Here’s a one-minute video I’ve watched six times (so far) and don’t quite get…
A comment on our consumer society? An over-simplification of what makes us happy? No point at all? Like a lot of folks, I have a tendency to read things into things… ascribe meaning to the meaningless, if you will…when there may not be a point to be made, at all.
Still and even, this is a strange yet oddly compelling video. But maybe it’s just me. I AM easily amused, ya know. And Thank The Deity At Hand for that.
I saw it as an older guy longing for past happier days. Perhaps missing his wife and family.
ReplyDeleteI thought that, too, coz it kinda fits my current world-view... and that just might be The Point. But in the final scene he licks the ad and sticks it on the wall with hundreds of others. How does that fit in? Serious question, that... not just for effect.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it was the life he wished he 'd had. Or maybe it's just some artistic crap that someone thought up in the midst of some substance adventure and means nothing. Please don't post stuff like this, now I have a brain ache and the only known cure for a brain ache is fine single malt and/or some herb.
ReplyDeleteThe hundreds of pictures on the wall looked to me like envy. He can't be happy because he doesn't have everydangthing.
ReplyDeleteThe appearance of the children was...hmmm...I don't know...odd.
...the only known cure for a brain ache is fine single malt and/or some herb.
ReplyDeleteOr decent beer. Happy Hour has concluded (after three Trippels) and I'm sitting down to a meal of Hot Wings and yet MORE beer. Let us thank The Deity At Hand for choices!
By the way... there are over 2,000 comments on that vid at YouTube, and they make for some interesting reading.
Amy sez: The hundreds of pictures on the wall looked to me like envy. He can't be happy because he doesn't have everydangthing.
ReplyDeleteA great majority of the 2,000+ commenters at YouTube agree with you, Amy. And I do, too, after a lil bit of thought.
Ah yes, Hot wings and beer, all the food groups a man needs. I got a chance to enjoy them in the place they were invented, the Original Anchor Bar in Buffalo NY, back in the early 70's. Cool place. I was stationed at a radar site outside Lockport NY.
ReplyDeleteYou were VERY fortunate to be where you were, when you were, Dan (Frickin' world-class snowfalls aside)! FWIW... the absolute, no-contest, BEST wings I ever had was in Rochester, NY at a local bar called MacGregor's, specifically the Henrietta store (now closed, or so I hear).
ReplyDeleteOne of the prime reasons I bought the house I did while in Rochester was MacGregor's Perinton store was within walking distance of my house. And why did I love Macgregor's, aside from the wings? Check out the beer list... there's your answer. I may have been in a few bars that equal MacGregor's for choice... but not many. If any.
To me, it looks like an elderly guy who wanted a happy family life, which the washing machine advertisement represented. In his daydream, he imagines his younger self buying the machine, which seems to bring him his perfect family with no effort on his part - everything is neat and clean - but he never does anything concrete about it in real life. The idea of buying a machine to create a family might be a message against reliance on technology to solve basic human needs.
ReplyDeleteAt the end, we see all his past wishes stuck on the wall and we see that he looks sad because he realizes that it's too late to start his family. In other words, don't let life pass you by.
Also, there may be a message about the error of waiting for perfection, as represented by the "perfect family" in the advertisement. I'd guess that this probably warns against all advertisement. It's odd, though, because we don't see a guy with a room full of stuff - only a wall full of advertisements. Subtle, I guess.
Also, the storekeeper is creepily mercenary and I hope it isn't meant to be antisemitic.
And I don't talk like this in real life.
And Dan, you crack me up. :)
Yep, we think things will make us happy, but we're too lazy to get out and make it happen.
ReplyDeleteAh, Bec! Well said, Girl, and in keeping with the thrust of many of the comments I read at YouTube. I can count on you for an intelligent and perceptive interpretation on dang near anything I put up here. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteAnd you should meet Dan in real life, if you think he cracks you up in comments... He'd have you in stitches after a couple of brews and/or hours. Dan has that sardonic and oh-so-rare wit I prize in my fellow human beans.
Mushy: You, too, are spot-on. Well said!
(sigh with heavy eye roll) Dude, don't you get it? Its the crux of almost every advertising campaign du jour...buy the hot item...get the hot chick! Sex sells baby!
ReplyDelete(pull you closer with a whisper)...i...have...no...freakin...idea.
LOL, Jay!! Truer words, and all that!
ReplyDeleteApropos of nothing: GO USA! May & Walsh take the women's beach volleyball gold in straight sets!! YAYs!!
Maybe a guy who thought he could buy happiness - but all he got in life was pictures promising in...
ReplyDeletek...now i am sad...
Just a guy with a very rich fantasy life, triggered by ads. While the fantasy is ongoing, he's happy. Upon coming out of it, not so much. Not unlike many millions of us...
ReplyDeleteThanks, Buck. I didn't go to the youtube site. It was all I could do to play the one minute film here without it stopping every few seconds. Darn it. Took about 10 minutes to view the whole thing so I had plenty of time to think.
ReplyDeleteSuldog, you said it all in four short sentences. :)
Bec: Were you using Firefox or IE? I ask coz I've had this recurring problem with FF in that it will NOT consistently play vids. I now open IE whenever I want to watch a vid someone has posted. And I'm danged if I know WHY this is happening. Restarting FF seems to work for a few minutes, but then it hangs again.
ReplyDeleteJim: Bec is right: four short sentences and you got it. I suppose all the ads on his wall accounts for his aging...
I agree with Dan's first comment - wishing for happier days. Art! (shrug shoulders) Who can say?
ReplyDeleteI stayed up to watch the women's beach volleyball - it was well worth it.
Well, I didn't get it at all until I read some of the comments. I agree that wishing for a happier life or envying the life he could have had seems most reasonable.
ReplyDeleteI have the same problem with FF and videos.
Buck,
ReplyDeleteThanks for that info! I've been using FF. Will try IE from now on. I love FF for work and for blog comments because it has a neat spell check feature, but it does have its downside sometimes.
Lou,
I missed the girls volleyball last night. We were able to catch Usain Bolt's fantastic run, though. What an appropriate last name he has!
Cynthia: I really didn't mean to make ya sad, ya know. But I can relate, seeing as how I felt the same way.
ReplyDeleteLou sez: I stayed up to watch the women's beach volleyball - it was well worth it.
It most certainly was! Didja watch the men take the beach volleyball gold tonight? Dalhausser and Rogers were pretty danged impressive, too.
Becky: You and I are on the same page.
Bec: I still use FF as my primary browser, as well, for exactly the reasons you've mentioned. Plus IE seems to have holes in its holes, security-wise. I might be wrong, but I think FF is more secure.
It was a little burrito of odd/cute/sad with a dollop of irony. I had to watch it again, too.
ReplyDelete