All posts by Matthew Callan

Life In These United States, Seasonal Fare

Demean Yr Idols

I was stuck at a light this morning at the corner of Flushing and Bedford, right behind a minivan of generic American make. The minivan’s rear windshield was emblazoned with two stickers, right at the top of the glass, centered horizontally. They were both of roughly equal size and, based on their positioning, given roughly equal prominence by their owner.

To the left: Jesus Christ wearing a crown of thorns, rendered in silver and black

To the right: Faded Mickey Mouse, one of his arms partially torn.

He’s probably too nice to say it, but I think Jesus would be a little upset by that. And on his birthday, too!

He might also be a little upset by the windows I saw earlier, near the intersection of Flushing and Knickerbocker. The first floor apartment had two windows with messages written in that snowy tinsley stuff whose name I can’t recall.

Left window: MERRY XMAS!

Right window: HAIL SATAN!

Adtacular, The Funny

He Went to Jared!

GIRL 1: Ooh, Jen’s texting us from her big date.

GIRL 2: He brought her roses!

GIRL 1: That’s sweet! So anyway, my supervisor is such a bitch! She’s always giving me a hard time about…oh, it’s Jen again.

GIRL 2: Did something happen?

GIRL 1: No, she just wanted me to know that he took her to Chez Francois.

GIRL 2: That sounds like a made-up name for a French restaurant.

GIRL 1: Totally. So anyway, my supervisor…oh, for fuck’s sake, what now?!

GIRL 2: Just turn your phone off.

GIRL 1: You don’t know this broad. She will totally call me to make sure I got all of her riveting text messages. And then she’ll tell me the exact same things that are in her text messages. She’s nuts.

Continue reading He Went to Jared! →

Adtacular, Seasonal Fare

Corporate America Finally Gets It, Except When It Doesn’t

In case you hadn’t heard, the economy’s in the toilet. As such, this year’s holiday ads have taken quite a different tack than usual. Rather than pressure you to SPEND SPEND SPEND, most commercials emphasize the relative affordability of their product/service/store. Companies realize that many Americans are one paycheck away from wearing barrels with suspenders.

Even Lexus seems to understand this, which is amazing, since they could always be counted on to construct the most hateful Christmas ads every year. After all, any wealthy man can piss away money, but it takes a special kind of clueless plutocrat to spend an extra 30 grand on a Toyota because it has an L on the hood.

This year, their ads still feature The Red Bow. But rather than show entitled jerks surprising their spouses, they’ve decided to tap into The Childhood Wonder of Christmas. Their commercials show little kids, filmed in grainy old home movies style, explaining how nothing could ever top their best Christmas gift: Atari, Big Wheel, etc. And then it cuts to the kid, grown up, seeing his brand new Lexus in the driveway, his face lit up with a childlike glow.

Manipulative? Yeah. Exploitative? Definitely. Still, infinitely less douche-tastic than their usual holiday ads.

Plus, it features some classic toys that many viewers remember treasuring as children. They’re toys that lots of kids, regardless of background, spent thousands of hours with in their formative years.

In other words, these commercials do a much better job of tapping into universal holiday experiences. Few of us will wake up to a new car in the driveway on Christmas morning, but most of us know what it’s like to get one of these toys under the tree.

Of course, Lexus does tip their elitist hand in one of their commercials. Unfortunately, it’s the only one that features a girl/woman as gift recipient, which gives it an uncomfortably misogynistic feel. What is the little girl’s treasured childhood Christmas gift–a Barbie doll? An Easy-Bake Oven? A Light Brite? Nope, it’s a pony.

Continue reading Corporate America Finally Gets It, Except When It Doesn’t →