I’ve seen others recently, but the two I saw today are a Capital One commercial and a Progressive commercial.
In the first, the Capital One guy is talking to a couple of people. He is asked what he does for fun, and he does not know what to say. Then, they cut to him getting ready to sleep at the bank.
Another is the Progressive commercial where Flo talks with another woman about vacations. The other woman doesn’t seem to know what a vacation is. Flo begins describing what one is. In the end, she says she doesn’t really know, gives up, and says she’s never been on one either.
I was thinking about them while driving and came to the title thought.
The commercials on the in-seat entertainment on Singapore Airlines are insane.
Three in a row with exactly the same moral: if you don’t make your kids multi-millionaires, you are a failure and you will die forgotten with a worthless legacy. It doesn’t matter if you’ve already got enough money to live comfortably, you need a lot more. Invest for the future by buying this fucking wristwatch.
The other common theme is that the adult children in each of the adverts all look like the worst fucking slicked-back-hair entitled assholes you’d ever meet.
Not just commercials, TV shows, too.
Last season, The Rookie had an episode where a rookie trainee cop, who was living in his car, got an offer from his best friend in college, a successful NFL quarterback, to be his head of security. He’d live in the guys mansion, and get paid about 4x what he was making as a cop.
All of his cop friends talked him out of it because " you wouldn’t be living your life, you’d be living his."
Yeah, what’s wrong with that? Your life sucks, you’re working full time at a dangerous job, and you can’t afford to live anywhere but your car. Why wouldn’t you rather live your friend’s life?
Of course, he gets talked into staying a cop and living in his car, because that was the more honorable choice, somehow.
They also try to promote a positive image of “work-life blend” in order to try and spark people’s enthusiasm for working pretty much 24/7.
As in, “work-life balance is a bad concept because it makes work look evil. Let’s put work into all aspects of life, make you live and breathe work, then you won’t think about it”
it sorta of does, and its also propaganda in a way too, makes you think a certain way to buy something, and get distracted at more important things. thats why commercials for sports, Shows(especial -AGANDA) shows.
I’m guessing this is an American problem? Cause commercials in Norway is more about what chocolate to bring on a hike, what chocolate brand is made both for enjoyment and to repell trolls, and that you won’t be able to enjoy your weekend without Kim’s chips.
How depressing.
They heard that Millennials and Gen Z like fatalistic humor and decided to try and cash in on it. But, like… it’s not fun when it’s a corporation saying “Ha ha, you’ll never retire.”
I’ve seen some of those while out and about. In the first place I have a long gap, often months, between seeing commercials (and thanks to Lemmy for being part of what makes that possible). It feels like they are advertising the high that comes from sleep deprivation. That’s not being locked in, it’s killing yourself.
Did you see those LinkedIn commercials from a couple years ago that were about children looking for jobs on the site, talking about “getting a headstart” or some shit?
Forget commmercials. Most people I know/met lately seem to think anyone who isn’t working 60-80 hour weeks is a ‘loser’.
working 30-40 hours now is considered ‘lazy’.
Their breath smells of boot
I think it’s fine to work 60-80 hours a week if you’re in a place in your life where you don’t have anyone to go home to and you can actually make more money off it (either as a contractor with an hourly rate, or a business owner). Not for long though, because it gets lonely.
Most people shouldn’t work more than 40 though. Definitely if you have a family, go home and spend time with them. There’s a saying in my language that translates to “work doesn’t run away from you”, as in, there will always be more work to do, but your toddler won’t always be a toddler.
You probably can’t change their mind, but you can remember that their opinion doesn’t define you. And also you have just as much power over them (that which they grant you), which you can use to try to instill in them a sense of living their own life instead of working for the glory of the Corpos.
Not by me! I work my 40 and the rest goes my family. I’m lucky I can get by with 40.
Met a vet doc that disparaged a vet that leaves at 5: “8-5 and then she’s gone. Nobody wants to work any more”
Who the fuck ever wanted to work in the first place. Bitch, we have to work.
Infuriating. The point of advancing society and dividing labor into specialties is so that we can create more for our world than if each of us tried to a little bit of everything (farming, crafting, medicine, etc.) beyond the small amounts we choose for joy or satisfaction. And then with that, we get to have more free time, because we actually only need so much to make our society work and improve at a reasonable pace.
The people who think we all need to bust our asses got hoodwinked by the ownership class into producing even more for their overlords.
The first one at least seems to think people want the people who do work for them to not have a life. Indicates they think their customers have no empathy or class solidarity; which is probably mostly true. We use a lot of products that involve slave labor or something close to it.
most upper middle class professionals I have met in my life do not have lives other than work. they take their 2-3 weeks off on expensive international vacations, but have no hobbies and their social life is just drinks with co-workers. Work is their religion, their family, and their entire identity. Your job is who you are and there can be no separation from it.
even if they do have a hobby it’s only viewed as valuable in terms of productivity. like working out for more energy/health so you can be a more productive worker. or reading non-fiction to improve your work productivity/knowledge, etc.
they ‘have it all’ but yet they are deeply unfulfilled and unsatisfied with their lives and think more work and promotions is what is going to fill the hole.
i just went out with a woman this weekend who is a head pharma research scientist. asked her what she does in free time/hobbies and her response was “i don’t have time for enjoying life.” and she was really proud of this and started condescending to me because I actually enjoy life.
yea i noticed that too, i was in JD recently and most of the potential jurors, were programmers, engineers. they mostly had very motonous lives, yes they were all sorta of forced to explain thier lives to seek out potential biases or if your making up a bias to get of JD(we spent several days listening to thier lives and bias), oh i this and this but i do. you know these People have shit ton of free time, because alot of them were chosen to be on the jurors, most of them are probably working from home anyways. and was reaffirmed on a jurty duty forum.
i had like 2 brothers in tech, and they are practically this, at least before the layoffs, had thier hours spent on the jobs, then randomly go an international vacation, but no other hobbies, and they do workout and listening to roegan. and he thinks his free time is chastising the rest of the family for whatever problems, inadequecies they have.
i assume she earns more than you? its almost always comparing incomes to you or oanother person, and then make judgemental comments how come you are so much poorer, you can go do this and this to get rich.
or its a wierd ego thing, about im a PHD/MD, and you dont have a degree.
I had the exact same thought. I get the intent, it’s a “hello fellow kids, we understand you!” but the fact that there are so many people in that situation to make it relatable is already depressing enough without making it sound like it’s the normal everyone should just accept.
That isn’t even the message, the message is “our workers don’t have lives because they are so dedicated”.
Its not something to accept, but aspire to.
I was relieved during the early stages of the pandemic when I stopped seeing the sick? Take drugs and go to work! advertisements around, but we’re back there now
What!?! Where was that a thing? Who would pay for that? Who would even want to be associated with that message?
Probably the company making the drugs lol
“Got the flu? Pissing out your ass? Take some fucking DayQuil™ you lazy whore, get back to work.”
The cold medicine commercials are big on going to work while ill. If you can’t sleep because you’re sick as fuck, please don’t come to work and pass it to the rest of us!
If you can’t sleep because you’re sick as fuck, please don’t come to work and pass it to the rest of us!
Someone should tell my boss
Then please give sick pay to EVERY job. My options while I’m sick? Go to work, or be homeless.
My job offers time off. Its 1 bucket of time off. If you want more time off, you have to work more OT to “offset” it
Over here in Germany there’s no sick pay when you’re self employed, but there is (by law) when you are an employee.
I had been self employed from my 20s to 50s and am an employee for 6 years now.
I was in hospital last week to get my back fixed and am on sick leave for 4-6 weeks now. It’s still fucking amazing to me, that I can heal up now and will still get my payment into my account end of the month.
Having things like that written into law is amazing.
Must be nice…
coughs up a bloody lung diseased with covid
'Scuse me while I go work my job assisting the elderly and disabled.
Ah fuck I hate that, when people go to work sick and infect everyone else. (Yes I understand you need to, and it’s not your fault. So I hate your boss.)
The history is interesting, we got health insurance and paid leave in the 1880s from Bismarck. He was trying to appease workers so they won’t flock to the socialist or social democrat parties which were booming at that time. At the same time Bismarck outlawed left wing parties. (It was a stick and carrot approach).
In 1969 we had a bipartisan left - right government (“great coalition”) and they put up to 6 weeks of paid sick leave into. law.
I’ll be sure to do that the next time i’m making these decisions.
But if the virus doesn’t spread the medicine company can’t continue to sell sell sell!
God in three persons, that’s bleak.
🎵 SOLDIER ON WITH CODRAL SOLDIER ON SOLDIER ON! 🎶
Legalize cocaine so I can free base some crack before work and I’ll be ready for anything (like getting fired).
I just saw a new one from the NyQuil company last night that they’re now making pain quill? So now they’ll sell you what I believe is just liquid ibuprofen and liquid cold meds so you can go to work even with that awful headache from being sick
There was one cellphone company advertising WFH, as work from highway. I vomited in my mouth a little to think that companies would absolutely try and make my commute more “productive” rather than let me work from home.
There was a story a couple of years ago about corporations trying to get people to work unpaid hours while working from home. The logic, such as it was, went like this: if you live an hour’s commute away from work and you work an 8-hour day, then you’re actually spending 10 hours of your day dedicated to work because the travel time isn’t time you get to do whatever you want in. Therefore, since you’re used to work taking up 10 hours of your time, you should also spend 10 hours working while working from home.
It’s astonishing, really.
We’ll work towards that, I promise but let’s start with them paying for my commute and we’ll go from there.
They got so close…
No way would they want to compensate people for their commute. Externalize costs, internalize profits.
Me: Oh, I don’t have a personal driver. I need to focus on the road. I don’t even put the radio on. Do you have ANY idea how many idiots are out there on the road looking at their phones, driving into oncoming traffic? You know they did a study and found that drivers who text and drive are actually 3x more dangerous than drunk drivers? It makes sense though. A drunk driver sees the road, but reacts late. A distracted driver isn’t even looking. So I gotta watch the road at all times! I even carry a shotgun in the drivers seat just to shoot out their tires. Yeah! That wakes them the fuck up. Once you disable a tire, it’s stupidly easy to perform a pitt manuever. Then when they spin out, you pull the driver out of their car at gunpoint, hogtie them with zipties. Load them into the back of your van, and then tickle their feet until they agree to never drive distracted again. Really hammer home the point that is why this is happening to them. Some people use a horn, I use a feather. It’s so absurd that they never do it again.
Wait, I got off track. What were we talking about? Oh, right. You want me to start being a distracted driver on my way to work! You wait right here, I’ll be right back with a shotgun, a few dozen zip ties, and a feather. Be right back!
Cue the helicopter mom turning right in her SUV, not noticing the crosswalk while furiously texting.
At least her own kids are safe in that tank.
A Brad Pitt maneuver?
The propaganda goes deep. Listen to country song lyrics, and what they are actually saying, convincing working class people to keep working, and buy alcohol, and not question reality.
Somehow I’m not surprised that the music genre attributable to poor rural white folk is heavy on boot licking, especially considering how many voted for Trump.
Country music is just as commercial as any other music these days. Nashville is a machine that pumps out corporate friendly garbage.
It’s striking how much better country was when they had class consciousness
Edit: no pun intended
Well you had songs like Sixteen Tons, what else am I missing?
Oh, so many! Check out Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. Sixteen tons was written by Merle Travis, who’s got a bunch of other great music as well.
were those country (was that even a genre back then idk) or “folk”? I mean i think of the Guthries as folk musicians now, but i missed their heyday.
Tbh, I think they started early enough that it all still fell under the same umbrella, but folk, bluegrass and country gradually diverged between the 40-60s
i should ask my brother he plays “americana not country” whatever that means.
Tyler Childers gets it. You just gotta stay away from the shit that airs on the radio.
As recently as the 90s you had mainstream country acts releasing songs like “Pass it on Down” and “We Shall Be Free”
And they got a ton of play on the radio. The former hit number 3 on the billboard country charts. The latter hit number 12 on the country charts.
Then again, the lackluster performance of “We Shall Be Free,” particularly considering the megastardom of Garth Brooks at the time, was due to some stations boycotting it for the line “when we’re free to love anyone we choose.”
But even then, there wasn’t a massive company that owned most of the radio dial back then, so boycotts had limited influence.
as an amateur musician, #12 does not feel lackluster. #100 feels like a life goal.
It’s low for Garth Brooks in the 90’s, but I get what you’re saying.
the height of my musical career was either getting paid in tacos instead of money or getting paid in spaghetti instead of money.
i’m not complaining, i fucking love tacos. and spaghetti (though i’m more partial to cavatappi) i’m just trying to give a sense of what skill level amateur musician i am.
I don’t think it’s propaganda. The music and the ads too are just trying to do a “fellow kids” move, and that’s what they’re seeing. Because that’s what we’ve become.
It’s like seeing a mirror and getting spooked by how disheveled the person in it looks.
It’s like seeing a mirror and getting spooked by how disheveled the person in it looks.
Don’t judge me! I turned the camera app on, and didn’t realize it was going to start with the front facing camera! I got spooked!
And drive their trucks on the highway
