Sad But True

An email is going around that includes a collection of what we are told are authentic vintage advertisements that are terrifyingly wrong. Everyone thinks they are funny, these old ads. I doubt this one is real. It's probably something a bored in-house designer put together late one afternoon when his or her boss was making a presentation and it was too early to go home.

Still, it makes me think of advertising we see today and wonder which ads are selling us things that will eventually kill us, maim us or make a lawyer and a plaintiff wealthy. It's happened before. Cigarette girls once handed our free packs of cigs at the art openings in the museum here!! I wonder if they were allowed to smoke them in the museum? Phillip Morris is a big art US art patron so you never know...

I taught advertising at the university level for many years and have tried to focus on selling things I could market without compromising my values... (ok, well, I did sell some mighty bad art back in the day when I worked on commission in the French Quarter) but OTHERWISE it isn't something I lose sleep over at night. Money just isn't enough for me and I have persisted in the luxury of living life as I see fit. Its a costly endeavor, not making money. I've learned that people with money are never expected to pay! Has it always been this way or just something made fashionable since the Republicans are running things?

Will cell phones be proven to be the cause of brain cancer? Depression, high blood pressure and heart attacks are on the rise since Bush was elected.We already know that plastic containers are contaminating the food chain and our fatty tissues due to so much bottled water and the misuse of microwaves. I read somewhere that microwaves are banned in Germany because they are considered to be unsafe. Does anyone know if this is correct? If so, well, another black mark on the risk side of the score card. As the husband of a favorite colleague said recently; on finding out a friend of ours has cancer: "we're all just sitting ducks."

Live each day as if it's your last since that's all we really have to go on. The rest is just a story or an ad trying to manipulate our motives and trick us from living our lives. Our housekeeper Ella Mae revealed this secret to me back in 68 or so but I didn't believe her. She was way ahead of the game, but that's another post for another day. If I seem glum I am not. I have a greater respect for cancer than the medical and advertising professions. It's a dilemma.