids.  Another would agree with the photo.  Someone else would say that fat is simply hereditary.  Where do we think the truth lies?

I have many friends in the veg world, I was one of them for many years and loved being vegan.  Two of my closest friends are raising their kid vegetarian and he's the healthiest, most energetic kid I've ever known.  Plus, one of the skinniest times of my life was when I was vegan--but it isn't necessarily true for all because I have many heavy friends who are veg also.  I tried to make healthy decisions for every meal and be vegan at the same time, but it's not true for everyone.  It isn't cheap or easy to not eat animal products (especially in the great state of Texas).  Furthermore, eating healthy is making healthy decisions (i.e. being "veg" doesn't mean you get to eat brownies and mozz sticks all day, unfortunately).  A veg quesadillia could have upwards of 1200 calories where a 5oz sirlion and side of brocolli could have between 700-800 calories...which is really better?  Allowing an advertisement to suggest that going veg will fight obesity is a falsehood.

The bottom line is that there are multiple sides to every story.  I believe we need ads like these and ads like the cattle ranchers would put up portraying the benefits of beef.  Both are important because they push the envelope to each end of the spectrum so that the rest of us can fall into the middle category and be happy, healthy partakers of whatever we desire.  But don't blame your weight on cows--they're vegetarian too.

Assignment #2... fat barbie

fat barbie ad

So, I know we have already touched on the ramifications of societal views regarding self-image, but I felt the need to readdress the issue with this article.  Also, as the author of my own article, I must understand that for every individual on the planet, there is a separate opinion on weight issues--it's not as simple as a two sided or four sided argument.  To say that we have discussed the issue in class is to say that pouring a bottle of Fiji in the ocean is working to purify our planets water.  If you haven't opened the link yet, please take a second to do so.  I would have posted the pic directly into this article, but the link was the best I could do (BTW... I accidentally typed "oink" instead of "link" and even though it is the antithesis of what I'm trying to say, it made me giggle a lot).

I previously saw an episode of Oprah where they were discussing the effects of the internet on young girls with eating disorders.  A specialist on the show was saying that the web sites they visited headed banners that proclaimed, "Skinny Feels Better Than Food Tastes" and "When I Feel Hollow, I Feel Whole" among other mantras that encourage young girls, in particular, to continue on their journey to become anorexic.  Let me note that I do not recommend visiting those articles or sites because, according to a guest of the show, they are usually monitored by authorities to intercede for youth in trouble.

This ad depicts the opposite of that broadcast by helping show women that they can be happy in their bodies however they are built and it seems to encourage them to shop in this mainstream retail front, yet we have now banned the ad from running.

This mixed message that is being sent out is likely a source for the confusion and pressure put on our youth about weight issues.  There is constant barrage of conflicting ideas that hammer at our society and reinforce our stigmas and insecurities.

My family has a big issue with weight (OK, that pun was somewhat intended), so I can empathise with people battling this issue.  In my own life I have been everything from a 29 inch waist to a 38 and back to a 32 inch waist within a 2 year time frame.  The need to be healthy is a far and distant afterthought amidst the struggle to be accepted as an individual.  When do we stop the fight to be popular?  When do we stop picking at each other over looks and start joining together as a race that prefers people to be fit, not thin?  There is a battle against depression, obesity, anorexia, and many other compulsions... but is the battle waged because we want to be healthy as a society or because we want the popular girl in class to finally be nice to me?  Will our descendants revere us as the turning point when humans evolved into the healthy, improved us, or will we just blend into part of the problem?

We ask each other, "Why is this such a big debate?" or "why does Texas have the highest obesity rate in the world?", but our media hammers these issues into our brains at a very young age.  And aside from the media (personally, I didn't watch TV growing up), too many times food is no longer a means to sustain ourselves, but replaces emotional losses within our psyches.  How many millions of weigh issues stem from split homes or child abuse; maybe drug abuse, or maybe it's the anorexic girl who is already popular? When did the shift occur from "hunters and gatherers" into tee shirts that say "Hand over the chocolate and nobody gets hurt"?

Could it be that the media is just doing what most business owners do best?  They cater to their audience.  Maybe instead of fixing the advertisers who are just trying to make a paycheck, we need to examine our internal issues first and let the media cater to the new improved us.