Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The grin that stole Christmas.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the type to go blithely skipping down Primrose lane. My general cast is one of pessimism and gloom, not happiness and song. Be that as it may, what's going on in advertising and the rest of the world today is down-right ridiculous.

The grins began assaulting me on early Sunday morning when I cracked open the ad laden first section of the Times. It looked like some rogue In Design Terrorist had retouched Macy's Day balloon-sized smiles on otherwise anorexic models. We've all heard the phrase "she was grinning from ear-to-ear," but these women were literally grinning from ear-to-ear. Maybe it was their botox, maybe their orthodontic protheses, maybe some high-octane prozac derivative, but no one could possibly be that happy.

Of course the newsreaders on our local news shows might be even worse. They at least are meant of have a patina of seriousness. But no. They are all grinning like demons on laughing gas. "Another gangland style murder on the Grand Consourse, Ernie" tee hee.

Neil Postman warned us almost 25 years ago about how we're "Amusing Ourselves to Death."

We were too busy grinning to pay attention.

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