Skip to main content

Quikker Pikker Upper

So goes the jingle for the thirsty paper towel made by a stateside consumer product company. Pretty effective product I must admit being a loyal customer for many a years to scoop liquids and spills and keep the counters clean.

The advertising for said product however left me exasperated. It shows a young family with kids bouncing around the place like they had extra sugar before bed time and are now all ready to expend the calories on the household as it gets ready for a snack.

Here comes an attempt to bake followed by some fooling around with large liquid containers designed to tip at a sneeze. Add bouncy kids with toys and sloppy hands it is ideal setup for the paper towel to come swooping in and clean up the mess.

The inevitable occurs allowing for the eargerly expectant mother in this ad to jump in with her trusty paper towels. What throws me of is a couple of things that are portrayed as being 'American family business as usual'. 1. One can be careless around the house because we have plenty of everything 2. Everything also includes these wonderful paper products that can clean the surface in a matter of seconds and do it well. 3. The mother is either too lazy or stupid to not teach good housekeeping to its offspring and seems almost eager in anticipation of the next spill with her idiotic grin all the time wanting to mop the spills that its family decides to introduce to a normal routine.

The father of the household is shown later in the ad to appreciatively acknowledge what a fine job the mom has done in her jumping in with the paper towel.

What a bunch of nitwits.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Presumptive Society

Today's world is hyper connected.  I am not so sure what it means but you hear it a lot.  It is probably hyper but not sure how connected it is.  Sugar (fermented or not) is available in many ways than before and so getting hyper is easy.  It is probably more a threat than cocaine since it is sold legally. And what is this connected stuff?  Most people I encounter seem disconnected from reality.  So going back to this assumption that we are connected there are subtle and no so subtle instances of how brands and companies and middle men try to portray someone - A linkedin profile for somebody working for X years at a place advertises to the connected network that so and so is CELEBRATING X years @ Such and Such Inc. Do we know if (s)he is celebrating or cringing?  Perhaps a better way to portray will be - So and So LASTED X years @ such & such inc. Then it exhorts the readership to go ahead and congratulate them for this lasting effe...

Of Jims and Johns

Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...

On the go(zay masta) in Japan again

Cool cat the Japanese are Tokyo at dusk  My second visit to this land of the rising sun after almost a decade. Back then clearly I was wet behind the ears product manager and likely didn’t pay attention to all (efficient) things Japanese. But today I did and of course continue to be impressed. It is as much the obvious stuff like on time travel that is both clean and comfortable and all that which makes it possible. The impressive landmark and landscapes that these humans have put together despite their cramped (or because of it) surroundings and precarious geological conditions could amaze a novice architect among us. But it’s also the little things that someone had to think about which have a phenomenal impact on day to day lives that make the Japanese stand apart. Below are few random examples- 1. Providing a very fine machined wooden toothpick in every packet of wooden chopsticks. The said chapsticks are simply set on the To Go counter of any food vendor/ convenience store wher...